Which treatments are more effective with families, couples, children, or significant others? The Bowens Therapy can be used for individuals, families and couples here that they talk through and not to their partner, with its long-term therapeutic approach. By learning how to gain the ability, to separate their feelings, and thoughts both internally and externally is the main focus of this therapy. Bowen therapy is complete when the family members are about to achieve their level of differentiation (M.U.S.E). Structural Family therapy focus is to reform the family so that there are limits between parents and progenies, while the parents are reassuring of each other and their children. In achieving this the therapist has observed firsthand …show more content…
Regardless of the position within their family, decisions can be made openly and honestly, while acknowledging their differences. However, this therapy can limit the family role concerning how to appreciate each other, decreased desire to solve the issues, and more geared toward groups(M.U.S.E). Which models work best for different age groups? Explain. 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 Under what conditions would you use each diagnostic …show more content…
The step son reluctant to speak with the step father, and the stepfather is feeling angry and excluded by the son. Structural Family therapy is the model that would work under these conditions. More common than not you have families where the children are not performing to their fullest compatibly at school, are disruptive in the home, and school setting. You are asked to attend counseling the father never shows, which is causing the mother stress, Strategic family therapy model would work under these circumstances. Bowen Family therapy model would work under the following conditions, for example couple gets married at a young age, they know have three children, both work fulltime and live in a modest home which they have fell behind on the mortgage payment. The wife is spending beyond their means, while the children have been rude and disrespectful. However the father is feeling overwhelmed with responsibilities, whenever he attempts to speak with the wife about his concerns, it cause stress and discord in the family structure, she find peace with shopping and being away from the
According to smith and Hamon (2012), Families are considered as a whole in society. However, they believed that couples have many components in which makes up the family, if one component is missing, the family as a whole can get unbalance (Smith & Hamon, 2012). In the Brice’s family, communication was the component that was missing. The couple was not able to communicate their differences, which was what caused Carolyn and David to verbally insult each other. Smith and Hamon (2012), also explain that a person who expresses his or her feeling is considered as someone who is breaking the functions of their family system; especially if the person is focusing on the individual who is causing the problem, rather than the problem itself. In the Brice family, Carolyn could be considered the one that cause the dysfunction in the family structure because she was focusing on David as the problem of their marriage, rather than focusing of the elements that are causing their problems. Smith and Hamon (2012) explain that individuals should focus on how to solve a problem, rather than trying to find who is causing the
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
Szapocznik, J., Schwartz, S. J., Muir, J. A., & Brown, C. H. (2012). Brief strategic family therapy. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 1(2), 134–145.
In the SFT model, the therapist takes an active directional stance (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013, p. 273). This creatively active approach allows the therapist to become part of the family system in order to unbalance and change the family’s structure and perspective, and is especially effective with difficult families (Seligman, 2004, pp. 245-246). However, therapeutic change is a delicate process and must occur in a trusting therapeutic relationship: too little involvement on the part of the therapist, and the family’s structural status quo will continue to be maintained; too much direction before the family is ready can cause a premature termination of therapy (Vetere, 2001, p. 135).
