Reported by:

Ma. Jessica L. Diezmo

Family Systems Therapy

Structural Therapy

• Salvador Minuchin• Goal: Develop clear boundaries for individual

members and changing the family’s structural pattern by creating effective hierarchical structure

- Parents are in charge of their children and give them increasing independence and freedom as they mature.

• Major concepts

– Family Structure– Family Subsystems – Boundaries

• Family Structure– an organized pattern in which families interact.– useful to pay attention to who says what to whom and in what

way with what result. – Can only be seen when a family is in action, because verbal

descriptions rarely convey the true structure.

• Family Subsystems are subgroupings within the family based on age (or generation), gender and interest (or function)

– Parental (mother and father)– Spousal (wife and husband)– Sibling (children)– Extended (Grandparents & other relatives)

• Boundaries - are invisible barriers that regulate contact

between memberso Diffuse or “enmeshed” (overly involved in each

other’s lives)o Rigid or “disengaged” (too much detachment

from each other)

- are reciprocal means that a weak boundary (enmeshment) in one

relationship usually means that the same person is disengaged from someone else.

• Techniques– Joining the family

The therapist joins with the family, taking on their affective tone, tempo, language and structure.– Family mapping

The therapist employs a method of mapping the structure of a family. He identifies boundaries as rigid, diffuse or clear; transactional styles are identified as enmeshed or disengaged. – Enactments

Asking the family to act out a situation rather than describe it verbally.

 

• Role and function of the therapistStage directors; friendly uncle; promoter of change in the family structure

STRATEGIC THERAPY

• Jay Haley – worked with Minuchin from 1967-76. Began Family Therapy Institute in Washington, D.C. in 1976.

• Goal: to create change in destructive behavior and communication patterns among family members. The identified problem is the focus of therapy.

• Developed a brief, problem-focused approach. Contends that "change occurs not through insight and understanding but through the process of the family carrying out directives issued by the therapist." (Becvar & Becvar, Family Therapy, 193)

Haley (1976) describes stages of a typical interview:

1. Social Stage: build rapport and assess2. Problem Stage: get clear statement of concern3. Interaction Stage; family interacts4. Goal Setting: define therapy goal in concise, observable, behavioral terms

• Techniques– Giving/Using Directives

Creating or selecting an intervention that will impact the presenting problem. – Paradoxical intervention

Cutting through a client’s resistance and to bring about change.– Reframing

This is use to create a different perception of reality. Reframing is a process in which a perception is changed by explaining a situation in terms of a different context.

• Role and function of the therapist• Active director of change; problem solver and

authoritarian.

Pakialamera

Concern lang

Social Constructionism Therapy

• Tom Andersen, Michael White and others

• Goal: Concerned with all family members’ views about the problem

• Learning and creating new viewpoints by giving new meaning of constructions to old sets of problems.

• Emphasis on gaining new meaning through narrative reconstructions of stories families have told about themselves.

Social Constructionism Therapy

KEY CONCEPTS

• Collaboration and EmpowermentHeavy emphasis is placed in the use of question, often relational in nature that empower the people in the families to speak, to give voice to their diverse positions, and to own their capabilities in the presence of others.

• Storied Lives and Narratives

Human beings “make meaning expressed” in language and narratives that make families meaningful systems.

• Techniques– Listening with an open mind

• All constructionist theories place a strong emphasis on listening to clients without judgment or blame, affirming and valuing them, and creating meaning and new possibilities out of the stories they share.– Questions that make difference

Questions that therapist ask may seem embedded in a unique conversation that seek to empower clients and families in new ways. – Deconstruction and Externalization

Living life means coping with problems, not being fused with them. Problems and problem saturated stories have real impacts on real people and dominate living in extremely negative ways.

– Alternative Stories and Re-authoring

Social constructionists seek to elicit new possibilities and embed them in life narratives or stories and processes of the people they serve. This development is an enactment of ultimate hope.

• Role and function of the therapist

Listener, questioner; collaborator’ solution finder