Marriage and Family Therapy

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Marriage and Family Therapy
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• Couples and Family Therapy
• Family Therapy Graduate Programs
• The Development of Family Therapy
• Assessment of Family Functioning (Olsons
  Circumplex Model, p. 369)
• Family Systems Theory - Applying Systems Concepts
  to Families.

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• 1. Family is system made up of interrelated
  parts that interact in persistent and enduring
  ways. What creates enduring patterns?
• 2. Enduring patterns of interaction created by
  rules (often implicit)
• 3. A family is more than the sum of individual
  members
• 4. To know the family one must observe the
  interactions that occur when the family functions
  as family.

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• There are many different approaches to family
  therapy some adhere closely to family systems
  theory and some do not
• Some Family Therapy Approaches
• Multigenerational Family Therapy Murray Bowen
• Structural Family Therapy Salvador Minuchin
• Strategic Family Therapy
• Experiential Family Therapy
• Behavioral/Cognitive Behavioral Therapies.

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• Multigenerational Family Therapy Bowen
• 1. Multigenerational Transmission Process-
  genogram focus on the past
• 2. Differentiation of Self
• A. Independence of self from others (esp.
  members of family of origin)
• B. Separate intellect from emotion.

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• 3. Triangulation
• A. When two people in order to reduce stress
  bring a third party into the relationship to
  reduce anxiety and gain stability
• B. Parents who are emotionally estranged from
  each other overinvolve their children.

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• 4. Family Projection Process
• A. Bowen believed that often parents who are
  having problems select as the object of their
  attention the most immature of their children,
  thus triangling in this child
• B. Others believe that unconsciously a child
  triangles himself/herself in to reduce the
  tension in the parents relationship.

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• 5. Emotional Cutoff
• A. The flight from unresolved emotional ties
  to ones family
• B. May take the form of running away, cutting
  off contact or being unable to complete
  unfinished business with family.

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• Bowen Family Therapy
• 1. Understand multigenerational influences by
  use of genogram
• 2. Learn to respond differently with family of
  origin resolving unfinished business maturely
• 3. Work on independence of self from others
• 4. Work on separating intellect from emotion
• 5. Resolve husband-wife issues maturely without
  triangling in others
• 6. Confront problems maturely without cutoff or
  avoidance.

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• Structural Family Therapy Minuchin
• Family Structure invisible set of rules that
  organize the ways family members relate to each
  other. Structure resists change.
• Therapists must help the family modify its
  stereotyped patterns and redefine relationships
• Understand boundaries and have healthy boundaries
  between subsystems
• Boundaries barriers which govern the amount and
  kind of contact and interaction one has with
  another.

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• Each subsystem has appropriate tasks and
  functions. When members of one subsystem take
  over or intrude on a subsystem in which they do
  not belong, the result is some sort of structural
  difficulty

• Unhealthy boundaries may result in disengagement
  family members become isolated and
  relationships suffer

• Unhealthy boundaries may result in enmeshment
  which is characterized by family members being
  over involved in each others lives.