This issue is testament to the increasing relevance, effectiveness and application of family therapy in the mental health field. It includes articles on a family-sensitive intervention for the community treatment of adult mental illness (e.g. psychosis), an attachment-based family therapy approach to healing intergenerational trauma in the parent-child relationship, research into the effective component of multifamily groups for treating schizophrenia, a narrative approach to working with non-custodial parents that enriches our ideas and practices of motherhood, a narrative art group intervention to address indigenous mental health for parents and children in remote Aboriginal communities and how to do qualitative research in family therapy, for eating disorders, intellectual disability, the dialogical process of therapy and systemic consultation.

In this paper we describe an intervention that focuses on the needs of children in families where a parent has a mental illness and attends a community adult mental health setting. After a brief outline of the literature, we present a family approach that includes children and young people, their parents and grandparents. Case studies then illustrate the work as a ‘best practice’ for parents who are clients in community adult mental health services.

Nine-year-old Ben was said to hate women. His mother was terrified he'd ‘grow up a woman basher’. This paper describes the work done with Ben and his family at the Hobart Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. We drew predominantly on three therapeutic modalities: Theraplay, Family Attachment Narrative Therapy and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy. Our work enabled Ben's mother to navigate the aftermath of her own trauma history in order to heal Ben's attachment trauma.

This study examined the relationship between levels of group cohesion, defined as whole group relationships, and between-session therapeutic homework adherence in a multi-family group therapy (MFGT) for people with schizophrenia. Participants from 18 consenting families attending MFGT groups completed weekly homework adherence ratings, group cohesion and spontaneous between-session activity measures. Levels of group cohesion at each session were compared with measures of scheduled and spontaneous homework adherence reported at the next session. It was hypothesised that higher levels of group cohesion would be related to homework adherence and other spontaneous between-session therapeutic activity completed by group members. Results show higher levels of group cohesion were associated with higher rates of spontaneous between-session therapeutic activity. However, contrary to expectations no significant relationship between cohesion and scheduled homework completion was found. The implications of the findings for group processes and homework adherence are discussed.

This article is located in the field of custody and day-to-day care, with a focus on experiences of mothering where mothers no longer have everyday care of their children. At the time of writing, tens of thousands of mothers live separately from their children in Aotearoa, New Zealand. However, there is a general perception of rarity associated with non-resident mothers, partly due to their reluctance to speak of loss of custody. In this article, we develop a theoretical discussion around the inside/outside relationships between non-resident mothers and their children that informs therapeutic practice. We argue that mothers who live apart from their children are situated at the edge or periphery of their children's day-to-day lives and experience this as outside the lives of their children. Nevertheless, mothers’ stories speak of qualities of (m)othering that have been born of and nurtured by longstanding and long-term commitment to their children.

The Let`s Start Parent-Child Program is a manualised parent-child program which aims to improve educational, social and emotional outcomes for Aboriginal parents and their four- to seven-year-old children. It has been implemented in the Northern Territory, Australia on the Tiwi Islands and in Darwin since 2005. This paper outlines the adaptation of the program to include narrative approaches, the sharing of stories and the use of expressive arts as a way to build understanding between program leaders and participating families. An example from a recent program is used to illustrate how the sharing of stories and expressive use of art engages and binds group participants together. It supports parents to tell their own stories, to speak about their lived experience, to reconsider aspects of their own and their children's experiences and to achieve an increased awareness of their personal resources and a sense of self-empowerment. The program is designed and delivered with sensitivity to individual parents, children and families, where cultural and interpersonal differences and different developmental and family situations can be taken into account.

The aim of this plenary address is to advocate for the role that research can play in family therapy, with particular reference to our future as a field in Australia. I will argue: 1) that we have been in transition as a field in the past 15 years or so, from a fairly closed system, to one that is more amenable to holding itself to account through research; 2) that we hold a number of misconceptions about research that need to be explored if we are to continue; 3) that we need to develop a research agenda that is consistent with our values and 4) that there are a host of research methodologies that are consistent with our epistemologies and modes of practice.