Just Therapy

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching · Charles Waldegrave, Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese, Flora Tuhaka · 1979 · Lower Hutt, New Zealand

What it is

Just Therapy is an approach to family therapy, and also a way of organising a whole agency, developed at The Family Centre (set up in 1979 as a family therapy agency in Lower Hutt). It is not a manualised protocol. Its authors say it grew from reflecting on their own practice at regular team…

Format

• Just Therapy has no published phase manual. What the authors describe is (a) a recurring session structure, (b) a sequence across sessions shown in case reports, and (c) agency-level structures that every piece of clinical work sits inside. Session counts below come from case examples; the authors…
• Later interviews. Each new story session is followed by a message that names the changes the family has made and builds further meaning on them.

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 fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• 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

• Embarrassment or withdrawal after praise.
• One member hearing the image as taking sides.
• Keeping client identities out of any public use.
• Defensive answers usually signal a disguised "why".
• Talking for the client. Check each summary with them.

Problems the guide addresses

• From the sources
• Your own synthesis (not in the sources)
• Not found

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.