What is a family

1
What is a family?

• For some, the family is blood-related kin
• For some, the family is psychologically
  connected.
• For some, the family is composed of people living
  in the same house or neighborhood
• For some, the family is a group of 2 or more
  people related by birth, marriage, or adoption
  and residing together in a household.
• The family is more than a collection of
  individuals but instead it is a whole larger than
  (and different from) the sum of its parts!!!

2
Family Facts and Forecasts

• Half the marriages this year in the U.S. will
  probably end in divorce
• Divorce rates are likely to be higher when a
  marriage is preceded by a premarital pregnancy
• Age of the spouses at the time of first marriage
  is highly related to the divorce rate (those
  under 20 are two to three times more likely to
  divorce than those who marry in their 20s.
• Married couples are divorcing earlier than ever
  before (38 within four years of marriage, 50
  within seven years)
• Because of early divorces, younger children are
  more and more likely to be affected by divorce.

3
Family Facts and Forecasts

• More than one out of four children in the U.S. is
  now born to an unwed mother. The number of
  teenage unwed mothers in the US is at an all time
  high.
• Todays unwed teenage mother is opting
  increasingly to keep her child.
• Never-married single women--especially those over
  35, educated, and economically self-sufficient--ar
  e having children out of wedlock at an increasing
  rate
• About one in four children live with a single
  parent.
• More than two of every three children under 6 has
  a mother who is employed outside the home.
• More than half the people in the US have belonged
  or will belong to a stepfamily at some period in
  their lives.

4
Family Tasks (Harvey Wexler, 1996)

• Daily living tasks obtaining and preparing
  food cleaning, repairing, improving family
  possessions child care and socialization of
  dependent children care for the sick and elderly
• Family leadership functions giving direction to
  family development held by one person or shared
  over time
• Cohesiveness-building functions developing
  family rituals and traditions, stories, secrets,
  and rules for everyday living and coping with
  crises.
• Development of a family value system setting
  expectations for family member behavior--a
  hierarchy of goals.

5

• From a contemporary perspective, it no longer
  makes sense to refer to a typical American
  family. We must consider various types of
  families, with diverse organizational patterns,
  styles of living, and living arrangements. The
  idealized American nuclear family depicts a
  carefree, white family with a suburban residence,
  sole provider father, and homemaker mother. Both
  parents are dedicated to child rearing and remain
  together for life children are educated at a
  neighborhood school and attend church with their
  family on Sunday plenty of money and supportive
  grandparents are available.of course this is
  stuff of TELEVISION!!!

6

• Counselors working from a systems-perspective
  view clients disturbed behavior as
  representative of a system that is faulty and not
  due to individual deficit or deficiency. The
  clients difficulties might then be viewed more
  accurately as signaling a social system in
  disequilibrium!!!

7
Systems Theory

• Family members are studied in terms of their
  interactions and not merely their intrinsic
  personal characteristics.
• Every event within a family is multiply
  determined by all the forces operating within
  that system.
• Circular causality emphasizes that problems are
  not the result of a linear, cause-and-effect
  process brought about by some primary factor.
  Rather, problematic behavior results from
  mistaken or dysfunctional interaction patterns
  that develop between people in a mutually
  reinforcing manner and, thereby, serve to
  maintain the problem rather than change it.

8

• Family theories provide tools for expanding
  school counselors and other counselors expand
  their default thinking to include a family based
  framework.

9
Systems Theory

• Family members are studied in terms of their
  interactions and not merely their intrinsic
  personal characteristics.
• Every event within a family is multiply
  determined by all the forces operating within
  that system.
• Circular causality emphasizes that problems are
  not the result of a linear, cause-and-effect
  process brought about by some primary factor.
  Rather, problematic behavior results from
  mistaken or dysfunctional interaction patterns
  that develop between people in a mutually
  reinforcing manner and, thereby, serve to
  maintain the problem rather than change it.

