Promoting Parent Agency Across the World Through the Parent Hope Project: The Difference Bowen Family Systems Theory...

Parents who are actively involved in their child's mental health treatment are more likely to remain hopeful after treatment (Brown 2023). Conversely, parents who remain more passive and outsource the "fixing" effort to experts demonstrate reduced hope. The Parent Hope Project is a strengths-based family therapy approach to working with parents that promotes parent agency and thoughtful involvement in children's dilemmas. Principles of Bowen family systems theory underpin the role of the clinician working alongside parents to help them draw on their own resources, with the goal for parents to observe and adjust their own part in their family patterns in which their child's symptoms are embedded. This article outlines how theory informs the work of the clinician in the Parent Hope Project and the approach of prioritizing working with parents when there are concerns about a young person. It features case studies from Canada and Australia that illustrate the approach.