Finding the way in a new family--ressources and conflicts in patchwork and successive families

A new family follows the separation of a former nuclear family. At least one of the new partners and its children had to do mourning work to overcome the former separation. Children and adolescents need a reliable network of familiar relations. The following article discusses the communalities and differences and the chances and difficulties in new families (patchwork families, successive families and step families). The resources of all the members, adults and children, are a key issue. Flexibility and dynamics are special resources of new families which can be learned in a therapeutic process. A special focus lies on the strengths of the sibling relations. A high capacity to communicate and to handle the actual problems is needed to succeed as a new family. A new family means the ongoing bargaining of the former and actual relationships as parents and as children.