Linda Mackay

• PhD Critical Psychology
• Academic at Deakin University

Child focus is a central construct within Bowen family systems theory (Bowen theory). A clinical implication is that mental health treatment focusing on a child may unwittingly reinforce the operation of child‐focused processes, which undermine rather than enhance child well‐being. The concept of child focus in Bowen theory presents significant imp...

The effectiveness of childbirth education (CBE) has long been debated with studies showing contradictory outcomes for mothers and babies. Understanding how what is learned in CBE is translated into practice during labor and birth is an area that requires investigation as this may be a mediating factor in its effectiveness. Bowen family system theor...

Filial therapy is a play therapy intervention where significant individuals who are not clinicians facilitate therapeutic play sessions with children. In School-Based Filial Therapy (SBFT), the direct treatment role is performed by specially trained education professionals. Concerns about fidelity in filial therapy have been raised historically; ho...

To date, limited research has been undertaken regarding the interplay between differentiation of self (DoS), parental involvement, and the prevalence of psychological symptoms in emerging adults (EA) aged between 18 and 25 years in Australia. The current study aims to assess whether there is an association between mental health symptoms, perception...

Clinicians are charged with being diligent in gaining competency in the latest trauma-informed interventions when working with relational trauma. This may invest therapists with an overresponsibility that is not only overwhelming and unrealistic, but serves to reduce autonomous functioning in family members. Therefore, clinicians need to become cle...

Many systems approaches speak to the importance of respectful mutual curiosity in supervision rather than linear teacher–learner didacticism. This paper provides an overview of collaborative approaches to supervision in family therapy. It then focuses on Bowen family systems and encouraging differentiation in the relationship process between superv...

Working with survivors of trauma is mostly challenging, exhausting, long-term and often ‘messy’, when interventions that ‘should’ work, don't, or the unexpected arises. Nevertheless, explanations that speak to recovery from trauma more and more rely on neurobiological concepts to account for any positive change. Combining the family systems approac...