The Structural Model Of Family Therapy

Family therapy is a branch of psychotherapy which involves working with family and couples in order to facilitate positive change and development. Family therapy emphasizes the role of family relationships on psychological health. There are various schools of thought in family therapy but they all agree that irrespective of the origin of the problem and notwithstanding if the clients consider the problem a family-related one, family therapy can often prove quite beneficial to the clients. Modern family therapy expands the definition of family to include not only parents and children but all the people who have forged long term roles and relationships and may not necessarily share any relationship by blood or marriage (1).
Family therapy uses

It is a model that encompasses theory and techniques which approach individuals in terms of their social and relational contexts. It was developed in order to aid in therapy of families and younger people. One of the cornerstones of this theory is conflict and distress within families can be understood not only in terms of the relationships within which distress happens but in also acknowledging that it is these very relationships that are potentially causing the distress. This model places a large emphasis on the way family members interact and mentions that communication is a lot more than what is said and the manner in which it is said.
As mentioned before, structural family therapy is mainly attributed to Salvador Minuchin though many other influential thinkers such as Lynn Hoffman (3), Marianne Walters (4), Braulio Montalvo (5) to name of few have contributed to the theory. While many core concepts such as family rules, roles, coalitions, organization, feedback etc. are borrowed from established family therapy models, what makes this model different is that a structural family therapist will view and formulate the difficulties that a family is facing in terms of the structure of the family and its dynamic

The solution-focused therapy model was developed in an inductive fashion rather than by deduction. de Shazer and others dedicated innumerable hours observing live and recorded therapy sessions at the Milwaukee center and made note of any behavioral or verbal interactions which resulted in positive therapeutic change in the lives of their clients. Unlike traditional approaches in psychotherapy wherein it is common practice to unearth and analyze the past history of clients in order to develop any sort of solutions, Solution-focused therapists view the process of therapeutic change in a very different way. In de Shazer’s own words although the "causes of problems may be extremely complex, their solutions do not necessarily need to