Our first session with the Smith family was very informative. The first 20 minutes of the session were the most noteworthy because of our effectiveness joining with the family and the depth of information we gained. This achievement is due, in part, to having all four of the Smith’s participate in the session. Pinsof (as cited in Sprenkle, Davis, & Lebow, 2014) believes that having the entire family involved in the therapy sessions from the beginning gives the therapist a clearer understanding of the system and “a more accurate understanding of the problem maintenance structure” (p.39). As the Smith family entered the therapy room, Regina’s tension was evident before the session officially began. As they were about to sit down, she quickly moved between George and Rob. During the session, I observed George making faces, rolling his eyes, and whisper comments to Rob. Rob would respond by making jokes about hurting George or threatening physical gestures; punching his fist into the palm of his other hand or moving a finger across his throat in a slashing motion. Afterward Rob would smile at Theresa and me and shrug his shoulders but George would act as though he hadn’t participated in the exchange. Regina and Kevin did not acknowledge George's behavior but would sigh or frown at Rob’s. This interaction would not have been observed if the entire family hadn’t attended. The session began with a brief introduction of everyone in the room which was followed by an ice breaker activity. During a previous classroom demonstration, markers were used as an ice breaker with a young family (D. Baker, personal communication, March 18, 2014). It was a simple action that created a connection so I adopted the practice. According to Patterson, ... ... middle of paper ... ...: Race, culture, and gender in clinical practice (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: Guildford Press. Patterson, J., Williams, L., Edwards, T. M., Chamow, L., Grauf-Grounds, C. (2009). Essential skills in family therapy (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Strengthening Families, (2014). Mormon.org. Retrieved from: http://www.mormon.org/values/family. Sprenkle, J., Davis, S. D., Lebow, J. L. (2009). Common factors in couple and family therapy: The overlooked foundation for effective practice. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Taibbi, R. (2007). Doing family therapy: Craft and creativity in clinical practice (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Walsh, F. (2008). Spirituality, healing, and resilience. In M. McGoldrick and K. V. Hardy (Ed.), Re-visioning family therapy: Race, culture, and gender in clinical practice (2nd Ed.) (pp. 61-75). New York, NY: Guildford Press.
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.
Hays, P. A. (2008). Addressing cultural complexities in practice: Assessment, diagnosis, and therapy (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
McClimens, A., Brewster, J., & Lewis, R. (2014). Recognising and respecting patients ' cultural diversity. Nursing Standard (2014+), 28(28), 45.
Szapocznik, J., Schwartz, S. J., Muir, J. A., & Brown, C. H. (2012). Brief strategic family therapy. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 1(2), 134–145.
While having a conversation with the mother, Harlene made the client feel safe and that her feelings of inadequacy were valid and not strange. This allowed the client to lead the dialogical process, which helped the client to express what she wanted the therapist to
Race and ethnicity can influence a client’s experience of self and others in a variety of ways. A client’s personal race and ethnicity can influence his or her experience within the context of therapy through the set of beliefs he or she brings into the room. This set of beliefs and customs influences how he or she views therapy and whether there is motivation to be there. If the client’s culture does not usually seek therapy for their problems, or even believe in mental illness, it is likely the client will have apprehensions about trusting or speaking to the clinician. If the clinician is not aware of this possibility, the clinician may wonder why the client is in therapy if he or she will not speak or allow rapport to be built. A responsible clinician will take this into consideration.
Structural Family therapy focus is to reform the family so that there are limits between parents and progenies, while the parents are reassuring of each other and their children. In achieving this the therapist has observed firsthand
Nichols, M. & Schwartz, R. (2008). Family Therapy: Concepts and methods (8th Ed). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
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
Structural family therapist have exemplified within the context relational therapies that uncovers stressors in relationship between individuals (Vetere, 2001). Structural family therapy has been known to be called “interventive approach” because of the “intensity” to encourage clients to change (Hammond & Nichols, 2014).
Nichols, M. P. (2011). The essentials of family therapy. Boston, Ma.: Allyn and Bacon. (Original work published 5th)
New York, NY: Guilford Press. Gurman, A., (Ed.). Clinical Handbook of Couple Therapy (4th ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
The techniques used in marriage and family counseling can be different. For instance, counselors will sometimes handle family therapy in different ways than they would couples or marital therapy. Both family and marriage c...
Described here is one way of using storytelling with a family in therapy. The family members are invited to relax. Then they are asked to go back in time and think about a favourite toy or object from their childhood. Through some simple imagery, they are asked to think about what the toy looked like, how large/small it was, what it smelled like, where it came from, how they played with it, how they felt when they played with it, any special experiences they had with it, what happened to it, etc. etc. This activity consistently evokes memories and feelings, usually quite pleasant. Next, everyone takes turns sharing their memories of their favourite toys while the others listen. The therapist can use the storytelling to help family members understand each other and themselves better, and sometimes can relate their stories to current-day reactions and or feelings. After each family member has shared his/her story, the therapist asks them what the storytelling experience was like for them and guides them as they briefly process the activity. Sometimes sad or angry feelings can be evoked during personal storytelling, and the therapist needs to leave adequate time for the family to discuss and work through these feelings. When there are young children in the family, the therapist can invite them to tell a story about their current favourite toys. A subsequent "show and tell"
The counseling session began with the introductions where I introduced myself as the counselor and later introduced my client. This stage is important in any counseling session since it is the time of exploration and focusing according to Gerard Egan as quoted by Wright (1998) in his essay on couselling skills. It is in this session that I was able to establish rapport and trust with my client in order to come up with a working and fruitful relationship with him. During this stage I made use of skills like questioning, where I would pose a question directly to my client, sometimes I would choose to just listen to what the client wanted to speak out while in some instances I would be forced to paraphrase the question if I felt the client did not understand the question I had asked previously. There were also other times when I would reflect through silence. During such a period, I got time to study the client and the information he had given. This being a difficult area, since some clients may not be able to volunteer information to you as the counselor, I decided to assure the client of confidentiality of any information he was willing to share with me with a few exceptions which I also told him about. Being open to him about the only times the information may not be confidential was part of my building rapport and establishing trust with him. I therefore, decided to ask the client what information he wanted to share with me and lucky enough he was ready to speak to me about different issues that he was going through.