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Strengths and weaknesses of family therapy
Strengths and weaknesses of family therapy
Strengths and weaknesses of family therapy
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The theory that I would use is called the Human Validation Process Model. My family suffered a great deal and most it was in silence, some of them died before any help could be available for them. As much trouble this family has experience with racism, I think trusting a family therapist will be impossible for the older adults. According to Bitter (2014), Satir’s human validation process stresses enhancement and validation of self-esteem, family rules, congruence versus defensive communication patterns, sculpting, nurturing triads, and family mapping, and family life-fact chronologies. What I would like to know about my grandparents and my parents is how society made them feel and what kind of effect did this have on the family unit from one generation to the next. I chose this theory because so much has happened in this family prematurely, such as: my parents divorced only five years into the marriage. One of my uncles suffered from gambling addiction, which led to him and family being homeless. Another one …show more content…
I find it heartbreaking that some of the things that my family has gone through could have been managed with the right interventions. After viewing the videos and readings the materials and doing the discussions, there is hope for all type of situations that families have problems with, but one has to be willing. In this profession, my hopes are to gain the knowledge that is needed to bring families to the helping process because they want to see change and have a better connection within their families. I am a stronger individual who feels confident about working with the Hispanics culture and any other culture as well. African Americans, as well as Hispanics may fear the thought seeking family therapy or other professional help, but if a situation call for family therapy, my suggestion to the client(s) would be that help begins with
With the growing population of minorities in the United States, it is reasonable to believe that at some point in a counselor or therapist career, there will be a session with a Latino/Hispanic client. From a cultural competence perspective, it is imperative that a counselor understands the Latino/Hispanic culture and their worldviews. Counseling Latinos offer to be discussed in the paper is the case of an Alberto and Angela a Mexican American couple married for 27 years. Alberto has recently lost his job. (
As a therapist, there are several different elements to be reviewed. The first step requires acknowledgement of both the times and the dynamics of the family. The setting is between the years 1989-1998. As stated above, this is an African-American family that lives in an urban town in Mississippi. In some African-American families important things are not always discussed. It is as if the method of dealing with an issue, is actually not addressing the matter at all. This creates a heavy elephant in the room. I believe that is a coping method for the family. If the family were to address the issues at hand, it would require someone or several people to admit fault. Admitting fault in some families, can be worse that not acknowledging the problem. A therapist would have more success with the client if they take these factors into
Firstly, I plan to explore how race has influenced my life. My mother is of Hispanic, and Irish decent whereas my father is of African decent. One of my earliest experiences with racism came from my mother’s side of the family. My grandmother would often say awful things about my dad to my brother and me when we visited and my parents were not around. She never hid how she felt about my parent’s relationship from us. My grandmother was opposed to my mother’s relationship with my father solely because he was, according to her, a “nigger” and of a different ethnic background and was not good enough for her daughter and that my mother was bringing shame to the family. My grandmother never accepted us whole-heartedly as her grandchildren compared to how she treated our other cousins simply because of their race and their complexion because they looked more like her side of the family than we did.
Allison showed lack of awareness about Carmen’s cultural values. Allison should seek training about counseling Latinos. Allison’s practicum is in an agency located in a predominately Latino neighborhood. Carmen might not return to counseling with Allison, but Allison is likely to have another Latino client. Thus, receiving appropriate training about counseling Latinos would prepare Allison for future clients that she would encounter. The four dimensions of training that Corey et al. (2011) recommended are: self-exploration, didactic course work, internship, and experiential approaches (p. 145). There are various options that Allison has to educate herself around providing effective and ethically appropriate counseling with Latinos.
It is important to include cultural issues in the helping process to be more effective. We also need cultural competence because the U.S. is becoming more diverse. Therefore with diversity comes different beliefs, norms, and values. Eurocentric values dominate sciences and began cultural universals which puts the clash of dominate and non-dominate cultural behaviors in motion. In 1996 the NASW Code of Ethics increased the recognition of cultural competence. It is important to know diversity exist within ethnic and cultural groups because social workers need to know that relationships between helping professionals and clients may be strained. This happens because of the distrust between groups. Another important aspect is that the professional realizes their own values, biases, and beliefs. The reason for this is because they must value diversity to start with and understand the dynamics of difference. Culturally competent practitioners have to go through developmental process of using their own culture as a starting point to meet all behaviors. Striving for cultural competence is a long term process of development. The literature on cultural competence is theoretical and conceptual. They have not been evaluated in a systematic way. Roughly there are 2 million Native americans in the U.S. Which survive decimating disease, over-repressed in child welfare system, suffer from health problems, and are among the poorest people in the United States. Working with them clearly falls within the social work clearly mandate to serve vulnerable and oppressed clients. However, we do not know how many people from this group is actually receiving help from social workers. Even though it is important to train social workers to provide care in th...
