[Systemic-psychomotoric versus purely verbal systemic counselling in families of children with mental disorders].
Systemic counselling and therapy are usually verbal interventions. However, communication on an abstract level often exceeds the capabilities of children up to about 12 years, leaving them less involved in the therapeutic process. In contrast, symbolic play has been shown to be an effective tool for psychological formulation and intervention. However, it has not been widely used so far in family therapy. In order to explore this hypothesis a form of systemic family therapy (SB; exclusively verbal) was compared with a new concept called systemic-psychomotor family counselling (PsyFam; based on symbolic play). We found good efficacy of PsyFam, reflected in an average effect size of d = .73 (SB: d = .53), even though statistical significance of the group effect could not be shown due to the small sample size. Systemic-psychomotoric family counselling is a promising new approach worth further research in controlled therapy studies.
Spezialambulanz für Angsterkrankungen an der Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie Charité Mitte, Berlin. psychomotoriker@yahoo.de
Joseph
J
Richter
Anja
A
Siegmund
D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005196:Family Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010865:Pilot Projects; D010989:Play Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013561:Symbolism; D013598:Systems Theory