Theories of Family Therapy Final – Flashcards

This kind of family therapist minimizes theory as a therapeutic obstacle:

This kind of family therapist believes a non-rational therapeutic experience produces change and growth, and unblocks family interaction:

This kind of family therapist is not interested in insight into the origin of problems, they believe the relationship between the family and the therapist produces change in the family members and family as a whole:

What family therapy comes from phenomenological techniques (Gestalt therapy, psychodrama, Carl Rogers) which focuses on the subjective experience of an individual's (or family's) unique life circumstances?

These are the main concepts of which family therapy? -Interventions are unique fitted to the individual client or family by a personally involved therapist -The client's goals are priority over any outcomes predetermined by the therapist (Emphasizes choice, free will, capacity for self-determination and self-fulfillment)

The following are the key methods of intervention for which form of family therapy: Confrontation to provoke self-discovery, self-disclosure by therapist models desired behavior, exercises (sculpting, family reconstruction) uncover previously unexpressed inner conflicts?

What are the different approaches to Experiential Family Therapy?

Experience, encounter, confrontation, intuition, process, growth, existence, spontaneity, action, here-and-now

What are the goals of experiential family therapy?

Simultaneous sense of togetherness and healthy separation and autonomy, genuineness, learning to express one's sense of being, building self-esteem, reliving family pain, overcoming blockages to personal growth, overcoming negative interactive patterns This is the goal of what family therapy?

What is the role of the therapist in experiential family therapy?

What are experiential family therapists critical of?

A nonverbal communication method where a family member can physically place other members in a certain place, symbolizing one's perception of the family members' differences in power or intimacy

The clinician remains neutral so the patient's transference can easily unfold

To get rid of rigid and repetitive ways of family interactions and substituting more spontaneous and flexible ways of accepting and dealing with family members' impulses This is the goal of what family therapy?

This form of therapy: -Several generations of family are included in therapeutic process -Emphasizes emotional experience and affectively engaging families -Use of self by therapist (draws on images, fantasies, personal metaphors from therapist's life)

These therapists view symptoms in a family member as emerging from and being maintained by a family structure unable to adapt to changing environmental or developmental demands. They reach their therapeutic goal when the family has restructured itself and freed its members to relate to one another in non pathological patterns.

Calls for changing its rule for dealing with one another, and that in turn involves changing the system's rigid or diffused boundaries to achieve greater boundary clarity.

-Efforts are geared to the present and are based on principle of action preceding understanding -Actively and directly challenge family's patterns of interactions, forcing members to look beyond symptoms of IP and look at all behavior in family structure -Aim to help the family change stereotyped interactive patterns and redefine relationships -For structuralists, the most effective way to alter dysfunctional behavior and eliminate symptoms is to change the family's transactional patterns that maintain them

Major pioneer/leading figure of structural family therapy

Who developed therapeutic ways to change family context rather than focusing on personality/behavioral problems?

This view for working with a family first helped popularize family therapy to many professionals and the public.

Subsystems function poorly, and boundaries between family members are too diffuse to allow individual autonomy.

This concept hypothesized that an illness can develop in a dysfunctional family, one characterized by rigidity, enmeshment, over-involvement and conflict avoidance or conflict non-resolution.

A ______________ family structure suggests that the covert rules that govern family transactions have become ineffective and require renegotiation

Changes the original meaning of an event or situation by placing it in a new context in which an equally plausible explanation is possible - relabeling the problem as a function of the family structure. The idea is to relabel what occurs in order to provide a more constructive perspective, thereby altering the way the event or situation is viewed.

How does a structuralist view working with eating disorders?

-Clarity of boundaries more important than composition of subsystems -In a well-functioning family, clear boundaries give each member a sense of "I-ness" along with a group sense of "we" or "us" -Goal is for each family member to retain his or her individuality but not at the expense of losing the feeling of belonging to a family This is the role of boundaries according to which form of therapy?

