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FrancoAngeli Journals

Articles

No. 1 (2023)

From cases to stories in motion: A systemic-reflexive approach to training within disability services

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/erp1-2023oa15882
Submitted
maggio 12, 2023
Published
2023-07-24

Abstract

The systemic approach is recognized as a useful framework in working with families of people with disabilities. The literature however shows a tendency to reduce the systemic model to family therapy and leaves in the background the epistemological and pedagogical dimensions. This article proposes a critical reflection on how in-service training could support professionals in working with families of people with disabilities. After a thorough literature review, an operational model of participatory research with narrative, systemic and reflexive features is presented and thereafter exemplified through the analysis of a process of research-based training that involved 10 coordinators of services for disability. The transformations of their stories about the relationships with families illuminate how it is possible, in the systemic perspective, to support a shift from the dominant narrative, centered on cases and problems, to a way of working that is open to the complexity and possibilities of “moving stories”.

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