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conferenceseries.com
Volume 21 International Journal of Emergency Mental
Health and Human Resilience
ISSN: 1522-4821
Mental Health 2019
March 07-08, 2019
March 07-08, 2019 | Barcelona, Spain
5th International Conference on
Mental Health and Human Resilience
Agency and resilience behind the we-ness: A case study of a couple therapy for mental disorders
Jonna Karasmaa1, Virpi-Liisa Kykyri1,2 and Aarno Laitila1
1University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
2University of Tampere, Finland
Our presentation addresses the resilience phenomenon in the context of couple therapy and mental disorders.
The presentation is based on our article, which is the first article of her ongoing dissertation research. We
consider resilience as an ability to learn new through adversities, in distinction to generally known resource oriented
approach in psychotherapy field. We introduce one therapy case, in which both spouses had severe mental disorders,
and difficulties in managing their daily life with these disorders. They did not seek help for relationship problems,
instead the relationship was their resource. One can say, that they had a strong sense of we-ness. In couple therapy
research we-ness and we-stories have commonly been regarded as resilience. Still, we claim that the concept of we-
ness does not reach the multidimensional nature of resilience. To capture this multidimensionality we have used
Froma Walsh’s family resilience framework as a theory. The data was derived from the Relational Mind research
project (2013-2016) funded by the Academy of Finland. The project was conducted by the University of Jyväskylä
in collaboration with four other universities in Europe. The data was gathered in a natural setting within couple
therapy sessions conducted in the Psychotherapy Training and Research Centre in the University of Jyväskylä. In
the presentation she will describe, how the strong we-ness prevented spouses to develop their more agentic and
autonomic forms of resilience, and how quarrels in therapy led them to learn new ways to interact with each other
and other people.
Biography
Jonna Karasmaa is a PhD student from the University of Jyväskylä. She works as a Psychologist with psychosis patients in the outpatient care of adult psychiatry.
Jonna Karasmaa et al., Int J Emerg Ment Health 2019, Volume 21
DOI: 10.4172/1522-4821-C1-026