Simple observational technique graphically describing a family's organizational structure, charting the family's transactional patterns

Having the family demonstrate typical conflict situations in therapy session

Supporting one member to interfere with family homeostasis

Realigning inappropriate or outdated boundaries

The therapist's relabeling/redefining a problem as a function of the family's structure (changing original meaning of an event by placing it in a new context with new explanation)

Therapist adopts symbols from family life to use in conversation with the family

Restructuring maneuver in which the therapist first says something positive and reinforcing before opposing Example: "You're doing a good job of trying to deal with your problem"- to a substance abuser in recovery, then turning to his wife whom the husband has neglected, and asked her. "How does it feel to be without a husband this last 6 months?"

These are components of which form of therapy? -Active and straightforward interventions to reduce/eliminate presenting family problems or behavioral symptoms - Zone in on behavioral sequences that perpetuate the problem -Attend to the family's sequence of interactions and its hierarchy of interactions (Primary way of viewing a problem)

Continues between people because each participant imposes her or his own punctuation; each participant believes that what she or he says is caused by what the other person says

What form of therapy focuses on WHAT is occurring rather than WHY it's occurring?

Communicated when one person, especially someone in a powerful position, issues an injunction to another that simultaneously contains two levels of messages or demands that are logically inconsistent and contradictory.

Contradictions that follow correct deductions from consistent premises

Used therapeutically to direct an individual or family not to change in a context that carries with it the expectation of change

The person receiving the _______ have little options. They are unlikely to avoid or comment- resulting in confusion

Change the label attached to a person or problem from the negative to the positive Example: "Mom's not being overprotective; she's being helpful"

What is the goal of relabeling?

According to Carl Whitaker, what happens in therapy to patients and therapists?

The child's experience of the triad (the father, mother, and child) is the essential source of self-identity. Adult self-worth and self-esteem are derived from the positive or negative interactions in this triad; Child learns to decipher messages and discrepancies between words and nonverbals, which shape future adult communication patterns

Experiential; focuses on collaborative efforts of therapist and family members to achieve "wellness" by releasing the inherent potential that is in every family

Body parts may take on metaphoric meaning, with each having positive or negative value attached to it by its owner - clients are encouraged to become aware of these parts and learn to use them in an integrated manner

Acts weak, tentative, self-effacing, and always agrees, apologizes, and tried to please

Dominates, always finds fault with others, self-righteously accuses

Adopts a rigid stance, remains detached, robot-like, calm, cool, maintains intellectual control and makes sure they don't get emotionally involved

Distracts other sand seems unable to relate to anything going on, afraid to offend or hurt others by taking a position on an issue

The only one who seems real, genuinely expressive, sending clear messages in their appropriate contex

Theoretical grounding for EFT:

What is the main characteristic of the strategic approach?

Extended the early MRI model into a postmodern paradigm; The focus shifted from observation of interactive sequences and patterns TOWARDS questioning family belief system

What techniques from Minuchin's approach to family therapy can act as a summary of the overall structural approach to therapy?

Therapist induces a crisis and anxiety into the family system to force a sense of immediacy to overcome inertia.

Therapist encourages family members to deal directly with each other in session, thus permitting the therapist to observe and modify their interactions.

Therapist maintains a situation (through the enactment) of prolonged intense affect, repeated interventions, and pressure.

Impermeable barriers between subsystems, separate and distinct generational hierarchy

Excessively blurred and indistinct, easily intruded upon by other family members. Parents are too accessible, and may hover or invade children's privacy

The following are qualities of _________ families. The family's lack of differentiation between subsystems makes separation from the family an act of betrayal. Subsystem boundaries are poorly differentiated, weak, and easily crossed. Members place too high a value on family cohesiveness, so they yield autonomy

A set of therapeutic procedures, derived from behavior therapy, that attempts to change behavior by modifying or altering faulty thought patterns or destructive self-verbalizations - modify thoughts and actions by influencing an individual's conscious patterns of thoughts

It is not the activating events (A) of people's lives that have disturbing consequences (C) but the unrealistic interpretation they give to the events or the irrational beliefs (B) about what has taken place that cause them trouble

Help the client modify thoughts, perceptions, and attributions about an event

Includes a functional analysis of inner experiences such as thoughts, attitudes, expectations, and beliefs

What are Falloon's two levels of (behavioral) assessment?

