The Family Stories Study

Following the stories of families after their journey of family therapy with The Bouverie Centre.

The Bouverie Centre is a practice-research centre of the School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University. This means we research everything we do to ensure it is helpful for families. During their involvement with Bouverie, we invite all families to join our practice-research community. One of our major goals is to learn from adults, parents, and children who come to Bouverie about what their needs are, and what’s most helpful families during challenging times.

The Family Stories Study follows family members who have completed their family therapy journey at Bouverie. Families who take part will have the opportunity to share their experience of change in their family up to two years after they have finished coming to Bouverie for support.

What’s the aim?

The project aims to understand:

Who comes to Bouverie and what types of problems families need support with?
What are the outcomes for families who engage in family therapy with Bouverie?

What’s involved?

After family members finish family therapy, we will talk with them about their experiences of family therapy. We want to understand what it’s like for all family members to come to therapy, and how they experience change in the family over time.

To do this, we will interview family members to gain their reflections and perspectives on their family during, and after, family therapy. These interviews will take place 3, 12 and 24 months after therapy has finished.

To thank them for their time, families will receive up to a $150 gift voucher for finishing this study.

Who are the researchers?

Principal Investigator – Professor Jennifer McIntosh (La Trobe University)
Chief Investigators – Dr Eliza Hartley (La Trobe University); Dr Anna Booth (La Trobe University); and Dr Jessica Opie (La Trobe University)

Who funds this project?

This integrated research is conducted within the Bouverie Centre’s ongoing funded service agreement with the Department of Families Fairness and Health (DFFH).

Meet the project team

Professor Jennifer McIntosh – Project Director
Dr Eliza Hartley- Project Manager
Dr Anna Booth – Investigator and Research Fellow
Dr Jessica Opie- Investigator and Research Fellow

FAQs

1. Who can participate in The Family Stories Study?

Family members who joined The Bouverie Families Study are able to join this study. That way, we can follow your story from before, during and after family therapy at Bouverie.

2. Does my family have to participate in The Family Stories Study?

No, being part of this study is voluntary. Not all family members have to participate either from the same family. The exception here is children aged 5-12 years who must have a parent/guardian also participate.

3. What information will you use in your research?

The data we collect is:

Your personal experience of family therapy.
Your opinion about what was helpful or unhelpful about therapy.
Your reflections about any changes in your family since coming to therapy.

4. Will my family be able to be identified in the research?

No. We look at patterns across all families. We do not look at separate information from individual families. We remove all personal details from your information (names, addresses etc.) then we will group all the information together with information from other families who have also come to Bouverie.

5. More information

For more information, please contact us:

Email: e.hartley@latrobe.edu.au
Contact number: +61 3 8481 4874
Ethics approval number: HEC21277