#MM07 – Q&A Mondays with Moshe Lang: The Art of Family Therapy

This is Episode 7 of the Q and A series with psychologist Moshe Lang. Moshe Lang is one of Australia’s best known family therapists, a renowned author and teacher. He has been practicing psychotherapy for over 52 years,  Every fortnight WAWID listener's send in questions for Moshe to answer. These questions can be be about anything to do with his journey, therapy or the field of mental health more generally. Moshe is insatiably curious, and wonderfully wise. This weeks questions are from Jensen Young: How would you work with an adolescent in individual therapy if they continually report that their parents are not meeting their attachment/emotional needs (say through emotional neglect, or consistent criticism), and the parents refuse to engage in family therapy? In adolescent and family therapy, what do u do when parents are uncooperative, or highly critical of their children in and out of sessions, or fail to consider your feedback? There are many (if not the majority) of programs out there in the community that treat anxious children using individual therapy (often with individually focussed modalities like CBT or ACT). As a family systems therapist, whats your position on treating an anxious child using an individual frame?  Moshe you are trained in clinical psychology and in family therapy. Can u give some examples of when you would lean more towards one of these lenses in a) working with couples and b) working with families (i.e. what are your 'markers' for adopting a clinical psychology approach vs a systemic approach?) When you work with individuals, what are your preferred individually focussed modalities and why? For more information on Moshe Lang check out the show notes! This episode was sponsored by the ANZ ACBS 2016 Conference.  If you’re interested in Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), Compassion and Mindfulness check out their website for further details!