strategic family therapy
In Strategic Therapy, this technique involves telling clients to continue or exaggerate the problem behavior.
paradoxical intervention or prescribing the problem
Structural therapists use this in-session technique to observe and modify real-time family interactions.
What is enactment?
This concept refers to the ability to balance emotional and intellectual functioning in relationships.
What is differentiation of self
This general systems concept describes a family’s tendency to resist change and maintain balance.
A therapist focusing on sibling, parental, or spousal groupings is examining these.
what are subsystems
This type of intervention is used to alter dysfunctional patterns and often includes therapist-assigned tasks.
what is a directive
This term refers to unclear or overly diffuse boundaries between family members.
what is enmeshment
This pattern forms when two family members bring in a third to reduce tension. Give an example
What is triangulation
These internal guidelines shape how family members behave and interact.
What are family rules? Give example
These invisible lines define levels of closeness and separation between individuals in a family.
what are boundaries
This is the term for the repetitive, rigid communication patterns that maintain problems in the system.
What are dysfunctional interaction patterns?
The therapist tries to strengthen this subsystem to improve authority and structure in the home.
what is parental subsystem
Bowen believed that unresolved issues from this could affect current family functioning.
what is family of origin
This term refers to the consistent behavioral expectations within a family unit.
This term refers to the consistent behavioral expectations within a family unit.
These loops promote change in the system by amplifying deviation.
what are positive feedback loops
A teenager starts staying out past curfew.
➡️ The parents respond by arguing with each other about how to handle it, undermining each other’s authority.
➡️ The teen notices the lack of unity and pushes the boundary further, staying out even later.
➡️ The conflict between the parents increases, and no consistent consequences are enforced.
➡️ The teen's behavior continues to escalate.
Strategic Family Therapists often focus on resolving this, which refers to struggles over authority and control.
what is a power struggle?
A system where family members are overly distant and disconnected is described as this.
What is disengaged?
This tool maps emotional relationships and patterns across multiple generations and is often used in Bowenian family therapy
What is a genogram
This concept suggests that a family can reach the same goal through different means.
What is equifinality
example:
Three different families each raise a child who becomes a highly responsible, independent adult — but they each get there in different ways:
Family A uses a very structured parenting style with clear rules and consistent consequences.
Family B encourages independence from a young age with minimal supervision but strong emotional support.
Family C faced financial hardship, so the child had to take on adult responsibilities early in life.
This approach views the family as more than the sum of its parts.
what is systems theory
This is the primary goal of Strategic Family Therapy, which makes it distinct from models like Bowenian or Structural Therapy that emphasize insight or restructuring family roles.
What is to resolve the presenting problem quickly by disrupting dysfunctional behavior patterns through strategic interventions?
What are some of the goals of structural family therapy (think of common terms in this model)
What is to reorganize the family structure to improve overall functioning by realigning subsystems, clarifying boundaries, and strengthening the family hierarchy.
What is the multigenerational transmission process?
This concept explains how patterns of emotional functioning, relationship dynamics, and levels of differentiation are unconsciously passed from parents to children across multiple generations.
These loops reinforce stability in the system and minimize change.
What are negative feedback loops?
example: A teenager starts staying out past curfew.
➡️ The parents respond by tightening the rules and reinforcing consequences.
➡️ The teen complies and returns to their normal routine.
➡️ The system returns to its original state of stability.
This principle of systems theory suggests that a change in one part of the family system will inevitably affect all other parts, even if indirectly.
what is interdependence?
A social worker meets with a family after their 16-year-old son is suspended for fighting. The parents report frequent arguments over how to discipline him, and the mother says he only listens to her. The father has started withdrawing from parenting decisions. The social worker wants to use a Strategic Family Therapy approach. What is the BEST intervention for the social worker to consider?
A. Explore the father's family of origin to identify patterns of emotional withdrawal
B. Encourage the parents to allow natural consequences for the son's behavior
C. Assign a task that instructs the parents to switch parenting roles for one week
D. Ask the son to journal his feelings about the conflict with his parents
A family presents for therapy due to a 10-year-old child’s behavioral issues at school. The mother is highly involved in the child’s daily routines, while the father is emotionally distant and minimally engaged. The child frequently interrupts adult conversations and refuses to follow directions. A social worker using a Structural Family Therapy approach would be MOST focused on:
A. Teaching the child emotional regulation skills
B. Helping the parents develop insight into their parenting styles
C. Strengthening the parental subsystem and establishing clear boundaries
D. Exploring past trauma that may be affecting family interactions
A woman seeks therapy due to chronic anxiety and conflict with her teenage daughter. She describes feeling overwhelmed and says her daughter reminds her of her own critical mother. The woman is estranged from her parents but wants to “break the cycle.” What intervention would a Bowenian-oriented social worker MOST likely use?
A. Explore the mother's relationship history to identify past trauma
B. Coach the woman in creating a genogram and exploring patterns across generations
C. Conduct in vivo role plays between the woman and her daughter in session
D. Provide assertiveness training to help the mother set firmer boundaries
A couple brings their 7-year-old son to therapy, reporting he’s become withdrawn and anxious since the birth of his baby sister. The social worker notices the child often acts out when his parents focus on the baby. Using a Family Systems lens, what should the social worker consider as the MOST likely explanation?
A. The child is experiencing sibling rivalry due to jealousy
B. The family system is adjusting and the child's behavior serves a regulatory function
C. The child has developed an adjustment disorder following the birth of a sibling
D. The parents are failing to meet the emotional needs of both children equally
During a family session, a teenager begins acting out while her parents are discussing their marital problems. The therapist suspects the daughter is being pulled into the parents' conflict to relieve tension. Which systems theory concept BEST explains this dynamic?
A. Parentification
B. Emotional cutoff
C. Triangulation
D. Enmeshment