Adolescents and family therapy - does it work?Author: Kerry Proctor The reason that I am presenting this paper is that I am a family therapist working in Melton, in the outer western suburbs of Melbourne. Many of the families that I work with are from a Maltese family background and many adolescents in particular are second and third generation Maltese. I am also completing a research thesis for a Masters in Family Therapy. MY research is exploring the themes and issues that are important to Maltese families when coming to family therapy, in order for family therapy to be helpful to the positive functioning of all family members. My experience until recently had been that many Maltese families found their engagement in family therapy to be frustrating and unhelpful in resolving the conflict that brought them to family therapy in the first place. Given that I am not from a Maltese family background, I wanted to understand why this was the case, and what it was that I was doing that was culturally inappropriate, that may be contributing to a pervasive sense of failure and impotence that I and many of my colleagues felt when working with many of the adolescents and their parents. This is true of many families with adolescents who come to family therapists to sort out the trouble they are having. However, as a psychologist and family therapist, I feel that it is important to understand the cultural and family histories of the people that I see, and when I tried to find the literature that spoke of Maltese history and experience of life in both Malta and Australia, particularly from a health and psychological perspective, I found to my initial surprise and then growing curiosity, that very little has been written. I also discovered to my growing consternation that most non-Maltese professionals I knew who were working with Maltese clients and their families were also abysmally ignorant of Maltese culture, language and history. It also became clear that the assumptions that many professionals make about the importance of sensitive cross-cultural counselling when working with adolescents and their families from other ethnic communities did not appear to those same professionals to be as relevant or appropriate when thinking about the needs and difficulties that many Maltese families may be struggling with. It struck me that many assumptions were being made about Maltese family life and history that came from a position of ignorance and patronage. Some of these are probably very familiar to you, eg. "They are the same as the Italians aren't they?", "they all speak English", "they didn't need to be supported when they came here. It's just like being back there", "I don't even know where Malta is!" In my journey of discovery I have been privilged to be introduced to a culture and a people with a unique and fascinating historical tapestry of courage, spiritual resilience, trauma, survival and a cultural heritage that is astounding for its richness and diversity, not to mention one that has faced and embraced the challenges of colonisation. This discovery has led me to the position today of asking questions and in forming impressions. I have no answers, but am pursuing a commitment to informing non-Maltese health and psychological communities of the need and right of Maltese families to receive culturally and family sensitive treatment when seeking help for family and adolescent problems. I believe that it is important to flesh out what issues may be specific to the Maltese experience of adolescence in -Australia, and what is also common to many Maltese first and second generation parents of adolescents, as distinct from more generalised experiences of parents and adolescents everywhere. Source: Maltese Background Youth - Editors Cauchi M, Borland H, Adams R, 1999, [Europe Australia Institute], p 83
   
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