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Carr, Alan
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Carr, Alan
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Carr, Alan
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- PublicationJay Haley's Invited address to the World Congress on Behaviour Therapy, Washington DC, 1983"Changes to a more sensible therapy" was the title of the paper Jay Haley presented to the 1983 World Congress on Behaviour Therapy. Haley began by pointing out that the idea of training mental health professionals to talk to patients, to change the patients' behaviour is relatively new. While the notion of healing by talking has been known to religious groups since early in our history, only recently has the phenomenon been subject to secular scrutiny.
70 - PublicationProfiles of adolescent perpetrators of CSAStudies of the psychological adjustment of adolescents who sexually abuse other youngsters have shown that they differ from normal control groups, and hold some features in common with clinical control groups with other psychological problems and incarcerated control groups convicted of non-sexual offences. For example, they show more behaviour problems than normal controls but not incarcerated controls; they have difficulties with making and maintaining friendships and establishing empathy with others; they have problems with impulse control, anger management and assertiveness; and they come from families characterized by a variety of problems. Despite the burgeoning international literature in this area, few studies have been conducted on Irish adolescent sexual abusers and non-adjudicated abusers.
103 - PublicationResearch on the therapeutic alliance in family therapyThe chapter opens with a brief description of therapeutic alliance assessment scales that may routinely be used in clinical practice and then research which highlights the strong relationship between the therapeutic alliance and outcome in marital and family therapy is discussed. The remainder of the chapter is a selective review of process research which points to specific practices that therapists may incorporate into their own styles to improve the quality of therapeutic relationships.
1465 - PublicationPrevalence of CSA in IrelandProfessionals involved in working with victims or perpetrators of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) require a basic understanding of the nature of this problem in our society. The purpose of this article is to aid such an understanding from an Irish perspective by attempting a synthesis of two excellent and comprehensive research studies. Although these studies first appeared in the literature some time ago their findings remain relevant and in need of dissemination.
341 - PublicationPutting families first: An evaluation of Functional Family Therapy in an Irish contextCurrent evidence suggests that up to 20% of Irish adolescents have significant behavioural problems, a figure consistent with results of epidemiological studies of youth mental health problems in other countries.Functional Family Therapy (FFT) has consistently been identified in authoritative international reviews as a family-therapy programme for treating adolescents at risk for juvenile delinquency with a particularly strong evidence-base including many controlled trials, and a well developed training and monitoring system for implementing FFT in new community-based sites.Between 2010 and 2014, a research programme to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of FFT at Archways Families First was conducted by a research team at University College Dublin, in collaboration with Indiana University, and the team of FFT therapists at Archways Families First. The results of this programme, described in this summary report, provide strong support for the effectiveness of FFT as practiced at Archways Families First in reducing behaviour problems and the risk of juvenile delinquency.
370 - PublicationFamily therapy and intellectual disabilityThe family lifecycle is a useful framework within which to conceptualize the therapeutic needs of families containing children with intellectual disabilities. At transitional points within the lifecycle marked by events such as the birth of the child, entry into primary school, entry into secondary school, leaving secondary school and so forth, families face multiple stresses associated with having a child with a disability. They may, therefore, require episodes of intensive family therapy to help them manage the transitions between the stages of the lifecycle.
278 - PublicationEvaluation of the effectiveness of a chronic pain management programmeThirty-two chronic pain patients classified as dysfunctional (N=15); interpersonally distressed (N=9); or adaptive copers (N=8) on the MPI were evaluated before and after a 3.5 week outpatient multimodal chronic pain management programme. Five patients also participated in a post-treatment focus group in which they gave accounts of their experiences of the programthree groups, which were demographically similar, did not differ in their response to the programme. There was an overall significant reduction (p<.01) in mean depression scores on the Beck Depression Inventory and a near significant reduction (p<.08) in mean scores on the functional limitations subscale of the Functional Limitations Profile when pre- and post-treatment scores were compared. There was no significant reduction in McGill Pain Questionnaire scores. A thematic content analysis of the focus group transcripts showed that patients experienced the programme as improving their mood, their capacity to cope with pain and their interpersonal adjustment. Both formal features of the programme such as education and physiotherapy and informal aspects of the programme such as social support from other participants were perceived as contributing to improvement.
375 - PublicationBook review of: Newnes, C. & Radcliffe, N. ( 2006). Making and Breaking Children's Lives. UK: PCCS BooksThe central message of this book is that distressed children who display distressing behaviour and their families are often involved with significant psychosocial challenges like poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, child abuse, inadequate educational resources, neighbourhood crime and other adversities. These children and families should be helped through thoughtful psychosocial interventions and community development initiatives which address their unique needs and requirements, not by diagnosing children with neurobiological disorders of questionable validity (like ADHD) and medicating them with drugs (like Ritalin).
119 - PublicationThe correlates of phone-in frequency, duration and the number of suggestions made in family therapy supervisionThis paper deals with the relationships between characteristics of live supervisory phone-in conversations on the one hand and the processes of therapy on the other. Historically, a unique feature of family therapy supervision was the development of practices that permitted supervisors to monitor trainee therapists' behaviour with clients as it occurred and to offer support and advice on how to proceed at critical junctures during family interviews. While there is a body of received wisdom among supervisors within the family therapy field about how best to conduct live supervision, few available guidelines have been tested empirically.
88 - PublicationHistory of family therapy in Ireland. 1. A bird's-eye viewThis paper presents an overview of the history of family therapy in Ireland. Profiles of key figures in the development of family therapy in Ireland are contained in a companion paper. In Ireland family therapy is a small profession, with under 200 registered therapists. The Irish family therapy movement began in the mid-1970s. By 1980 the Family Therapy Network of Ireland in the Republic of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Branch of the UK Association Family therapy had been founded. At present there are three main family therapy training centres in Ireland: two in the south (the Mater Hospital, affiliated to University College Dublin and Clanwilliam Institute) and one in the north (at Queen’s University Belfast). These centres run professional family therapy training programmes accredited by national and European psychotherapy associations, with which family therapists register. Accredited professional family therapy programmes in Ireland are 4-year part-time courses culminating in masters level qualifications. A primary degree in medicine, nursing, psychology, social science or education is a prerequisite for entry. The curriculum includes academic tuition and research, clinical practice, and personal development. Family therapists in Ireland work in both private practice and the public health service. Most family therapists in the public sector are employed as social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists or nurses, and conduct family therapy as part of their broader professional roles. Couple therapy in Ireland is provided by family therapists, and also by voluntary couple counsellors based in networks of local centres, some of which were established by religiously affiliated organizations, without a formal connection to national family therapy associations. The three major future challenges for Irish family therapy are creating a research infrastructure, developing a career structure in the public health service, and introducing statutory registration.
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