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The Lausanne Trilogue Play paradigm: Breaking Discoveries in Family Process and Therapy

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Abstract

This article provides a brief history of key developments in the growth of the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP) paradigm that paved a foundation for new scholarship featured in the papers that follow. We outline core, foundational elements of the LTP work, highlighting the close interplay between clinical and research applications, the systems orientation in both regards, the dual attention to both top down (metamodel) and bottom up (microanalysis, in particular) frames, and the relevance of transitions from dyad to triad. Next, later developments in methodological refinement and expansion within the LTP’s country-of-origin are described, with closing commentary provided on the path-breaking contributions of several investigations that employed the LTP in five different countries, each illuminating previously under-studied family phenomena. The historical considerations spotlighted in this article, and the lessons learned from new empirical investigations the early work has inspired, are important to consider in tandem as the field begins expanding beyond the LTP’s original foundations and makes increasing use of the paradigm as a research instrument beyond clinical settings.

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Author Contributions

JMc drafted the Introduction and section on new horizons. NF drafted the section on validation of the model and longitudinal studies. EF drafted the section on antecedents and early years. All authors collaborated equally on editing of the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, 33772, USA

    James P. McHale

  2. University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Nicolas Favez

  3. University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Elisabeth Fivaz-Depeursinge

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  1. James P. McHale
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  2. Nicolas Favez
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  3. Elisabeth Fivaz-Depeursinge
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Correspondence to James P. McHale.

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McHale, J.P., Favez, N. & Fivaz-Depeursinge, E. The Lausanne Trilogue Play paradigm: Breaking Discoveries in Family Process and Therapy. J Child Fam Stud 27, 3063–3072 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1209-y

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