Opening Up: The Parenting Journey

This is a first-edition narrative book that weaves together the ongoing story of a group of family advocates who have developed a structured but self-determined group therapy program, called The Parenting Journey. Beginning in Somerville, MA, in 1981, through the development of 500 locations and growing international adaptations, including in Burundi and Guatemala, the author describes taking a stance of curiosity and “joining in” while working with families of all types. The Family Center is a nonprofit organization that provides in-home and center-based services to individuals and families. Many of these families have had challenges to parenting stemming from a variety of intergenerational experiences, including domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, child neglect, racism, community violence, and poverty. This book uses a narrative approach to chronicle the development of group therapy interventions by giving us glimpses into the lives of a few individuals and families and how they interacted with The Parenting Journey.

From the perspective of developmental-behavioral pediatrics, this book increases the reader's insight into the effects that traumatic events and family role modeling can have on developing children and subsequently on their ability to parent the next generation. There were helpful discussions of attachment theory, theory of family therapy, and common family structures observed, as well as common stumbling points in a family's development such as enmeshment at the ages when children are expected to gain increasing independence.

Of particular salience was a discussion of how the dynamics of a family can be the underlying cause of a child's externalizing or internalizing behaviors. It was demonstrated that, at times, the child who is seen as “acting out,” and subsequently comes in contact with the health or mental health system, is sometimes the child who is strongest in the family; therefore, they are attempting to call attention to the more serious struggles of a sibling or parent. Another particularly interesting discussion was one of how the facilitators learned to balance revealing their own personal stories, as a way of “joining in” and making the group a safe space, versus keeping a professional distance. It was nice to see this subject brought up for further exploration.

Several pivotal interventions were described, including a community soap opera, a mother-daughter group, and some of the specific activities that occur in these 12-week group sessions. These include sharing the meaning of participants' names, bringing a meaningful object, wearing buttons with funny but true sayings, and other interventions geared toward helping parents to open up, get to know each other, and then help each other in problem solving to reach their individual goals. Many of the parents involved in these groups have lost children to the foster care system. Many have not been taught basic life skills and how to teach these to their children. By working as a group and using the strengths of peers, parents are able to not only bridge loneliness and stigma but also gain hope by seeing that some problems do have solutions when looking at them from a different perspective.

Overall, this is an enjoyable read that keeps the readers' interest through the interweaving of family stories, along with the exploration of theory that is pertinent to child and family development.

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