“Exiles are the highly vulnerable, sensitive parts of us that were most hurt by emotional injuries in the past.” Thereby, people attempt to disconnect from these painful emotions and memories in order to never experience them again. This leads to other inner entities becoming managers of those emotions. For example, a child that was abused by a family member in the middle of the night in their bedroom may as an adult be taken back to their sense of fear when their partner mistakenly awakens them in the middle of the night. Their managers would be activated to control the environment and suppress their feelings. However, “When the managers fail to control the exiled emotions, extreme behaviors emerge, such as addictions, binges, rages and anger, and Schwartz refers to them as firefighters.” This is where a conflict between married couples can emerge requiring intervention. The husband has no idea what his wife is feeling in that moment and believes her reaction or requirements are unrealistic. Yet through IFS therapy, the care seekers can come to acknowledge the real emotion at hand and as Schwarts says, “They stop berating themselves and instead, get to know, rather than try to eliminate, the extreme inner voices or emotions that have plagued them.” By addressing these emotions, clients can learn to lead themselves and see their
Napier provides a crucial exploration of the therapy of a family struggling with battles for the structure of their family and battles to define and grow their relationships with one another. Napier and Whitaker seamlessly and purposely work with each family member, educating and
In the industrial age before World War II, when individual psychotherapy was born and thrived, human beings were essentially seen as machines, with broken parts—including the mind—that could be repaired; after World War II, the dawning information technology age brought a paradigm shift in the view of human life from mechanical to relational, and communication and systems theories provided family therapy with increased validity and prominence. (White, 2009, pp. 200-201). The modern family systems theories that grew out of this paradigm viewed families narrowly as functional or dysfunctional according to the delineation of each theory. Today, postmodern theory suggests that no absolute truth governs individuals or families; instead, people are
Structural Family Therapy offers a framework that provides order and meaning within the family connections (Nichols, 2013). Divorce for a family is considered a significant transition for all parties involved. When counseling a family going through divorce the structural family therapist’s job is to build an alliance with the family and obtain information about the structure. The structure of the family consists of the roles, interactions, organization, and hierarchy. Family therapy yields the belief that changing the organization of the family leads to change in the individual members. The structural family therapist often will try to become part of the family to gain a perspective of their issues as whole so not to place the focus on one individual. Joining is an empathetic approach in helping families explain and break down their individual stories without uncomfortable challenge or unnecessary confrontation (Nichols, 2013). It is important to note that family dysfunction that often leads to divorce is not attributed to one individual, but the entire family system. In structural family therapy, part of dealing with the issue of divorce in the family is to focus on the interactions between all the family members both positive and negative. Through these interactions the therapist can discover where the conflicts arise, which will in turn help the therapist understand how these negative interaction affect the family. Family therapy in these cases allows for repair of long-standing interactional patterns in which divorce is just one of a series of ongoing transactions that are disruptive to the child’s development (Kaplan, 1977, p.75). The structural family therapist often has the family play out these family interactions via enactments so that he can get a firsthand look at maladaptive patterns, roles, and
When choosing the therapy modality for this family, symbolic-experiential therapy seemed to fit. I compare this family’s situation to Carl Whitaker’s reference his work as, “therapy of the absurd.” The classifications of prejudices, biases or any type of discriminatory acts are absurd to me. I had my reservations about the techniques that Carl Whitaker displayed when I watched the videos but for this family situation, I think it seems appropriate. The issues surrounding this family are complex, same-sex marriage (sexual prejudice) and require a straightforward approach. Symbolic-experiential therapy is not based on any one type of theory. Instead, the therapists as the main catalyst of helping the family understand the worldviews of the family members and, therefore, establish a better relationship within it. Each member takes part in greater self-discovery, which in turn leads to a better understanding of how the positives out weight the negatives in allowing the family unit to work. With this family, symbolic therapy relies heavily on emotional logic rather than cognitive logic, which in most cases of sexual prejudice, is based on how a
The family dynamic offers multiple perceptions and needs, these may require addressing matters individually as well as on a group level. There may be matters such as domestic violence or substance abuse which requires both individual and family counseling and resources. In times of crisis families need education and coping strategies in order to regain their lives back. The necessities of the family may entail emotional and medical support requirements depending on their situation. When there is a possible case involving violence the focus may turn to more than medical and emotional support and possible removal of the children from the home may be required.
Goldenberg, H. & Goldenberg, I. (2013). Family therapy: An overview (8th ed.). Belmont CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Murdock, N. L., & Gore Jr., P. A. (2004). Stress, Coping, and Differentiation of Self: A Test of Bowen Theory. Contemporary Family Therapy: An International Journal, 26(3), 319-335.
The techniques used in marriage and family counseling can be different. For instance, counselors will sometimes handle family therapy in different ways than they would couples or marital therapy. Both family and marriage c...
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).
Nichols, M. P. (2011). The essentials of family therapy. Boston, Ma.: Allyn and Bacon. (Original work published 5th)