Terapie met 'n aantal depressiewe adolessente kinderhuisdogters : 'n ekosistemiese benadering

Abstract

A significant percentage of adolescents in children's homes are depressive in consequence of multiple experiences of loss. There is a possibility that experiences of depression are maintained in a systems context. Group therapy using an ecosystemic approach was embarked upon in order to study and to alter within a systems context the phenomenon of depression, the accompanying negative experiential and meaning-assignment worlds of the depressive adolescent girl in a children's home and the interactional behavioural patterns. It was hypothesised that behavioural change brought about in the group therapy context would extend to systems beyond the therapy system. A group of five adolescent girls in a children's home, of whom two were severely depressive, were taken for eight group therapy sessions. The principles of ecosystemic epistemology as a paradigm for family therapy were applied in the sessions. These principles stress inter alia the use of metaphor. Circular questioning was employed in order to explore the relationships within the group. Moments of depression were observed and recorded directly and indirectly according to both linear and circular approaches, and the therapeutic process was described. The manner in which the therapeutic group changed metaphorically by the group itself. A decrease in girls' level of depression was observed during therapy. Their cognitive, affective and normative functioning also changed, and alterations affecting relationships, self-concept and self-realisation could be perceived in the therapeutic process. These changes in relationships and the decrease in the level of depression were confirmed quantitatively. The transfer of these attitudes and relationships to the children's home system was confirmed by interviewing the children's home "parents" of the adolescents involved.