Milan Systemic Family Therapy

5 stages to Milan Systemic Therapy Sessions

1. Presession 2. Session 3. Intersession 4. Intervention 5. Post session

Sacrifice Intervention

A closing statement in a Milan systemic (early Milan) session that includes a statement of paradox. The person with the symptom is characterized as being in the service of the homeostasis. This intervention tends to overcome resistance by causing a rebellion against the symptom.

Positive Connotation

A paradoxical reframing technique which includes all family members and the system itself. Each member's contribution to the problem is reframed as an effort to solve the problem.

Rituals

A series of actions that involve the whole family in a sequence of steps forming a "play" to be repeatedly enacted under prescribed circumstances.

Circular Questioning

A technique for interviewing and hypothesis validation. Each family member comments on the behavior and interactions of two other members.

Circularity

Any individual family member's behavior must be understood to be part of a circular sequence of behaviors, but not its origin.

Odd day/ Even day ritual

From Milan systemic, a technique to encourage irreverence or a more flexible view of the family. The family is given a directive that on odd days one set of opinions would be true, but on even days, false. On the seventh day, the family should act spontaneously.

Invariant Prescription

Milan. unchanging prescription given to all families with symptomatic children, requests that parents spend time together, away from the children and is intended to break the pattern of destructive "games" and create clearer generational boundaries.

Therapeutic Neutrality

The therapist does not take a stand on the original hypothesis but retains an attitude of curiosity when questioning family members.

Hypothesizing

Trial and error process by which the therapist makes initial suppositions about the presenting problem, then tests by asking questions

Logical Connotation

the idea that development of a symptom is understandable in its context, people have gotten used to it and habits are hard to change. Milan