ABSTRACT
The therapist's use of self to support the parent is even more important in working with single-parent households than it is with two-parent families. In many single-parent systems there is no corroboration or support for adult views. In this system the homeostatic maintainer may well have been the father. Apparently, the father did not intervene to support his wife, but instead criticized mother, even from a distance, and told the children they could come and live with him. The primary goal in the brief therapy with this family was to join with the mother, to create a transitional adult-adult support system that would enable her to function as an effective parent and maintain a workable hierarchy. The therapist's first job was to reinforce the mother's sense of dignity and help her enact a sense of indignation and justification for making difficult but necessary decisions.
