Family therapy has many advantages, but should not be a blanket strategy in helping clients. In researching the purpose of family therapy, and it’s history in helping people, it has a significant place in bringing healing to both individuals and families. Nevertheless, it comes with its own set of risks and issues. In this discussion, the purpose is to work through some of the general advantages and disadvantages of using family therapy, while also looking at the experience needed and role of a counselor in family therapy. Finally, we will discuss the potential challenges I will face in doing family therapy.
To begin with, one of the primary advantages of family therapy is its ability to help deal with not only an individual’s issue, but the environment which may be creating or sustaining this issues. Alfred Adler talks about a propensity for external forces to significantly impact a person’s personality (Neukrug, 2016). If thoughtfully considered, this makes sense. Every person seems to be informed in a significant way by his or her surroundings. People born into a hard working family would seem to grow up with a tendency to work harder, because this was modeled for them. Moreover, a person born into a neglectful home would grow up with certain issues and tendencies because of this upbringing. Family therapy appears to help in addressing one of the most significant environments which form human beings. In family therapy, a person can find healing not only for their
The family system is founded on the notions that for change to occur in the life of an individual, the therapist must understand and work with the family as a whole. In working with the family, the therapist can understand how the individual in counseling functions within his family system and how the client’s behaviors connect to other people in the family. This theory also holds the perception that symptoms are a set of family habits and patterns passed down by generation and not a result of a psychological problem or an inability to change (Corey, 2017). Furthermore, the family system theory holds the idea that when a change occurs everyone in the unit is affected by the change.
Gladding, S. T. (2010). Family therapy: History, theory, and practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.
This paper evaluates the Structural Family Therapy model and its impact on the Emotionally Focused Therapy by Sue Johnson. This paper will discuss the concepts of therapy utilized within the Structural Family Therapy model and how Sue Johnson utilized many of its methods when constructing Emotionally Focused Therapy model. The history of family therapy will be evaluated and the goals of family therapy. Research has proven that due to these clinical practices, families and couples are allowed to evolved issues in which they face into healthy relationships by evaluating patterns in behaviors and past events in their lives. Therapy focuses on the correction of the dysfunctional family as a cohesive unit and does not place focus on the individual. Therefore we find the psychotherapy as a family unit deems to be more effective than previous practices of an isolated session with only the patient and therapist.
Family therapy is a form of psychotherapy employed to assist members of a family in improving communication systems, conflict resolution, and to help the family to deal with certain problems that manifest in the behavior of members. In most cases, deviance in a family member is an indication of underlying family dysfunctions. This paper looks the counselling procedure that can be applied to help the Kline family solve their problems. It answers certain questions including those of the expected challenges during therapy and ways of dealing with the challenges.
Marriage and family therapists believe that the family patterns may affect an individual’s psychological and physical well being and therefore need to be part of therapy. During a therapy session even if only one person is being interviewed, the therapists focuses on a set of relationships that the person is embedded in. The entire family is involved in solving clients problems regardless of whether the issue in individual or family.
My first assumption of family therapy was to involve the parents and the individual that had the problem. This book explored further what it
Family therapy is a technique that has many alternative approaches to every aspect of treatment which Nichols (2014), states may present a challenge when describing a basic technique. The two models of family therapy in which I feel that I would be most effective and comfortable with would be, experiential family therapy and solution-focused brief therapy. I feel most comfortable with these models because, I adapt to the role of the therapist of both therapies naturally. According to Nichols (2014), when families seek therapy they are stuck in a life-cycle transition, sometimes they are obvious and sometimes they are not obvious. I’ve found that during the first session an excellent question is to ask the client why now so that they can
The family is made up of five people: Claudia, the IP; Carolyn, mother; Laura, the sister; Don, the brother; and David, the father. The family is coming into therapy because there have been mounting concerns about Claudia and her behavior—acting out, staying out late, some fairly typical teenage stuff. For the purpose of this paper, I will be starting at the beginning where the family is first coming into therapy. I will first school that I will apply is Structural Family Therapy and the second school is Bowen Family Therapy.
The purpose of this paper is to prepare an annotated bibliography on family therapy with emphasis on ethnicity and sociocultural influences on the problems of communication. This research includes twelve resources on authors with the following annotations: Delineation of the main focus or purpose of each author 's work; Background and credibility of each author; Intended audience for the work; Any unique feature of the work; Theoretical understandings; Family therapy strategies or techniques; and a Conclusion or observations presented in the work.
therapy aims to improve family relations, and the family is encouraged to become a type of
1. Kelly`s use seems to fall within the problem stage of habitual use. From the information gathered it is clear that she is using on a regular basis as she has reported using THC 1-2 times daily, socially after school and on weekends. Other signs that point to Kelly being an habitual user are that she uses THC for the specific purpose of soothing herself before bed. The Fact that Kelly schools concern about her continual use of THC shows that she may have begun to develop psychological dependency. The final indication that Kelly is in fact in the stage of habitual use is the negative consequence she has had at school (low attendance at school, expulsion and at home (damaging her relationship with her mother) as a result of her use of substances.
A main key concept of NT is that the problem a client presents with is viewed separate from the client. The problem is not the person; it is something the person has. Therefore, the goal of NT is to change the effects resulting from the problem and not the person themselves. To do this, NT uses the technique of externalizing the problem. To externalize the problem, the problem is first given a name and then it is explored and applied to the clients believes, values, behaviors, and ideals that has formed the clients identity. The negative aspects of these areas get rewritten into the new story. The process of externalizing the problem allows the client to see their problem separate from themselves so they can better
Family systems therapy is based on the concept that individuals are best understood through evaluating the entire family. Symptoms in individuals are seen as a result in dysfunctions in their family system. The family is an interactional unit and a change in one member affects all members. Family therapists believe that an individual’s relations with family have more impact in their lives than anyone could. The family therapist uses the systemic perspective, it believes that individuals may carry a symptom from the entire family, and an individual’s functioning is an outward sign of the way a family functions.
Family systems therapy has been around for years, but it was not until the 1950s that the theory really took root (Corey, 2017). Family systems therapy looks at the relational part of humans and sees them as being an individual as apart of a bigger system. Murray Bowen, developer of family systems theory, believed that “the causes of an individual’s problems can be understood by viewing the role of the family as an emotional unit” (Corey, 2017, p. 407). As a counselor, I would like take into consideration that the client’s family impacts them as an individual. Having an understanding that any change made to any person in the family can impact the others. Families are our first form of relationships. Having a better understanding of our client’s families will be able to help me understand their current behaviors and how they function. (Corey, 2017) This paper will break down family system therapy and explain how I could use the techniques and terms into daily practice.
In current practices of psychodynamic family therapy, it leans towards integration and diversity in recognition of the limitations of any single therapeutic model (Evans, 2012). A wide variety of family therapies have arose which may be described as psycho-dynamic and there is not an opportunity to address all of them. This review will discuss experiential family therapy.