How to Coach Yourself and Others Coaching Families

9.3 Identifying the network and clarifying relationships It is important for the therapy team to identify the components of the family’s network from the referral information given and during the assessment process. This includes professional and extended family contact, as well as other relationships, friendships and occupational aspects of the family’s life. This should be done for current relationships as well as important contacts in the family’s history. Important life events such as illnesses, hospitalisations, and periods of separation can be built into this picture. This information should be used in relation to the therapeutic goals and in relation to contact with the wider system that the therapy team and family participates in during therapy. If the family are participating in any other therapeutic activity during the time they are attending family therapy, for example individual or couple therapy, the boundaries of the work should be clarified in relation to the current goals for family therapy. In addition, in identifying the network and clarifying relationships, the boundaries of confidentiality and the family’s wishes concerning this should be discussed and clearly stated to all members of the network. 9.4 Assessing risk At times during therapy it will be necessary to consider the risk which one or more member of the family poses in relation to their own well being or the well being of a family member. The risk may be in relation to a number of issues, for example, child protection, domestic violence, or suicide attempts. Therapists should bring their concerns into the discussion with the family to hear their own views of the risks. It is important that the therapist’s and family’s concerns are identified, in a manner which opens up communication and leads to the establishment of contingency plans to monitor or prevent further risks. In relation to suicidal ideation it may be necessary for the therapist to move outside the domain of therapy and complete a full psychiatric risk assessment, or refer to someone able to complete this. Again this should be a process in which the family are actively involved and therapists should inform the family that they are now not talking with them in their therapeutic role as they have serious concerns about the risks to a family member. 228

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