Publication details
• Towards Better Quality of Life: Integrating Systemic and Narrative Therapy for Mind-Body Problems
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| Year of publication | 2007 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Current advances in various scientific disciplines spark optimistic expectations that we soon will be able to comprehend the mutual influence of mind and body. In medicine, new remedies are being developed with hope that the treatment of physical as well as psychological disturbances will become more effective. However, complete understanding of interconnectedness between physical and emotional aspects of an individual life within significant family relationships still remains elusive. Reliance on biotechnology and pharmacology may not always be sufficient if psychological and social factors are left out of our focus and target. Nowhere is this as prominent as in narratives of patients, who complain about physical symptoms that cannot be objectively explained or easily treated. In such cases experts talk about somatisation or so called psychosomatic problems. According to some research studies almost one third of patients in primary or secondary care have such complaints that are termed as medically unexplained symptoms. Many of these patients benefit from a biopsychosocial approach which includes psychotherapy or family therapy. Family therapy in particular is often a treatment of choice for children and adolescents with so called mind – body problems. Which theoretical concepts and models of systemic therapy provide useful inspiration for treatment in this respect? Could integration of different concepts of systemic therapy and family models lead to improvement of both the quality of health care and the quality of life of patients and their families with mind – body problems? The presentation attempts to answers those questions in two parts. First, different family therapy models and the narrative approach are briefly overviewed with the aim of providing a framework for the treatment of mind – body problems. Second, such integration is demonstrated with a single case study, which includes the clients subjective experience of a therapeutic process. The presented paper is supported by the grant No.406/06/0035 GA CR. |