10
Systems Theory Example

• A female client indicated that her problem with
  shyness is that she simply is not attractive. At
  first the counselor decided to intervene with
  this client by implementing typical self-esteem
  exercises. However, upon further exploration the
  counselor realized that the clients parents have
  repeatedly indicated that she is not as pretty
  as her older sister.

11
Properties of Systems

• Movement in one component of a system has an
  effect on all other components of the system
• Systems have subsystems or microsystems that are
  affected by the larger system and vice versa.
• Subsystems refer to groupings of people who are
  within the system yet who have relational
  boundaries that set them apart.
• An element of a system may be affected, or
  changed, by beginning with any component of a
  system. This means that individual problems have
  various pathways along which a solution may be
  sought. This process is often referred to as
  equifinality.

12
Properties of Systems

• The boundaries within systems and subsystems are
  either enmeshed or disengaged. Boundaries
  determine who participates and how, and where the
  authority lies. Enmeshment and disengagement are
  not healthy but are merely relationship styles

13
Enmeshment and Disengagement

• Enmeshment is when the boundaries are too
  permeable and family members become over-involved
  and entwined in one anothers lives (opening each
  others mail, knowing each others secrets, being
  continually attuned to each other feelings)
• Disengagement involves overly rigid boundaries,
  with family members sharing a home but operating
  as separate units, with little interaction,
  exchange of feelings, or sense of connection to
  one another. Little support, concern, or family
  loyalty is evident in disengaged families.

14
Counselors who work from a family counseling or
systems perspective explore dysfunctional family
relationships and attempt to shift the balance so
that new forms of relating become possible, with
the goal of problem resolution.Counselors,
then, help families get unstuck.
15
Systems Theory and School CounselingA family is
in crisis. Bonnie is a 14 year old girl who is
referred to the school counselor because she is
refusing to eat. The school counselor finds out
that Bonnie is also having trouble with her peers
(even though her grades are very good). Her mom
has just been promoted and now earns more than
her husband, who is a truck driver. Husband and
wife are fighting a great deal. Bonnies mom
reports that she has come home with pot on her
breath. The parents scolded her. The parents
are very upset, however, that she is not eating.
In this Italian family, food is very important.
The counselor concludes that the more the parents
focus on Bonnie, the less tension is felt by the
parents fighting. Thus, the symptom (Bonnies
eating) emerges as the point of family crisis and
is maintained by the system.
16
Bowen believed that changes in the family system
impact the individual, and that changes in the
individual influence the family.
17
Types of Families

• Nuclear Family represents a two generation system
  consisting of a marital couple (i.e., parental
  subsystem) or a single parent/grandparent and
  their children (i.e., the sibling subsystem).
• Extended Family is an extended system which
  includes other generations extended in at least
  two directions, upward or downward in the family
  tree. Extended families can include aunts,
  uncles, cousins, great aunts, and second cousins.
• Blended Family is one in which two different
  nuclear family systems join to form a new family
  system.

18
Carter and McGoldricks (1988)Six Stages of
Family Life Development

• Single young adults--leaving home
• The new couple
• Families with young children
• Families with adolescents
• Launching children and moving on
• Families in later life

19

• There are developmental models for understanding
  how family units change over time. Although most
  development models have significant cultural and
  heterosexual biases, it is generally understood
  that families develop from a couple relationship
  to a family system that involves children.

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Single Young Adults--Leaving Home

• Disconnection and reconnection with ones family
  on a different level while simultaneously
  establishing ones self as a person.
• Striking a balance between a career and/or
  marriage ambitions
• Desire for personal autonomy
• Overcoming internal and external pressures to
  marry

21
The New Couple

• Idealization
• Adjustment and adaptation
• Most likely stage of divorce due to an inability
  of individuals to resolve differences
• Greatest amount of satisfaction, too!
• Financial and time constraints are the two main
  limitations.

22
Families with Young Children

• Change (e.g., physical, psychological, emotional)
  associated with the arrival of child.
• The family becomes unbalanced, at least
  temporarily.
• Relationships with extended family are adjusted.
• Work/career and leisure demands are adjusted.

