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Essays on structural family therapy and its functions
Essays on structural family therapy and its functions
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Salvador Minuchin is the individual that is notably recognized as it pertains to the structural family therapy. Salvador Minuchin was born in born 1921 born and raised in San Salvador, Entre Ríos, Argentina. Minuchin was a family therapist who developed structural family therapy. Minuchin began his studies in 1944 as a medical student in Argentina and graduated and began his residency in 1946 working with children in pediatrics. Minuchin relocated to Israel in 1948 to work as a physician to work with Jewish soldier’s who had survived the holocaust. In 1950 Minuchin relocated to the United States and resided in New York City where he began working as a resident with children that were deemed to be psychotic. Becvar and Becvar (2013)
noted, “Minuchin was the director of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic from 1965 until 1976, having taken charge of training there. Minuchin eventually developed a form of family therapy with a few of his collogues that would prove to be effective and stand in a class of its own. “The method that would be soon created involved Minuchin and another psychiatrist performing a therapy session with a family while the other psychiatrists viewed the session through a one-way mirror” (Nichols, 2010). This technique allowed both parties to observe each other’s work which would ultimately allow the therapists to learn techniques from one another and this technique led Minuchin to develop what is now known as structural family therapy. “In 1962, once Minuchin had generated his theoretical formulations for family structure, he travelled to Palo Alto to work with Jay Haley. Minuchin's work at the Miltwyck School led to his first book, Families of the Slums (1967), which outlined his theoretical model of family therapy” (Nichols, 2010).
Structural family therapy (SFT) emphasizes the idea that a system is only as good as its hierarchies, rules and boundaries. Under SFT, a family system functions by having boundaries, between and within each subsystem that offer clear identification with the hierarchy. Hierarchies determine the rules that govern each subsystem explicitly; therefore, SFT argues that hierarchies are necessary to ensure that the system continues to grow and adapt as well as provide structure for the family. SFT maintains that there are three primary subsystems in a family, parental, spousal and sibling. According to SFT, the rules and subsystem also determine the appropriate boundary that is needed when interacting with
The Bowen approach to therapy is very different to that of other family therapies. It is centralized around the importance of family emotional systems and the history of the system, which can be traced through the family dynamics of the parents and grandparent’s families (Sharf, 2012). One of the main aims of Bowen therapy is to reduce anxiety or stress by minimizing conflict, which can be a result of conflicting relations within the family system (Ticho, 1972, Rivett and Street 2009). This essay is going to examine how Bowen hopes to achieve these goals through a critical examination of his account of change during the process of therapy. This will be done through an examination of the role of the therapist in the change, Bowen’s wider concepts and within these the operationalization of specific techniques. It will also examine Bowen’s attention to culture, suggesting that within the emotional system the role of culture is given less significance (Friedman 1991). The essay will then illustrate the effectiveness of the Bowen approach in producing change in a client; this will be done through a literary review of the research.
Kleinman, A. 1980. Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture: An Exploration of the Borderland between Anthropology, Medicine, and Psychiatry. University of California Press.
Fonagy, P. (1999). Relation of theory and practice in psychodynamic therapy. Journal Of Clinical Child Psychology, 28(4), 513--520.
Melanie Klein was born in Vienna, Austria in 1882 on March 30th. She began being interested in psychoanalysis between 1910 -1919. She is said to be a pioneer of child analysis and early development. Melanie started working as a psychoanalyst around the time of World War I. In 1910 Klein and her family, which included a husband, and two children, (a daughter, and a son) moved to Budapest. In 1912 she became a member of the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Society, and started her analytic training with Sandor Fereczi. She later moved to Berlin and started working with Karl Abraham from 1924-1925. Although she spent more time with Fereczi than Abraham, her work with Abraham is considered more important to her work. (Juliet Mitchell, Selected Melanie Klein Pg. 9-10)
Conflicts within relationships are inevitable and some conflict can help strengthen a relationship; however, in marriages and families, many people fail to work through their conflict, which results in unhealthy patterns of behavior. Over time, if left unresolved, these patterns of behavior can lead to a breaking of the relationship. Furthermore, most people do not set out seeking conflict within relationships, but rather they lack the emotional maturity to move through conflict. In fact, it is not the differences between the two parties that create the conflict, but rather the emotional reaction to their differences. Therefore, an intervention is required to begin the healing process of working through conflict. Often a pastor or counselor
Cloe Madanes once said psychotherapy is the art of finding the angel of hope in the midst of terror, despair and madness.
