Possibilities of Family Therapy of Children in Obessive-compulsive Disorder

Obsessive compulsive disorder (F 42.1) is considered rather challenging disease for treatment. A long-term pharmacotherapy is usually necessary (WHO, 2017). We work primarily with children at our clinic and we see family therapy as a therapeutic method of choice. The child´s troublesome behaviour and a way of thinking always affect the entire family. In our view, these could be the symptoms, which typically emerge and disappear depending on the quality and changes of family relationships. Through extracts of a case study, we will demonstrate how symptoms of the above mentioned disorder could be effectively relieved during narrative-informed family therapy including externalisation. A good therapeutic alliance with parents or other significant family members is a prerequisite for such therapeutic approach. Frequently we must work in parallel within various family subsystems such as the children´s and the adults´, the parents’ and the partners’. Sometimes we must even work in transgenerational modality. In the paper, we focus on the meanings of the symptom in the family. It is the transformation of meanings, which are ascribed to the disorder by each family member, that can result in irreversible second order change. In this process, the symptom loses its regulatory function in the unconscious of the family.