Parents in couple therapy: An intervention targeting marital and coparenting relationships.

This article describes the treatment framework and core therapeutic principles of the integrative brief systemic intervention (IBSI), a manualized six-session intervention intended for parents seeking couple therapy. IBSI aims to work on the couple's presenting problem, considering its specific impact in the marital and coparenting domains. The basic premise of IBSI is to consider that, when working with couples who have children, therapeutic work on their coparenting alliance may be used as a lever, as both parents may be particularly motivated to improve their relationship for their children's benefit. Increasing the coparenting alliance may then facilitate work on deeper conflicts within the marital relationship. The core therapeutic principles of IBSI are: (1) joining with the couple as romantic partners and a coparenting team from the start of the therapeutic process; (2) supporting the parents in increasing their awareness regarding their children's behavior and emotional experiences when facing their parents' conflicts; and (3) working on the spill- and cross-over effects between marital and coparenting relationships (i.e., exploring how conflict or positivity spills over from one relationship to the other or crosses over from one partner to the other). Therapeutic work following these main therapeutic principles is expected to improve the quality of both relationships. A clinical case is provided to illustrate the core therapeutic principles of IBSI.

[Psychiatry]. / Psychiatrie.

Children of patients with psychiatric disorders are at higher risk to develop a psychiatric illness. In addition, phases of crisis and hospitalization of the parent are often traumatizing to the children, especially during childhood. Although a specific offer to face these issues is compulsory in some countries, such is not the case in Switzerland. In this paper we describe the implementation of a special offer for children of parents with mental illness (Famille +) in the service of general psychiatry at the Department of psychiatry of the Lausanne University hospital in Switzerland. We will also discuss the development and implementation of the Joint Crisis Plan, a collaborative tool where psychiatric patients and clinicians define the strategies that should be applied in case of crisis, which strengthens the empowerment of patients and their participation to decisions about their treatment.

Les enfants de patients souffrant d'un trouble psychiatrique ont un risque accru de développer eux-mêmes des troubles psychiatriques au cours de leur vie. De plus, les phases de crise et les hospitalisations de parents sont souvent vécues de manière traumatisante par leurs enfants. Bien qu'une offre spécialisée pour les enfants de patients psychiatriques soit obligatoire dans certains pays nordiques, tel n'est pas le cas en Suisse. Le développement d'un tel programme est décrit dans cet article. Il y sera aussi question du développement et de l'implantation du plan de crise conjoint, un outil partenarial entre patients et soignants qui définit les interventions et les modalités de prise en charge en cas de crise et permet ainsi de renforcer l'autodétermination des patients et leur participation aux décisions qui les concernent.