Family Therapy 21st Century
Define Postmodernism
viewing knowledge as relative and context-dependent; questions assumptions of objectivity that characterize modern science. In family therapy, challenging the idea of scientific certainty and linked to the method of deconstruction.
No absolute truth
Mulitple realities (client is the expert)
Name the founders of
Bowen, Strategic, Structural, Experiential, EFT, CBFT, SFBT, Narrative
Bowen: Murray Bowen
Strategic: Jay Haley, Haley & Madanes, Milan associates group (Palazzoli, Prata, Boscolo, & Cecchin)
Structural: Salvador Minuchin
Experiential: Carl Whitaker & Virginia Satir
EFT: Sue Johnson
CBFT: Joseph Wolpe (systematic desensitization),B. F. Skinner (operant conditioning, Robert Liberman (role rehearsal and monitoring),Richard Stuart (contingency and contracting), Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck (CBT).
SFBT: Steve de Shazer & Insoo Kim Berg
Narrative: Michael White & David Epston
When do Narrative Therapists believe a person has achieved change?
When they have developed a new and more helpful narrative of self and/or the problem.
Name some interventions of SFBT
Exception questions:invites clients to recognize that some potential solutions may already be in their grasp
Scaling questions (1-10):used to get clients to quantify their confidence that they can maintain their resolve
Coping questions:can help clients recognize that they are more resourceful than realized
Compliments:points towards what to do more of, not what to eliminate. They also highlight successful strategies and keep clients focused on those that work
Miracle question:invites clients to envision positive outcomes and activates a problem solving mindset by giving them a mental picture of their goals
Therapist A incorporates sensate focus when working with a couple. What is sensate focus and where does therapy derive from?
couples are taught how to relax and enjoy touching and being touched.
Used when treating Sexual Dysfunction derived from influencers of CBT (184)
Define Social Constructionism and what social psychologist expanded on this philosophy?
Reality is created through social relationships (language, culture, and context)
Social psychologist Kenneth Gergen (1985) emphasized the power of social convention in generating meaning for people. Gergen challenged the notion that we are autonomous individuals holding independent beliefs and argued instead that our beliefs fluctuate with changes in our social context.
Bowen (genograms) & Structural (structural mapping)
What do EFT do to help couples change or get unstuck?
1.Help couples uncover the hurt and longing beneath defensive expressions of anger and withdrawl
2. Help couples understand how these feelings are played out in their relationship
Stage1(Cycle De-escalation)
•Assessment
•Identify negative interactional cycle(s)
•Access unacknowledged emotions
•Reframe problems in terms of attachment needs
Stage 2 (Changing Interactional Positions)
•Promote identification with disowned needs
•Promote acceptance of partner’s experience
•Facilitate expression of needs and wants
Stage 3 (Consolidation & Integration)
•Emergence of new solutions to old problems
•Consolidate new positions and attachment cycles
Name and define 3 narrative practices
Externalizing Convos
Unique Outcomes
Re-membering Convos
Re-authoring Convos
Scaffolding Convos
Therapist B looks to deconstruct the ideas that influenced client to believe that he must be strong and never cry because he is male.
Narrative Therapy
What MFT theories reviewed in class are influenced by postmodernism?
Solution Focused Therapy
Narrative Therapy
Feminist Family Therapy
Which theories see clients as experts?
Narrative Therapy
How do Structural therapists view change?
Structural Change & Effective Hierarchy
Functional Hierarchy and flexibility necessary to adapt to change
What approaches/interventions do cognitive behavior therapist use in therapy?
each communication
Problem Solving Skills
Negotiation Skills
Help clients re-examine Distored beliefs
Teach families how to use cognitive strategies to resolve problems
Therapist C is working with a couple and is looking to empower and explore power imbalance.
Feminist Family Therapy
Name the two influential therapists who have contributed to the MFT field when it comes to working with African American Families
African American family therapists such as Nancy Boyd-Franklin (1993) and Ken Hardy (1993) brought race out of the shadows and forced it into the field’s consciousness.
What is strategic therapy?
Alike MRI, is grounded in cybernetic theory and general systems, brief therapy approach, and uses behavioral prescriptions.
Their approach is based on concepts of hierarchy & strategies perturb the system, not used as a logical or linear solution, but to create a new interaction.
Milan- Hypothesize & Expand on the family's beliefs beyond the meanings that they currently hold. It involves asking what everyone's perspective is
Optimal functioning is when an individual is able to distinguish emotion and logic...this is from what theory
Explain how a therapist using this approach views change...
Bowen Family Therapy
Cognitive restructuring that leads to changed behavior
Extinguishing undesired behavior and reinforce positive alternatives
What are examples of operant techniques that are used in behavioral parent training? (i.e. rewards)
Shaping (consists of reinforcing change in small steps)
Token Economies (use points to reward children for good behavior)
Contingency contracting (involves agreements by parents to make certain changes following changes made by their children.)
Contingency management (consists of giving and taking away rewards based on children’s behavior)
Time-Out (is a punishment where children are made to sit in the corner or sent to their rooms.)
Therapy D explores how the client has been coping despite the many troubles they have been experiencing in their life. Therapist D, asks, how is it that you were able to make it to session today?
Solution Focused Brief Therapy
What should therapists be aware of when working with the following communities:
Poverty/Low SES:
LGBT:
Single Parents:
Home based Services:
Psychoeducation & Schizophrenia:
Poverty/Low SES: be aware of how financial pressures play a role in their lives, linking to resources, using strength based approaches.
LGBT: get as much info about the unique challenges faced, explore support system, & roles within a couple
Single Parents: strengthen mothers hierarchical position in relation to her children (can become enmeshed), attend to how financial hardship affects depression, self esteem, and independence, support system, linking to services in the community.
Home based Services: family support, therapeutic intervention, case mgmnt, and crisis mgmnt. Recognize the obstacles for change rather than pushing for change.
Psychoeducation & Schizophrenia: reinforce family strengths, share info on schizophrenia, this helps families anticipate the chaotic and uncontrollable process of this disease.
Name the 8 interlocking concepts of Bowen family therapy:
Differentiation of self
Emotional Triangles
Multigenerational Process
Emotional Cut off
Societal Emotional Process
Family Projection Process
Nuclear Family Emotional Process
Sibling Position
Who was the founder of IFS? What is IFS?
Internal Family Systems (Richard Schwartz)
In IFS conflicting inner voices are personified as subpersonalities or “parts.”
People in conflict with each other are also often in conflict within themselves.
Therapist asks the person first to visualize them, and then help them to calm down (pursuer/distancer dynamic)
Explain what a therapist would do when treating sexual dysfunction...
1. thorough assessment, including a complete medical examination and extensive interviews to determine the nature of the dysfunction and establish goals for treatment.
2. Determine what kind of anxiety disorder they are dealing with
3. Teach relaxation strategies
Therapist E is working with a couple and looks to explore their childhood and the presence of their parental figures in order to understand how this contributed to their emotional, social, and cognitive development as well as how they are having relationships as adults.
Attachment Theory