Gaining More Ease in Everyday Life as a Family With a Child With Intellectual Disability Through Family-Systemic...

Area of Science:

• Family Systems Therapy
• Intellectual Disability Research
• Qualitative Case Study Methodology

Background:

• Families raising children with intellectual disability (ID) face unique challenges.
• Supportive interventions are crucial for parental well-being and family functioning.
• Understanding the therapeutic process in these families is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how family-systemic therapeutic conversations address the needs of a family with a child with intellectual disability (ID).
• To analyze the context created by therapeutic conversations for a single mother raising an adolescent with ID.
• To identify the effects of therapeutic conversations on parental well-being.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative, exploratory, longitudinal single-case study design.
• Analysis of three therapeutic conversations using content analysis techniques.
• Data collected from a Swiss Family Systems Care Unit.

Main Results:

• A main category emerged: "gaining more ease by modeling burdens and suffering."
• Therapeutic conversations helped achieve a better balance between challenges and suffering.
• Six subcategories detailed challenges, needs, interventions, and effects of the therapy.

Conclusions:

• Family-systemic therapeutic conversations provide a supportive context for families with severe vulnerabilities.
• Modeling burdens and suffering within therapy can lead to improved parental well-being.
• This approach demonstrates the effectiveness of tailored therapeutic interventions for families raising children with intellectual disability (ID).