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Strengths and weaknesses of experiential family therapy
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History of experiential family therapy
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I found that Virginia Satir’s Experiential Family Therapy is the most interesting and important theory for especially youth. Family has a strong connection to youth’s mental condition. I strongly agree that Satir’s way of practice, which is “bringing the father into therapy,” and she “focused on the development of self-esteem in the family members and helped them to communicate directly and openly with each other,” is effective to the patient’s unfathomable depth. I don’t know it is a cultural difference or not, but Japanese family tend to have less communication between parents and the child than American family does. Because they assume they can understand each other without talking. However, there are many misunderstanding between them.
Therefore, the children cannot express the emotional honesty and have a depression. I saw my some friends have this kind of situation, and they distressed about the relationship with their family. Some friends who went to study abroad have more difficult situation because the long distance without constant communication make the problem much harder. I believe that family is very important not only to children’s but also adults’ mental health. Most every psychologist in the textbook had difficult childhood. They had some traumas and mental complexes. Only parents and other family members can realize the children’s mental problems because they are the closest persons for the children. Satir wrote a book named The New Peoplemaking in her last part of the life for describing the processes of nurturing families. I impressed that she worked for reducing the number of children who had mental problems in their childhoods.
As a social worker it is often complex to determine which theory to employ in practice, each client will warrant for an in-debt assessment of the presenting problem and goals the client desires to achieve. This paper will explore one family intervention model that can be applied to the Taylor family. The two theories analyzed are Cognitive Behavioral Family Theory, (CBFT) and Structural Family Theory (SFT); both theories can be utilized when assisting individuals or families. The social worker will focus on the Cognitive Behavioral Family Therapy model when applying treatment and interventions to the Taylor family case.
Gladding, S. T. (2010). Family therapy: History, theory, and practice (5th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson
They believed people were alienated from their emotions, they favored spontaneity versus theory, and they used co-therapy because they believed the presence of a co-therapist improved objectivity.
Nichols, M. P. (2010). Family therapy concepts and methods (9 ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Gladding, S. T. (2010). Ch9.Family therapy: History, theory, and practice (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Chapter 9, “Psychodynamic and Bowen Family Therapies”
Rosa and Miguel are experiencing relationship problems due to developmental and financial stressors. This has created a turbulent home environment. Miguel’s verbal abuse and open hostility has Rosa emotionally overwhelmed. He is not physically abusive; however, his anger is upsetting the household. The children are also displaying emotional and physical stress related symptoms. Rosa and Miguel come from emotionally unstable homes, which has impacted their ability to communicate and manage their emotions. Due their inability to communicate in a productive manner, they have sought help to resolve their problems. Both have expressed the concern that they are repeating the harmful behavior they experienced as children. They
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
Cloe Madanes once said psychotherapy is the art of finding the angel of hope in the midst of terror, despair and madness.
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
Banner, J. (1986). Virginia Satir's family therapy model. Individual Psychology: Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice, 42(4), 480-494.
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.
Roger and Tina come to therapy without their children. From an experiential therapist standpoint, the best method at this point would be to have Roger and Tina engage in emotionally focused couple’s therapy to help uncover the negative feelings they each feel toward one another. In heated moments, it is important for the therapist to intervene in the discussion and to reflect on what Roger and Tina are feeling. This will help defuse the situation and the therapist can help guide them to focus on their experience, rather than on what the other is doing wrong (Nichols, 2013). This is important so that the therapist can build a collaborative and effective bond with both parties (Swank, 2013). Discussion of specific issues in their relationship
Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) is a family therapy intervention mainly for children and adolescents between the ages of 6 to 18 years. The therapy is meant for children who exhibit behavioral problems but not limited to substance abuse, bullying, truancy, and other youth high-risk factors. The fundamental assumption of this theory is that the essentials for adaptive family interactions can play a central role in protecting children from negative influences. And that many maladaptive family interactions do play a role and can contribute to the evolution of behavior problems in young children and adolescents. BSFT approach was influenced by Jay Haley and Madanes. Jay Haley was also known to be a pioneer in family therapy. Before brief
Bitter (2009), wrote “structural family therapy is an approach to understanding the nature of the family, the presenting problem, and the process of change” (p.238). Structural family therapy seems to very straight forward unlike some of the other theories. A family comes into therapy and the therapist work on understanding the problem and figure out a way for change to occur. This therapy focuses on family structure, family subsystems and boundaries. A family structure is how the family function, the rule that they follow and how they relate to one another. I grew up in a very structure household govern by rules that we had to follow in and outside the home. My family related to each other very well because we had effective communication.
The goal for this treatment is to involve the family in coming up with solutions for the student. Therapy that includes parents is an effective, essential part of treatment for children with depression. (APA, 2005). This can be a very effective method if family members actively participate during the therapy sessions. However, issues may arise if the family is reluctant to participate in family therapy especially because there is a misunderstanding that family therapy is about blaming parents. However, family therapy helps families come up with different interventions that can help the child. In order to avoid these issues, clear and effective communication is essential to ensure parents do not feel blamed for the student’s behaviors. Lee & Bax (2000) explained that following parents’ separation, children may regress, display anxiety and depressive symptoms, appear more irritable, demanding and noncompliant, and experience problems in social relationships and school performance. It’s important for students and parents to be educated about parental separation/divorce in order to help the student cope with the range of emotions and