Multifamily therapy in psychosis – making change happen

Multifamily approaches in psychosis are an integrative cost-effective approach to the person and his family. These approaches have been developed in different parts of the world, as United States of America (Laqueur, 1951;... [ view full abstract ]

Multifamily approaches in psychosis are an integrative cost-effective approach to the person and his family. These approaches have been developed in different parts of the world, as United States of America (Laqueur, 1951; McFarlane, 1995), Argentina (Garcia Badaracco, 2000) and Finland (Jaakko Seikkula, 2004).

At Lisbon, Portugal, the Multifamily Groups’ program is working uninterruptedly since 2001 in the Day Hospital of the Neurocience’s Department of Santa Maria’s University Hospital. It involves a large group with more than 40 people and is inspired by the Multifamily Psychoanalysis and the British and Portuguese the Groupanalytic model.

The Multifamily Groups’s model promotes the relational diagnosis and conditions for an intensive therapy towards a significative change in the family. An enabling environment is created where spontaneous discussions of different subjects take place and directly promote the communication between family members. It constitutes a unique opportunity to promote family evolution, and allows the professionals to analyze not only the underlying family dysfunction but also some hidden psychopathological and personality features of the patient. In this sense a psychotic crisis is a window of opportunity rather than a problem, where patient and family express their thoughts, doubts and feelings.

By enhancing the communication skills within the family, Multifamily Groups allow a space for the expression of family’s dynamics towards a therapeutic living experience for all intervenients. Several authors are applying Multifamily Groups in different countries (Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Italy, Belgium, USA, Spain, Switzerland, etc.). We will describe our model and show the changes it is producing in patients, families and hospital admissions.