23
Families with Adolescents

• Sandwich generation adults in these families
  often are squeezed in between taking care of
  themselves, their teenagers, and aging parents.
• Most active and exciting times in the family
  cycle.
• Families often have trouble setting limits,
  defining relationships, and taking adequate care
  of one another.
• Tension between parents and adolescents is
  common. Reasons for tensions distinction
  between what parents want for their youngsters
  and what youngsters want for themselves, desire
  for autonomy (adolescent) influence of peer
  groups parental influence decreases
• Parents too are experiencing change due to the
  aging process.

24
Children Leave Home

• Empty nest syndrome couples without child
  rearing responsbilities.
• The number of couples in this stage is increasing
  in the U.S.
• Couples must rediscover each other and fun
  together. Some are unsuccessful and marriages
  end.
• Women who have mainly defined themselves as
  mothers may experience depression, despondency,
  and divorce may occur.
• Men may focus on their physical bodies,
  marriages, and occupational aspirations.
  Research has not focused much on men during this
  period and therefore little data is available.

25
The Family Later in Life

• These families are composed of a couple who are
  in the final years of employment or who are in
  retirement (65 years and up)
• Major concerns are finances, health,mental
  illness, and loss of spouse.
• Psychopathology increases with age, particularly
  organic brain disease and functional disorders
  such as depression, anxiety, and paranoid states.
  Suicide also rises with age, with the highest
  rate among elderly white men.
• Grandparenting is an advantage of the aging
  family.

26
Variables that Affect Life Cycle

• Ethnicity culture and ethnic background can
  influence the life cycle and important milestones
  in a familys development. For instance,
  transitions from childhood to adulthood are
  symbolized differently among cultures.
• Illness and/or Disability the onset, duration
  and outcome of illness or disability can disrupt
  a familys cycle.
• Substance Abuse families of addicts are often
  stuck in a life cycle that promotes dependency of
  the young and a false sense of identity. They
  become competent within a framework of
  incompetence.
• Poverty families in poverty are more dependent
  on kin and are maternal-headed. Continuing
  poverty some times pushes fathers away from their
  children.

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Defining the Healthy Family

• Family roles are known to all in the family and
  may change over the course of time.
• Degree of elasticity and adaptability in family
  roles.
• Healthy families are mature families (Satir).
  Mature families consist of parents/guardians who
  communicate clearly, directly, and honestly.
• Healthy families develop flexible rules which
  govern family behavior, but are subject to change
  (Satir)
• Healthy families have well-defined hierarchies of
  power and status (Minuchin)
• Healthy families consist of strong and satisfying
  marriages/adult relationships.

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Familys Provide Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

• Physical and life sustaining needs (need for
  food, water, air, warmth, sexual gratification,
  elimination of body wastes, and so on)
• Physical Safety (need for protection from
  physical attack and disease)
• Love (need to be cherished, supported, aided by
  others)
• Self-Esteem (need to have a sense of personal
  worth and value, to respect and value ones self)
• Self-Actualization (need to be creative and
  productive and to attain worthwhile objectives)

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Levels of Family Needs

• Level I
• Families who need essential requisites for
  survival and well-being (food, shelter,
  protection from danger, health care, and minimums
  of nurturance)
• Families at this level have experienced crises
  (e.g., job loss, major illness)
• Families at this level lack leadership and
  structure.
• Families at this level have indistinct boundaries
  among members

30
Level I Intervention

• Build on basic strengths and resilience
• Focus on resources
• Mobilize support for the parental system (e.g.,
  church groups, community agencies, extended
  family)
• Reframe and highlight meanings in stress and
  distress (survivors pride)
• Be an advocate, role model, convener!

31
Cassie, a sixth grader, came to the attention of
the school counselor after she was identified for
extensive absences. Cassie has missed 20 of the
last 40 days of school. Through the counselors
discussions with teachers and Cassie, she
discovers that Cassies family is homeless and
lives out of a station wagon parked at a nearby
park. Cassies father is an alcoholic and her
mother is disabled.What would your first
intervention be?Second intervention?Third?
32
Level of Family Need

• Level II
• Issues related to maintaining authority and
  setting limits are prominent
• Parental subsystem is unable to set and maintain
  sufficient limits for one or more family members
• There is either a lack of clear expectations or a
  lack of power to enforce expectations
• Children are often out of control, acting out
• Parents might be involved in substance abuse
• Violence in the family may be present

33
Level II Intervention

• Focus on strengths, resilience, and resources.
• Structure meetings with families, particularly
  parents Modeling structure for parents is
  important.
• Meet with parents consistently in order to
  develop a coalition of those in charge versus
  those in need of control.
• Parent education (e.g., social learning skills,
  behavioral topics) and support groups could be
  helpful for these families (e.g., parents)

34
Joel is a 10-year old 4th grader who was referred
to the counselor for disruptive classroom
behavior (e.g., not raising his hand to speak,
pushing children, not completing class work).
Joel has also been suspended from riding the bus
because of his misbehavior. Joels mother is
single and works in D.C. The mothers boyfriend
is living temporarily with Joel and his mother.
After school, Joel is not supervised and the
mother has refused to attend parent teacher
conferences. How should the counselor
intervene?
35
Level III

• Rich mixture of coping mechanisms are present,
  but are often faulty or unhealthy.
• Control in these families might be absolute, with
  little or no negotiation.
• Issues related to clear and appropriate
  boundaries are prevalent.

36
Level III Interventions

• Reshaping the internal processes of the family
• Challenging the existing family structure and
  confront the familys tendency to remain in
  current patterns of behavior.
• Examination of communication and power structures
  around the presenting problem may be useful.
• Family counseling and therapy are real options
  for these families

37
George and Hilary have two children, George Jr.
(17) and Tasha (12). George Jr has become very
negative at home and his grades are low. His
parents fear that he is involved with drugs and a
violent group of boys. There are no concerns
about Tasha at this time. Hilary (the mom) is
quiet and is overly involved with Tasha, but
appears to be bonded with George Jr. George Sr.
(dad) is a firefighter and is rarely at home and
when he is at home, he has little contact with
the children. George Sr. and Hilarys
relationship is tension-ridden and George uses an
authoritarian style of parenting.George Sr.s
father and mother are overly involved with their
sons family. George Sr.s parents live next
door and use an authoritarian style of
communication with their son and daughter in
law.As a counselor working with this family,
what might you do?
38
Level IV

• Desire for greater intimacy, greater sense of
  self, or more autonomy.
• Goal is to live more fully and grow toward
  actualization of each members potential.
• Issues such as inner conflicts, intimacy,
  self-realization, insight, and spiritual
  yearnings are the focus.

39
Level IV Interventions

• Genograms extending over three or four (or more)
  generations are useful to highlight
  transgenerational patterns.
• Family sculpting
• Narrative interventions and rewriting ones story
• Object relations therapy (psychoanalytic) for
  those who want more insight into patterns.
• Focus on values, meanings, and spirituality.
  Referrals to church-related counseling centers
  might be appropriate.

40
Kelly R., a married mother of 2 children (10th
and 12 grade) at your school, comes to your
office to discuss her sons college aspirations.
During your conference with the mother, she
reports that her mother passed away last year and
she has not been herself. Reading between the
lines, you realize that she seems despondent and
depressed. She admits that she is afraid of
her son leaving home for college and that she is
in need of restructuring her life.

• Discuss this client in terms of intervention
  strategies.

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42
Focus on strengths rather than deficits and focus
on solutions rather than problems!!!
43
Intervention Choices

• Behavioral/Interactional Choices what people
  do, their actions, etc. Social skills training
  and strategic/structural activities may be used.
• Experiential Choices makes use of cognition,
  affect, communication, and interpersonal
  relationships. Individual, group, or family
  counseling may be used.
• Historical Choices what happened in the past.
  Family of origin work and psychodynamic methods
  are used. Psychotherapy may be used.

44
Major Concepts of the Ecosystems Perspective
(Germain Gitterman, 1995)

• Reciprocal Exchanges transactions between the
  person and his/her environment these
  transactions shape and influence each other over
  time
• Life Stress positive or negative
  person-environment relationship
• Coping special adaptations that are made in a
  response to stress.
• Habitat where a person or family lives
• Niche the result of ones accommodation to the
  environment refers to the status that is
  occupied by a member of the community
• Relatedness based on attachment theory refers
  to emotional closeness or isolation
• Adaptations changing the environment to allow
  for meeting the physical and psychological needs
  of an individual or family

45
Family Systems View Key Assumptions

• Wholeness change in one part of system will
  cause change in other parts
• Feedback families are regulated by feedback
  loops or inputs from family members
• Equifinality the same result may be reached
  from different beginnings
• Circular Causality systems are constantly
  modified by recursive circular feedback from
  multiple sources within and outside of the system.

46
Social Constructionist Metatheory

• Relativism regarding all meanings there is no
  realitymeanings are constructed by
  participants
• Emphasis is on meanings rather than actions from
  expertise to collaboration from diagnosis to
  problems to mutual creation of solutions
• Nonhierarchical relationships in family are OK.

47
Partnering with Families and Communities

• Difference between professional learning
  community and school learning community.
• Professional learning community emphasizes the
  teamwork of principals, teachers, staff, (or
  agency director, counselors, staff) to improve
  curriculum and instruction, assess student
  progress and increase effectiveness.
• School learning community includes educators,
  students, parents, and community partners
  (stakeholders) who work together to improve the
  school and enhance students learning
  opportunities.

48
Partnering with Families and Communities

• One component of a school learning community is
  an organized program of school, family, and
  community partnerships with activities linked to
  school goals. These programs, research shows,
  increase student achievement, strengthen
  families, invigorate community support, and
  improve schools.

49
Six Types of Involvement

• Parenting
• Communicating
• Volunteering
• Learning at Home
• Decision Making
• Collaborating with the Community

50
Action Teams

• Create an Action Team
• Obtain funding and other support
• Identify starting points
• Develop 3 year outline and a one year action plan
• Continue planning and working

51
Community Partners

• Businesses/Corporations
• Universities
• Health Care Organizations
• Government and Military Agencies
• Volunteer Organizations
• Faith Based Organizations
• Senior Citizens Organizations
• Cultural Institutions
• Community Individuals

52
Mandatory Knowledge and Skills Necessary for
Culturally Competent Work With Families
(Pinderhughes, 1989)

• Knowledge of specific values, beliefs, and
  cultural practices of families
• The ability to respect and appreciate the values,
  beliefs, and practices of all families.
• The ability to be comfortable with difference in
  others and thus not to be trapped in anxiety
  about difference or defensive behavior.
• The ability to control and even change false
  beliefs, assumptions, and stereotypes.
• The ability to think flexibly and to recognize
  that ones own way of thinking and behaving is
  not the only way.
• The ability to behave flexibly. Be ready to
  engage in the extra steps required to sort
  through general knowledge about a cultural group
  and to see the specific ways in which knowledge
  applies or does not apply to a given client.

53
Interventions for High Risk Families

• Engagement
• Support and Strengths Inventory
• Nurturing the Family
• Role Modeling
• Conflict Resolution
• Advocacy

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Process of Family Intervention

• Pre-Planning Tasks initial contact made by
  counselor gather essential information (e.g.,
  name, address, phone number, email, statement of
  problem) counselor should be supportive, caring,
  talks in a manner that conveys respect and
  receptivity
• Initial Session
• Join the family establish a sense of trust
• Inquire about members perceptions of the family
  and its problems
• Observe family patterns (i.e., family dance)
  What is the outward appearance of the family?
  What is the cognitive functioning in the family?
  What repetitive, non-productive sequences do you
  notice? What individual roles reinforce family
  resistances? What subsystems are operative in
  this family? Who carries the power?
• Assess What Needs To Be Done
• Engender Hope for Change and Overcome Resistance

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Types of Family Interventions

• Structural
• Strategic
• Solution-Focused
• Narrative
• Systemic