Experiential Family Therapy Experiential Family Therapy is a therapy that encourages patients to address subconscious issues through actions, and role playing. It is a treatment that is used for a group of people in order to determine the source of problem in the family (Gurman and Kniskern, 2014). Experiential Family Therapy has its strengths and weaknesses. One of the strengths of this therapy is that, it focuses on the present and patients are able to express their emotions on what is happening to them presently. The client will have time to share everything about his/her life experiences one on one without any fears. As a result, it helps the client in the healing process because, he/she is able to express their feelings freely and come out of the problem. Therefore, in this type of therapy, the clients are deeply involved in solving their issues. It helps clients to scrutinize their individual connections and to initiate a self-discovery through therapy, on how their relationships influence their current behaviors (Gurman and Kniskern, 2014). By examining their personal relationships through experiential family therapy, family members are able to …show more content…
Therefore, Experiential Family Therapy is a non-traditional therapy. According to Goldberg and Goldberg (2012), another weakness is that, the clinicians who use Experiential Family Therapy only focus on the family members’ experiences to come out with an outcome on the problem. Another weakness is that, in Experiential Family Therapy, the therapist pushes the clients to confront their issues, and does not offer a solution. In this therapy, the client is pressed to confront heir issues and find answers to their problems, instead of helping them to find solutions for their current
Structural therapy focuses on the family as a whole. It is concerned about how the issues effect the family relationships and connections. This theory concentrates on how well the understanding is amongst the family members and counselor. The members of the family are prompted to understand how the issues were created, where did the issues come from, when the issues started effecting their family, and what the family needs to overcome their issues. Its focus is to help others understand and improve negative behavior. The structural therapy concentrates on the interaction and boundaries of families with separating the whole family into smaller groups. The subsystems will create a clearer understanding of what issues are hurting their family environment (Gladding, S. T. 2010). The counselor is concerned about the members interaction because this reveals how strong the relationships and connections are in the home. The boundaries are important because they create an understanding that there are limits and order, and the boundaries can be diffused, rigid, or clear (Gladding, S. T. 2010). The counselor is expected to identify techniques so members can understand which boundaries are clear, positive, and healthy (Gladding, S. T. 2010).
Conflicts within relationships are inevitable and some conflict can help strengthen a relationship; however, in marriages and families, many people fail to work through their conflict, which results in unhealthy patterns of behavior. Over time, if left unresolved, these patterns of behavior can lead to a breaking of the relationship. Furthermore, most people do not set out seeking conflict within relationships, but rather they lack the emotional maturity to move through conflict. In fact, it is not the differences between the two parties that create the conflict, but rather the emotional reaction to their differences. Therefore, an intervention is required to begin the healing process of working through conflict. Often a pastor or counselor
...n all family members get involved in trying to help. By the individual’s family being apart of their therapy session, it shows how much their family members care for them and want them to get help with whatever issues they may be having. This is very important because it is a sign of love and it is showing the support that they have for one another. Therapist have also found that during strategic family therapy, they can help all family members with helping to encourage each other as well as create rules and interactions that are psychological healthy for all family members who are involved. It will make it easier for the family members to all get along and understand each other. When one person in the family is having issues, the other members should take the time to talk to one another and help each other out, especially the family member who is in need of help.
Narrative therapy was introduced to the family therapy field in the late 1980’s by therapists Michael White and David Epston (Matos et al. 2009, p.89). A philosophy of narrative therapy is that everyone has a story to tell which is bound by the socially constructed knowledge within their cultural setting, and this story can be better interpreted by contextualising it according to the individual’s language, social, political and cultural situation (Combs & Freedman 2012, p.1036; Etchison & Kleist 2000, p.61; Fernandez 2010, p.16). The narrative is then reduced to the theme which is determined as a problematic element within the story, and perceived internally as a dominating power (Mascher 2...
2). My integrative approach is built on postmodern narrative therapy, but also includes techniques and definitions based on family systems and experiential theories to help clients understand their own family narratives. My desire is to use any technique that will help individuals create a preferred positive future. In this paper I expound upon my personal integrative approach to working with individuals, couples, or families in therapy. I share my theory of how problems develop, how client change is facilitated, my role as therapist and goals for therapy based on post-modern and person-centered principles. I then describe the techniques I am comfortable using, and those that do not appeal to me, and end by explaining my views on power, gender, and multiculturalism in
Experiential family therapy would work best for children ages 3-11, because it involves using techniques like role playing, which will uncover the child hopes, fears of what presently is affecting them. Play therapy technique that will incorporate puppets, finger painting, drawing, and any form of media that will allow the child to show their feelings and excitements. Family art therapy that is used for either adults or children for self-knowledge and recognize what emotional issue they have which in turn can be used in the healing process
My theoretical approach to family therapy is very integrative as I believe families cannot be described nor treated from a single-school approach. I view humans through a humanistic and existential lens but am more technically structural and solution-based. With this integrative approach, I believe I will be the most effective in helping families grow and reach their goals.
Goldenberg, H. & Goldenberg, I. (2013). Family therapy: An overview (8th ed.). Belmont CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Each member of my family have to feel like the therapist is working with them if not change will not occur. The use of family mapping will help distinguish the types of boundaries that exist among my family. With the disengagement within my family subsystems, using the enactment technique will illustrate the interaction among family members. I am close to the siblings that I grew up with and my father his siblings were very close. With that being said, I will like to see the dynamic between my aunts and uncles when they are all in the same room together after years of being apart. I chose structural family therapy because at the end of the therapy session, I want the restructuring of my family structure.
Nichols, M. P. (2010). Family therapy concepts and methods (9 ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
“Cognitive-behavior therapy refers to those approaches inspired by the work of Albert Ellis (1962) and Aaron Beck (1976) that emphasize the need for attitude change to promote and maintain behavior modification” (Nichols, 2013, p.185). A fictitious case study will next be presented in order to describe ways in which cognitive behavioral therapy can be used to treat the family members given their presenting problems.
Structural family therapist have exemplified within the context relational therapies that uncovers stressors in relationship between individuals (Vetere, 2001). Structural family therapy has been known to be called “interventive approach” because of the “intensity” to encourage clients to change (Hammond & Nichols, 2014).
A family came in for therapy. There are five people in this family. There are two teenage girls, an 18-year-old male, and a mother and a father. Lately, one of the girls is no longer attending school, she is also withdrawing from friends. She has been disrespectful towards dad. She has been posting lewd pictures on social media, and there are people in the neighborhood telling the parents that they have seen one of their daughters drinking when with their friends.
Nichols, M. P. (2011). The essentials of family therapy. Boston, Ma.: Allyn and Bacon. (Original work published 5th)
The psychodynamic approach allows the client to examine unresolved conflicts and symptoms that happened in the past like childhood experiences. It aims to increase the individual’s sense of his or her own well-being. During psychotherapy, the client talks to the therapist about how he or she thinks, feels, and reacts to challenges in life. The ultimate goal is resolving or reducing negative symptoms that would cause emotional and mental health problems. Compared to other forms of therapy, psychodynamic therapy emphasizes the relationship between the client and therapist as a way to