In our society families are the foundation of all human relationships. Therefore learning to maintain and develop healthy families are the goals of family therapist. Counselors can use the Structural Family Therapy approach in counseling hurting families. The pioneer of structural family therapy is Salvador Minuchin (Hammond & Nichols, 2014).
Another way that I could also intervene is through family therapy. I believe that William’s family could also benefit from family therapy being that they are experiencing a stressful situation. William’s behavior has caused conflict between members of the family. Therefore, with using family therapy, the family could learn to establish healthy boundaries, improve functioning, change negative patterns of interaction, and build positive relationships (Alessi & Cullinan, 2017). Implementing family therapy would also help family members join to assist in bettering William’s behavior. Even though family therapy would be ideal, I believe that to incorporate the family each member of the family would need help in thinking and behaving more adaptively so that the family environment is more stable.
Divorce is and has become a major issue in our society, the reason for that has been attributed to the drastic increase in divorce rates over the years. Divorce often disrupts the flow of the family structure, increases discord, and affects how family issues are handled. Families dealing with divorce are often times in a state of complete confusion and disorder, and filled with frustration, anger, and pain. Power struggles between spouses, which often times spread to the children if there any increase as the addiction worsens. There is a growing concernment among those in different fields like Social Work, Academia, and Mental Health in the United States, other countries, who have taken an interest in how divorce is readjusting
Braverman, S. (1986). Heinz Kohut And Virginia Satir: Strange Bedfellows?. Contemporary Family Therapy, 8(2), 101-110.
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.
“There is no way, I believe, to do the work of therapy, which is, when all is said and done, the work of relationship, without finding your self in the patient and the patient’s self in you.” (xii) Dr. Slater believes the basis of therapy is connection between the therapist and the patient. Dr. Lauren Slater is a psychologist who works in a clinic for schizophrenic men, and over the course of her book, Welcome to my Country, we hear about a few of her patients as well as herself. Slater’s empathy allows her to connect with her patients and helps her find ways to help them handle their pain.
The concept of Adlerian family therapy was theorized by Alfred Adler and is one of the first psychiatrists to embark on family therapy. The principle of Adlerian family therapy is an individual and social system is holistic and inseparable in nature, behavior is interactive and with a purpose and the individual seeks meaning by acceptance in a social system. A family is generally the social system which an individual seeks acceptance. A principle of Adlerian family therapy is subjective, each person generates their own meaning from their experiences. The life roles and life meaning is greatly influenced by family environment, which individuals form their own private logic or their view of the world. The family problems can be related to faulty private logic and discouragement within the family. Adlerian family therapy incorporates the additional concept, parents and children tend to get locked into negative interactions which are repetitive and grounded on mistaken goals, resulting in motivation for family members. The key theories of Adlerian family therapy is family atmosphere, family constellation, and mistaken goals.
According to Monica McGoldrick, “A genogram should always be part of a more general process of joining, assessing and helping a family (McGoldrick, 1999).” Although I feel it really should depend of the presenting issues of the family, there is a great deal of merit to its use. Genograms allow for the “Tracking [of] critical events and changes on family functioning allows us to notice anniversary reactions,” or most importantly in Jared’s case “systemic connected between seeming coincidences…its resources and vulnerability to future stresses…” (McGoldrick, 1999). Simply making mental notes while Jared’s aunt was speaking, and eventually putting those notes to paper, both Kassi, his intake counselor and I, realized the issues surrounding Jared’s unbecoming behavior began five years ago. Five years ago can be interpreted as time full of change, difficult change, for Jared. It was around this time that his aunt had moved into the household and the torch that symbolized his parenting moved from his grandmother to his aunt. His aunt moved in because not only was her father sick, but her mother could no longer take care of her husband because she also became sick. She was