Family Systems

Family Systems Therapy

 

 

 

What is it?

Family systems theory is more than a therapeutic technique. It is a philosophy that searches for the causes of behavior, not in the individual alone, but in the interactions among the members of a group. The basic rationale is that all parts of the family are interrelated.

 

 

Basic assumptions:

• Each family is unique, due to the infinite variations in personal characteristics and cultural and ideological styles;
• The family is an interactional system whose component parts have constantly shifting boundaries and varying degrees of resistance to change;
• Families must fulfill a variety of functions for each member, both collectively and individually, if each member is to grow and develop; and
• Families pass through developmental and nondevelopmental changes that produce varying amounts of stress affecting all members.

Adlerian Family Therapy

Alfred Adler

 

This approach is based on an educational model, emphasis on family atmosphere and family constellation.

 

Goals of Adlerian Family Therapy

• Unlock mistaken goals and interactional patterns
• Engage parents in a learning experience
• Emphasis is on the family's motivational patterns
• Initiate a reorientation of the family

Multigenerational Family Therapy

 

Murray Bowen

 

 

The family is viewed as an emotional unit. 

 

 

Goals of Multigenerational Family Therapy

• To change the individuals within the context of the system
• To end generation-to-generation transmission of problems
• To lessen anxiety and relieve symptoms
• To increase the individual member's level of differentiation

 

Human Validation Process Model

 

Virginia Satir

 

 

Enhancement and validation of self-esteem, family rules, congruence and openness in communications.

 

 

Goals of Human Calidation Process Model

• Honesty
• Differences are acknowledged
• Spoken and unspoken rules

Experiential Family Therapy

Carl Whitaker

 

Techniques are secondary to the therapeutic process, pragmatic and atheoretical

 

 

Goals of Experiential Family Therapy

• Facilitate individual autonomy and a sense of belonging in the family
• Help individual achieve more intimacy by increasing awareness
• Encourage members to be themselves,
• Support

 

 

 

Structural Family Therapy

 

Salvador Minuchin

 

Symptoms are a by-product of structural failings, structural changes must occur in the family before individuals can be reduced, techniques are active and well thought out

 

 

Goals of Structural Family Therapy

 



• Modyifying the family's transactional rules
• Developing more appropriate boundaries
• Creating an effective hierarchial structure
  

 

 

 

Strategic Family Therapy

 

Jay Haley

 

Presenting problems are "real", therapy is brief and process-focused and solution oriented, change results with the family follows direction.

 

Goals of Strategic Family Therapy

• Resolve problems by focusing on behavioral consequences
• Get people to behave differently
• Shift the family organization so that the presenting problem is no longer functional
• Move family toward the appropriate stage of family development

References:
Corey, Gerald (2012). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. 9th ed.
Belmont,California: Brooks/Cole.