I wanted to wear brand clothes/shoes they did, I wanted to do my hair like them, and make good grades like them. I wanted to fit in. My cultural identify took a back seat. But it was not long before I felt black and white did not mix. I must have heard too many comments asking to speak Haitian or I do not look Haitian, but more than that, I am black, so I always had to answer question about my hair or why my nose is big, and that I talked white. This feeling carried on to high school because the questions never went away and the distance between me and them grew larger. There was not much action my family could take for those moments in my life, but shared their encounters or conversations to show me I was not alone in dealing with people of other background. I surrounded myself with less white people and more people of color and today, not much has
As Kirst-Ashman and Hull Jr (2012, pp. 453-454) reminds us, “the family is central to Hispanic culture and is hierarchical in structure. That is the father is the primary authority figure (Devore & Schlesinger, 1996). Furthermore, scholars inform us that many Hispanic fathers appear somewhat aloof from the family, especially the children as it is the father’s role to pursue instrumental roles such as earning a living. Often, this results in the father being less likely to express emotional support (Kirst-Ashman & Hull Jr., p. 454). Understanding these concepts of the Hernandez family culture as well as asking questions about their family members depicted on the genogram can aid me to become more informed. This can be a very positive step in the right direction in building a relationship of mutual respect and trust as in our respective roles as client and social work professional enhancing our ability to work together to determine the best intervention
Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) in particular, has been found to be useful in helping to improve family functioning for those who are at risk for substance abuse. According to these researchers, BSFT is rooted in Structural Family Therapy, which was developed by Salvador Minuchin. They state that this approach was developed to help urban minority families living in poverty, and that it operates on the assumption that the therapy will be brief, provides flexibility in its use, and the major goal is to change the family system (e.g. based on the specific needs of the family). There are three major components of BSFT, which include: joining, family pattern diagnosis, and restructuring. In the study conducted by Santisteban et al (1997), African American and Hispanic American youth ages 12 to 14 and their parents participated in a BFST intervention program. The youth were given both pre-tests and post-tests to measure their behavior problems, conduct, anxiety, family functioning, and substance use. The researchers found that BFST was effective in improving conduct disorder, socialized aggression, as well as overall family functioning. They also found each of these factors were predictive of the likelihood of substance abuse initiation in the future (Santisteban et al,
At times my personal and professional values seem to conflict with one another because of my culture and the environment from which I come from into the social work profession. For example, the stigma in the black community is in keep personal issues within the family and not to seek counsel. However, (FRC) promotes talking, action, and working through difficult situations; with trained professionals and educators to gather a perspective outside and in conjunction of one 's inner circle. With the hopes of encouraging clients to heal from past wombs, grow and evolve into the people they want to be and have the ability to exhibit healthy interactions in their personal and professional lives. Therefore through my training up to this point, I have begun to understand how important therapy and education is to the healing process for these individuals and their families. So from my professional perspective to hold things in and not seek treatment is only temporarily coping
The ten leading causes of death among the Hispanic American population are mostly in line with the ten leading causes of death among all Americans. It is more surprising what causes from the American list are missing from the Hispanic American list – stroke, Alzheimer's Disease, and suicide (Centers For Disease Control And Prevention, 2009, 2010). Considering that sixty percent of deaths in the United States are attributable to behavioral factors, circumstances in one's social system, and what and who a person is exposed to in their environment (Nash, Reifsnyder, Fabius, & Pracilio, 2011), it is evident that health care providers must investigate these aspects in order to provide quality care. Recognizing the importance of providing culturally appropriate care, I attempted to determine if there were reasons for what I knew about the Hispanic culture and to discover what things I did not know. I performed a transcultural assessment on Elizabeth, a young Hispanic American female, keeping in mind that caring for a Hispanic American patient calls for developing a trusting relationship through awareness and understanding. In the clinical setting this can be accomplished by starting conversations with small talk and remembering that because a Hispanic person seems agreeable to a treatment plan does not necessarily mean they understand or will comply (Giger, 2013).
The 15-Minute Family Interview includes the five key steps of applying good manners, setting up a therapeutic conversation with a family, completing a genogram and ecomap, asking several therapeutic questions, and offering commendations (Wright & Leahey, 1999). Along with several components of the 15-minute interview, the Friedman Family Assessment Model explains type of family, cultural background, Religion, social class status and social class mobility. The genogram, ecomap and interview guide created for this assignment are included in this paper as appendix A, appendix B, and appendix C, respectively.
Moreno, C. L., & Guido, M. (2005). Social work practice with Latino Americans. In D. Lum (Ed.), Cultural competence, practice stages, and client systems (pp. 88-106). Belmont, CA: Brooks Cole.
These four perspectives of assessment involve: communication, family structure, life cycle adjustments, and the impact of the social environment on the family. Family theorist have also further expended on the interaction of family and the social environment. Throughout this paper, I will apply the four perspectives of assessment to asses my family of origin; as well as, use various family systems theories to assess my experiences with family of origin in order to develop an awareness of how my experiences affected me, and to prevent them from interfering with my ability to provide my future clients with the best possible
I grew up in a large extended family with my brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles being a significant part of my life. My parents taught me that family, related or not related, would always be there to support you. They instilled in me that family does not just consist of my blood relatives but the people I invited into my life. They also taught me what it means to be loyal and no matter what your family will always stand beside you. These are the kind of values that I want to instill in my children to become productive members of society. Growing up in a military environment helped shape my moral philosophy of respect for everyone’s culture while still understanding that there are some common principles that should be understood across cultures. My father would always say “Wrong is wrong is wrong no matter how you want to flip that bird.” I never understood that saying until I was older and realize that some things are just inherently wrong. Dealing with racism, challenged me to keep true to my values by allowing me to accept that some people believed that the races should not mix but also recognizing that that particular belief is misguided. Facing people with those types of beliefs was extremely difficult because I was fearful of how they would treat my daughter or my family. With so
Recognizing the influence of culture is an important aspect for social workers when working with diverse populations. The client is a 30-year-old single African-American (AA) single woman with a child. Culture identifies a set of values and beliefs in a community and its corresponding worldview. As the AA culture has been forced to assimilate into the dominant culture, their own culture has been slowly forgotten. The client has deep roots to her ancestors and has mainstreamed into a new dimension. The client is reconnecting with her Baptist faith as she has lost the support from spiritual leaders. “African-Americans have developed abilities and coping mechanisms to deal with racism, and they rely on their social systems that have been perfected over the generations” (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2009, p. 187). The client represents a very diverse cultural group and the intersection of social class and gender which contributes to her oppression. The client is a single AA female with a son, living in poverty, lack of education, unemployed, with a felony charge, and receiving cash assistance from the state to support her son.