Group Cohesion in Multifamily Therapy with multilingual families
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Group Cohesion in Multifamily therapy with multilingual families
IRAS ID
137821
Contact name
Natasha Nascimento
Contact email
Research summary
It is estimated that more than half of the world population is bilingual and in London more than 300 languages are spoken. Therefore, it can be assumed that this is also reflected in psychotherapy and that many clients and therapists are bilingual. However, although is widely believed “that clients can communicate efficiently and directly in a second language” (Kokaliari and Catanzarite, 2011), this has not been fully explored yet. This seems to disregard the complexities that arise when different cultures meet and more specifically when psychotherapists and/or clients speak different languages.
One of the modes of therapy used in the UK and other countries is Multifamily Therapy groups (where a number of families with similar difficulties work therapeutical together). Multifamily Therapy is an efficient, cost effective therapeutic tool that greatly benefit families at different levels (personally, emotionally, relationally and socially). These groups are often formed by families from different cultural backgrounds, who speak multiple languages. There is limited research on Multifamily therapy and its processes.
As a Multi-Family Therapist, I am interested in the processes of therapy and what facilitates these processes. I have decided to focus on group cohesion, as a number of studies have shown that group cohesion is one of the most influential factors in the outcome of any group. In particular, I am interested in exploring what clients, interpreters and Multifamily Psychotherapists think could be done to improve group cohesion between monolingual and multilingual family members/therapists in multifamily groups (i.e. despite language barriers).
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EM/0071
Date of REC Opinion
3 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion