Family Exam #2
strategic family therapy function
Power and control are at the very core of Haley's thinking about family functioning.
structural family therapy
Salvador Minuchin
relabeling
(essentially changing the label attached to a person or problem from negative to positive) attempts to alter the meaning of a situation by altering its conceptual and/or emotional context in such a way that the entire situation is perceived differently.
Emotion Focused Couples Therapy
-Short term (8-10) sessions -believe change occurs as partners gain new experiences, on an emotionally meaningful level, of new aspects of themselves, of their partners, and of the new interactions. -focuses on helping clients restructure negative interactive patterns (attacking-withdrawing, pursuing-distancing) that have become habitual and have created emotional removal or remoteness or have led to attack-attack engagement.
MRI levels of communication
1. Surface/content level: what you say 2. Metacommunication level: qualifies the first level (nonverbal). Relationships are defined by command messages. These messages constitute regulating patterns for stabilizing relationship & defining family rules.
baseline
A stable, reliable performance level, against which changes, particularly of a behavioral nature, can be compared.
goal of strategic family therapy
Active therapists with tailored strategies that address the presenting problem. Therapists are responsible for change.
Behavior Therapy
All behavior is learned. People(families) act according to how they have previously been reinforced. Behavior is maintained and eliminated by consequences. Maladaptive behaviors, not underlying causes, should be the targets of change. Maladaptive behaviors can be unlearned or modified, adaptive behaviors can be learned.
goal of structural family therapy
Before an individuals symptoms can be reduced or extinguished, structural changes must occur within the family. The goal is to achieve a delicate balance between change and stability as family go through life cycles. The more a family is open to change during transitional periods, the more willing it is to modify its structure.
Gottman's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Criticism - attacking a spouse's character, Defensiveness - denying responsibility for certain behavior, Contempt - insulting, abusive attitude toward a spouse, Stonewalling - a withdrawal and unwillingness to listen to one's partner.
What distinguishes behavior therapy
Differences - does not focus on motives, uncover unconscious conflicts, hypothesize needs or drives, or diagnose inner pathological conditions. Not everyone in the family has to be treated for change to occur.
experiential interventions
Emphasize choice, free will, and human capacity for self-determination & self-fulfillment (Theoretical roots are humanistic in origin) ● Psychotherapy is an interpersonal encounter where therapist is real and authentic, spontaneous & creative. ● The primacy of emotional experience over rational thought or intellectualization. ● Therapist approach is active & in the here and now (not trying to uncover past trauma events), emphasizing empathic attunement ● Helps clients gain self-awareness, self-responsibility & personal growth. Does NOT focus on the unconscious.
enmeshed families
Entails an extreme form of proximity and intensity in family interactions in which family members are over-concerned or over-involved in each other's lives.
structural interventions
Geared to the present Action precedes understanding (action-oriented) Action from new experiences leads to insight and understanding Therapist is active and challenges the family's transactional patterns Organization/structural change is the goal 1. Joining/Accommodating 2. Structural Assessment (e.g., family maps) 3. Stir the Pot (Unbalancing) 4. Restructuring Patterns (Realigning)
strategic family therapy therapist anticipate
Family members, fearful of change, may try to manipulate, deceive, exclude, or subdue a therapist in order to maintain the homeostatic balance they have achieved, even if it is at the expense of symptomatic behavior in one of their members. They do so not to torment a therapist, but rather because they are frightened of altering their behavior, clinging to what they believe is the only solution to their problem.
Symbolic-Experiential Family Therapy
Goal is to simultaneously maintain a sense of togetherness along with a sense of healthy separation and autonomy.
humanistic and existential orientation
Focus on the present rather than on the past. Promote individual growth and intrapersonal change. Emphasize dealing with feelings in the here and now rather than concentrating on guidance for the past or future. All emphasize choice, free will, and especially the human capacity for self-determination and self-fulfillment, thus accentuating the client's goals over any outcomes predetermined by the therapist. Disordered or dysfunctional behavior is viewed, especially by the early experientialists, as the result of a failure in the growth process, a deficiency in actualizing one's capabilities and possibilities.
Virginia Satir
Human Validation process model
Assumptions of strategic family therapy
Idea that symptoms need to be corrected, not concerned with why or how that happens or even the family knowing. Focus on what is occurring not why it is occurring.
Coalitions
are alliances between specific family members against a third member.
functional family therapy
Integrates learning theory, systems theory, and cognitive theory. Goal: cognitive and behavioral changes ¤Clients need to understand the function of the behavior-how does behavior regulate relationships ¤ Useful with adolescent behavioral problems All behavior is adaptive and serves a function such as helping family members achieve one of three interpersonal states. ■ Contact/closeness (merging). Family members are drawn together (e.g., in their concern over the delinquent behavior of a juvenile). ■ Distance/independence (separating). Family members learn to stay away from each other for fear of fighting. ■ A combination of 1 and 2 (midpointing). Family members fluctuate in their emotional reactions to each other so that individuals are both drawn toward and repelled from each other.
functional family therapy
Integrates learning theory, systems theory, and cognitive theory. Goal- cognitive and behavioral changes. Clients need to understand the function of the behavior-how does behavior regulate relationships. All behavior is adaptive and serves a function such as helping family members achieve one of three interpersonal states: Contact/closeness (merging), Distance/independence (separating), and A combination of those two (midpointing).
disengaged families
Involves separate and independent functioning with little sense of family loyalty.
Alignments
are defined by the way family members join together or oppose one another in carrying out a family activity.
Paradoxical injunctions
are forms of communication that must be obeyed but that must be disobeyed to be obeyed!
First-order changes
are superficial behavioral changes within a system that do not change the structure of the system itself.
MRI group
Mental Research Institute founded by Don Jackson in 1959 ● Many Family Theorists worked at MRI at one time or another Virginia Satir, Gregory Bateson, Jay Haley, John Weakland, Paul Watzlawick, Richard Fisch, John Bell, Carlos Sluzki, Chloe Madanes, and Steve de Shazer.
Experiential Family Therapy
Minimize theory - Value experiential learning that: ● Expands experiences ● Unblocks suppressed impulses & feelings ● Develops greater sensitivity ● Gains greater access to one's self ● Leads to recognizing & expressing emotions ● Allows for achieving intimacy
Symbolic-Experiential Family Therapy
Multigenerational approach - all family member were involved including grandparents. Belief - experience changes families not education (minimized insight) Active therapist - (Role of Therapist) spontaneous, creative, and often unorthodox. Therapist use of self - the therapist's personal development influences their ability to successfully help the family.
strategic interventions
Offering Descriptions "The two of you, as a married couple, are to be commended for avoiding confronting your differences. It would be risky to change things now." Predicting a Relapse "The two of you got along better this week, but you're probably going to have a major blowup soon." Declaring Hopelessness "You're probably right. There's nothing you can do. It would be a disservice to you to allow you to continue therapy." Paradoxical Directives- restrain from change!!! To be used infrequently but when a client is resistant to change. Designed to provoke defiance. Issue becomes one of control. 1. Prescriptive- ask the client to do more of the same. "Work hard this week at getting bad grades so that your parents won't have to pay for college" 2. Restrictive- tell the client they are incapable of doing more than what they are doing. " I have something to tell you, but I am not sure you are ready for it." "slow down"
gestalt family therapy kempler and perls
Psychotherapy is an encounter between 2 or more persons who are constantly developing and fulfilling their inner potential Emphasis is on presence in a real immediate, ongoing relationship Focus on the attend of the immediate Forerunner to more contemporary models of experiential therapy.
boundary types for structural family therapy
Strength and durability of the spousal system offers the key to family stability. Complementarity of roles - the degree of harmony in the meshing of family roles. Reciprocal roles provide satisfaction in family functioning. Boundaries define who participates and how, they may be rigid/inflexible (world of parents and children separate and distinct), blurred/diffuse (parents are too accessible, or hover parents) , or clearly defined.
Carl Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential Family Therapy
experiential therapists
Symbolic-Experiential Family Therapy - Whitaker Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Sue Johnson & Les Greenberg Newest form of experiential family therapy Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Mixture of Experiential & Psychodynamic Diana Fosha
Unbalancing
attempting to change the hierarchical relationship between members of the parental subsystem by having the father take on an expanded role in the family.
gottman's four horsemen
The greatest predictor of divorce is not conflict andanger but negativity
circular questioning
The technique focuses on connections rather than individual symptomatology by framing every question so that it addresses differences in perception by different family members about events or relationships. Asking each family member to comment individually how each person in the family views the same event.
Family Reconstruction
attempts to guide clients to unlock dysfunctional patterns stemming from their families of origin.
structural family therapy
The therapist is active and challenges the family's transactional patterns. Family maps, stirring the pot, and restructuring patterns.
strategic family therapy
Took ideas of structural family therapy and added ideas for therapist to take more initiative and control of sessions. Hand-on approach of therapist Verbal & nonverbal messages between family members What is occurring rather than why it is occurring Process - how families interact versus each person's inner conflicts Family's sequence of interactions & its hierarchy of interactions Circular interactions versus linear causation
behavioral parent training
Training parents in behavioral principles and the use of contingency management procedures in altering or modifying undesirable behavior in their children.
counterparadoxes
essentially therapeutic double binds—the family was warned against premature change, allowing the members to feel more acceptable and unblamed for how they were, as the team attempted to discover and counter the family's paradoxical patterns to disrupt repetitive, unproductive games.
Symbolic-Experiential Family Therapy
experience changes families, therapist uses self to develop influences to help family success. Symbolic-experiential family therapy (S-EFT), pioneered by Carl Whitaker, is a multigenerational approach that uses therapy to address both individual and family relational patterns. Oriented toward personal growth and family connectedness, the therapist assumes a pivotal role in helping family members dislodge rigid and repetitive ways of interacting by substituting more spontaneous and flexible ways of accepting and dealing with their impulses.
assumptions of structural family therapy
Wholeness of a family system, hierarchy and organization of the family system, and changing the organization and covert rules of their transactions will change behavior and symptoms will decrease. Families need some form of internal organization that informs how, when, and to whom to relate. Structuralists are interested in how the components of the system interact.
therapeutic double bind
a general term that describes a variety of paradoxical techniques used to change entrenched family patterns. Is intended to force a person, couple, or family into a no-lose situation.
Rituals
address aspects of family relationships that the therapist or team hypothesizes as significant for family functioning, based on how the team views the family's current difficulty.
reframing
changes the original meaning of an event or situation by placing it in a new context in which an equally plausible explanation is possible.
Triangulation
each parent demands the child ally with him or her against the other parent.
Human Validation process model
modeling effective communication, helped people feel good about themselves and encouraged people to take risks. Blamer, Placater, Distractor, and Super Reasonable. Congruent communication is stressed in maintaining a balanced and nurturing family system, and the building of self-esteem is considered essential if all members are to thrive as individuals and as part of a functional system. Satir assumed people want to be whole, authentic, sensitive, and genuine with one another.
Emotion Focused Couples Therapy
practitioners focus is on the process between people, not what is inherent in each person. Each partner learns to examine how his or her interactions with the other set off cues that maintain distress and dysfunction between the pair.
Positive connotation
reframes the family's problem-maintaining behavior so that symptoms are seen as positive or good because they help maintain the system's balance and thus facilitate family cohesion and well-being.
Symmetrical
relationships are equality interactive patterns.
Complementary
relationships are inequality interactive patterns.
Second-order changes
require a fundamental revision of the system's structure and function.
Family sculpting
the family members are molded during the therapy session into positions symbolizing their actual relationships as seen by one or more members of the family. Setting the scene, choosing role players, creating a sculpture, and processing the sculpture. family sculpting, a nonverbal communication method whereby a family member can physically place other members in a spatial relationship with one another, symbolizing, among other things, his or her perception of the family members' differences in power or degrees of intimacy with one another.
Emotion Focused Couples Therapy
step-by-step treatment manual for conducting __________ so others can replicate the therapy process: Delineating conflict issues in the core struggle Identifying the negative interaction cycle Accessing the unacknowledged feelings underlying interactional positions Reframing the problem in terms of underlying feelings, attachment needs, and negative cycles Promoting identification with disowned needs and aspects of self, and integrating these into relationship interactions Promoting acceptance of partner's experiences and new interaction patterns Facilitating the expression of needs and wants, and creating emotional engagement Establishing the emergence of new solutions Consolidating new positions
prescribing the symptom
strategic therapists try to produce a runaway system by urging or even coaching the client to engage in or practice his or her symptoms, at least for the present time.
criticisms of minuchin's theory
this type of theory focused more on issues of power between different generations, rather than focusing more on issues of power that take place between relationships inside the current generation, for example, spousal abuse.
Power
within a family has to do with both authority (who is the decision maker) and responsibility (who carries out the decision).
Cognitive restructuring
would help the client modify her perceptions and allow her to produce new self-statements ("It's really upsetting that we don't agree, but that doesn't mean I'm a failure as a person or that our marriage is doomed").