Multi-family groups

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · McFarlane, Asen · 2001

What it is

"Multi-family groups" is a format and a family of models, not one therapy. All versions bring several families affected by the same problem into one room so that families help, observe and learn from each other, with clinicians increasingly stepping back.

Format

• Group size is not specified in the sources. Two co-facilitators are implied throughout ("co-facilitators model behavior").
• Formats: short format of 2-hour meetings once or twice a month (clinics, outpatient, schools, community services); intensive format in day clinics with 6–8 families for at least six hours per day, daily or another rhythm, over weeks or months. No fixed standard: frequency and length follow needs…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Fidelity and training: the EASA competency checklist rates each joining session and the workshop item by item (included / optionally omitted / not applicable), and the timeline cites a Family Psychoeducation Fidelity Scale (draft 2002). No formal licence to deliver under the name is given in the sources; delivery in services such as EASA/PIER is preceded by training and fidelity review.
• Training: no licence is given; a DGSF-accredited MFT institute exists in Dresden.
• Training: a four-day intensive training by the Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders, where the manual is given to participants; supervision on request. NICE (2017) recommends MFT as a more intensive form of family intervention for restrictive eating disorders.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• families talk to each other more than to you.
• mocking; set the frame and stop if it humiliates.
• reflections must be tentative and kind; stop criticism.
• the same family always being chosen; rotate across sessions.
• fear of being judged; a trial session (B2) often settles it.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.