A case of therapy by proxy?

Abstract

Consultancy was offered to a worker requesting help, because of some concern he felt as to how best to progress with a single‐parent family where a teenage son with a mental handicap wished to move out and establish himself independently. The situation appeared to us to be ‘stuck’, with parent and son engaged in a mutually distressing cycle of antagonism with both emotional and physical violence. During the consultancy, communication was established with the parent via messages carried by the worker, and significant change was promoted through these interventions. This work was novel, unusually complex and carried implications for theory, practice and ethics. Copyright © 1987, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved