Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy

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Theory and Practice of Counseling and
Psychotherapy

• Family System Therapy

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The Family Systems Perspective

• Individuals are best understood through
  assessing the interactions within an entire
  family
• Symptoms are viewed as an expression of a
  dysfunction within a family
• Problematic behaviors
• Serve a purpose for the family
• Are a function of the familys inability to
  operate productively
• Are symptomatic patterns handed down across
  generations
• A family is an inter-actional unit and a change
  in one member effects all members

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Adlerian Family Therapy

• Alfred Adler
• Adlerians use an educational model to counsel
  families
• Emphasis is on family atmosphere, birth order,
  and family constellation
• Therapists function as collaborators who seek to
  join the family
• Understand the purposes of underlying childrens
  misbehavior

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Adlerian Family Therapy Therapy Goals

• Unlock mistaken goals and interactional patterns
• Engage parents in a learning experience and a
  collaborative assessment
• Emphasis is on the familys motivational patterns
  (e.g., a desire to belong)
• Main aim is to initiate a reorientation of the
  family

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Multigenerational Family Therapy

• Murray Bowen
• The application of rational thinking to
  emotionally saturated systems
• A well-articulated theory is considered to be
  essential
• With the proper knowledge the individual can
  change
• Change occurs only with other family members
• Triangulation
• A pattern of interaction with two-against-one
  experience
• A third party is recruited to reduce anxiety and
  stabilize a couples relationship

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Multigenerational Family Therapy

• Make the most use of genograms
• Differentiation of the self
• A psychological separation from others
• Involve (1) psychological separation of intellect
  and emotions and (2) of independence of the self
  from others.
• The greater ones differentiation, the better
  ones ability to keep from being drawn into
  dysfunctional patterns with other family members.

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Multigenerational Family Therapy Therapy Goals

• To change the individuals within the context of
  the system
• To end generation-to-generation transmission of
  problems by resolving emotional attachments
• To lessen anxiety and relieve symptoms
• To increase the individual members level of
  differentiation

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Human Validation Process ModelVirginia Satir

• Open communications
• Individuals are allowed to honestly report their
  perceptions
• Enhancement of self-esteem
• Family decisions are based on individual needs
• Encouragement of growth
• Differences are acknowledged and seen as
  opportunities for growth
• Transform extreme rules into useful and
  functional rules
• Families have many spoken and unspoken rules

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Experiential Family TherapyTherapy Goals (Carl
Whitaker)

• Application of existential therapy to family
  systems
• Help individuals achieve more intimacy by
  increasing their awareness of their inner
  potential and opening channels for family
  interaction
• An interactive process between a therapist and a
  family
• Encourage members to be themselves by freely
  expressing what they are thinking and feeling
• Techniques grow out of the therapists intuitive
  and spontaneous reactions (Therapist use of self)
  to the present situation in therapy

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Structural Family Therapy

• Salvador Minuchin
• Focus is on family interactions to understand the
  structure, or organization of the family
• Symptoms are a by-product of structural failings
• Structural changes must occur in a family before
  an individuals symptoms can be reduced

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Structural Family Therapy

• Therapy Goals
• Reduce symptoms of dysfunction
• Bring about structural change by modifying the
  familys transactional rules and developing more
  appropriate boundaries

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Strategic Family Therapy

• Jay Haley
• Focuses on solving problems in the present
• Presenting problems are accepted as real and
  not a symptom of system dysfunction
• Therapy is brief, process-focused, and
  solution-oriented
• The therapist designs strategies for change
• Change results when the family follows the
  therapists directions change transactions

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Strategic Family TherapyTherapy Goals

• Resolve presenting problems by focusing on
  behavioral sequences
• Get people to behave differently
• Shift the family organization so that the
  presenting problem is no longer functional
• Move the family toward the appropriate stage of
  family development
• Problems often arise during the transition from
  one developmental stage to the next

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Family therapy as a whole

• Basic assumption
• An individuals problematic behavior grows out of
  the interactional unit of the family, community,
  and societal systems
• Focus of family therapy
• Short term, solution-focused, action-oriented,
  and here-and-now interaction.
• Focus on how current family relationships
  contribute to the development and maintenance of
  symptoms.

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Family therapy as a whole

• Role of goals and values
• Specific goals are determined by family and
  therapist
• Global goal is to reduce familys distress
• How family change
• Cognitive, emotional, or behavioral changes
• Change needs to happen in relationships, not just
  within the individual

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Family therapy as a whole

• Techniques of family therapy
• Techniques are tools for achieving therapeutic
  goals
• Personal characteristics (respect, empathy,
  sensitivity) are even more important
• Always consider what is in the best interests of
  the family.

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From a multicultural perspective

• Contributions
• Many ethnic and cultural groups place great value
  on the extended family
• Approach each family as unique culture
• Limitations
• Few limitations for multicultural counseling

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Summary and Evaluation

• Contributions
• Inclusion of all parts of the system rather than
  being limited to the identified patient
• Rather than blaming either identified patient
  or the family, the entire family has an
  opportunity (1) to examine the multiple
  perspectives and interactional patterns that
  characterize the unit and (2) participate in
  finding solutions.
• Limitations
• lose sight of the individual by focusing on the
  broader system