Responding to blame in family therapy: A constructionist/narrative perspective

Blaming events (N = 25) were identified in seven interviews conducted by pr ominent theorists who espouse a contructionist or narrative approach to fam ily treatment. Congruent with this perspective, we used conversion analysis (Gale, 1996) and the grounded theory method of constant comparison (Corbin & Strauss, 1990) to identify the therapists' behaviours and strategies fol lowing blame expressed by family members. Results indicated three core cate gories or themes of therapists' responses to blame-Ignoring/Diverting, Ackn owledging/Challenging, and Reframing-subsuming 17 individual codes (e.g., c hallenging all-or-none thinking, highlighting neutral information, interrup ting, focusing on competence). The most frequent code was focusing on the p ositive.