Pinpoint specific behavioral deficits underlying the problem areas that, if modified, would lead to problem resolution

Behavioral assessment of a problem in order to determine what interpersonal or environmental contingencies elicit the problematic behavior and how to extinguish or reduce its occurrence

What assessment looks like:

An intervention procedure whereby the therapist attempts to modify client thoughts, perceptions, and attributions about an event

By changing parental responses, the behavioral therapist hopes to produce a corresponding change in the child's undesired behavior. This technique can be used to effectively to let the child calm down, for affect regulation, problem solving, etc.:

1.All behavior, normal and abnormal, is acquired and maintained in identical ways 2. Behavior disorders represent learned maladaptive patterns that need not presume some inferred underlying cause or unseen motive 3. Maladaptive behavior such as symptoms, is itself the disorder rather than a manifestation of a more basic underlying disorder or disease process 4. It is not essential to discover the exact situation or set of circumstances in which the disorder was learned; these circumstances are usually irretrievable anyway. Rather, the focus should be on assessing the current determinants that support and maintain the undesired behavior 5. Maladaptive behavior, having been learned, can be extinguished and replaced by new learned behavior patterns 6. Treatment involves the application of the experimental findings of scientific psychology, with an emphasis on developing a methodology that is precisely specified, objectively evaluated, and easily replicated 7. Assessment is an ongoing part of treatment, as the effectiveness of treatment is continuously evaluated and specific intervention techniques are individually tailored to specific problems 8. Behavioral therapy concentrates on "here and now" problems, rather than uncovering or attempting to reconstruct the past. The therapist is interested in helping the client identify and change current environmental stimuli that reinforce the undesired behavior in order to alter the client's behavior 9. Treatment outcomes are evaluated in terms of measureable changes 10. Research on specific therapeutic techniques is continuously carried out by behavioral therapists

Relatively stable cognitive structures involving underlying core beliefs a person develops about the world

Functional family therapists believe...

Believes family relationships, cognitions, emotions, and interactive behavior are all seen as mutually influencing one another (systems perspective)

Internalized perceptions involuntarily generated by an individual. These impressions may be triggered by becoming aware of a situation or circumstance, may develop quickly, and are not subject to detailed inquiry or logical examination.

Focuses on the subjective perceptions of the truth or reality that the client(s) present individually; believe that multiple views of reality exist and the absolute truth can never be known.

A postmodern procedure for gaining meaning by reexamining assumptions previously taken for granted, in the service of constructing new ad unencumbered meanings.

The belief that an individual's knowledge of reality results from his or her subjective perceiving and subsequent constructing or inventing of the world rather than resulting from how the world objectively exists

As experiences change, the language we use to describe and understand those changes will evolve too

What we call reality is not an exact replica of what is out there, but is invented through language; we construct our realities as we live them

When a postmodern therapist leaves the role of outsider, observes and joins as a partaker, the therapist must exhibit these traits:

Sensitive reciprocal adjustments with clients to achieve goals

Sustained focus on exploring new ideas with clients, a commitment to sustained negotiation of meaning

Is at the forefront of today's theory and practice of family therapy, signifying that our knowledge of reality is organized and maintained through stories we tell about ourselves and the world we inhabit.

Narrative therapists consider themselves...

Still influential, but not at the center of what transpires therapeutically

What do narrative therapist's believe?

The following statements are true about narrative therapists:

What is the common goal of narrative therapy?