FAMILY ATTACHMENT NARRATIVE THERAPY: HEALING THE EXPERIENCE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD MALTREATMENT

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Jul 2005 by May, Joanne C

Recovery from Childhood Maltreatment

Although early life experiences are significant, "changes in circumstances can lead to changes in interaction and therefore to changes in relationships" (Vaughn, Egeland, Sroufe, & Waters, 1979, p. 974). Even though the first few years of life are considered the most optimal for restorative interventions, children and adults who later experience a safe, predictable, and nurturing environment can also achieve positive change (Helgeson, 1997; Shore, 1997; Teicher, 2000).

FAMILY ATTACHMENT NARRATIVE THERAPY

Development of the Model

In 1995 a new family therapy methodology was developed by the author to address the difficulties experienced by behaviorally disturbed children and their adoptive or foster parents. This followed almost four decades of experience working with families and children in foster and adoptive homes, residential treatment facilities, and child guidance clinics. Many of these children experienced abuse, neglect, or abandonment while living with their original families. Some had spent months or years living in a crowded, understaffed orphanage. Even though there was now an opportunity for a new beginning with loving, responsible parents, these children seemed forever imprisoned in a maladaptive past. The goal was to develop a nurturing, nonintrusive program that could heal the child's past and restore the capacity for positive family relationships. A primary component of the initial program design was the inclusion of stories or narratives told by the parent (May, 2000). Although the original theory and methodology were developed by this author, it is the narrative work of hundreds of parents that must be credited with the formation of the current model. The consistent psychological astuteness, articulated in parent narratives, had a direct impact on the refinement of theory and practice (Lacher, Nichols, & May, 2005) and the inclusion of adolescents and biological families in the target population. Eventually, the methodology came to be known as Family Attachment Narrative Therapy (Lacher et al., 2005; Nichols, Lacher, & May, 2002). It is represented in the case example cited below.

Formulation of the theory was initially based on the supposition that an experience that could go back to the beginning of the child's life would have the capacity to heal the destructive consequences of early childhood maltreatment. Although it is impossible to erase the emotional memory of maltreatment, stories or narratives could provide an alternative comprehensive restorative experience.

Subsequent research supported the concept that the experience of narrative is fundamentally the same as being in or observing the real situation (Zwaan, 1999; Zwaan & Radvansky, 1998). To make sense of a narrative or story, there must be an identification with a protagonist that allows a here-and-now perspective to be adopted. In so doing, the narrative has the capacity to travel back and forward in time and space, thus allowing the message to become immediately relevant (Bower & Morrow, 1990; Glenberg, Meyer, & Lindem, 1987). Because the original experience directly or indirectly involved the maltreatment of the child by the primary caregiver (parent), the comprehensive restorative experience of the narrative would require the total participation of the new parent(s).