Where is the Silver Lining?: Family Systems Therapy

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What is Family Centered Therapy?

Family therapy is a type of psychological counseling (psychotherapy) done to help family members improve communication and resolve conflicts. Family therapy is usually provided by a psychologist, clinical social worker or licensed therapist. These therapists have graduate or postgraduate degrees and may be credentialed by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT).

Family therapy is often short term. It may include all family members or just those most able to participate. Your specific treatment plan will depend on your family's situation. Family therapy sessions can teach you skills to deepen family connections and get through stressful times, even after you're done going to therapy sessions.

Major Contributors to Family Systems Therapy:

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Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

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Murray Bowen (1913-1990)

Key Concepts:

· Systemic therapists:
Explore the system for family process and rules, perhaps using a genogram

· Invite the clients' family to therapy with them

· Focus on the family relationships

· Be concerned with transgenerational meanings, rules, cultural, and gender prespectives within the system, and even the community and larger systems affecting the family

· Intervene in ways designed to help change the client's context

· Differentiation of self- Involves the psychological separation of intellect and emotion and independence of the self from others

· Structural family therapy-"Minuchin's central idea was that an individual's symptoms are best understood from the vantage point of interactional patterns, or sequences, within a family, and further, structural changes must occur in a family before an individual's symptoms can be reduced or eliminated" (Corey p. 440).

Therapeutic Goals:

· Specific goals are determined by the practitioner's orientation or by a collaborative process between family and therapist" (Corey p. 456).

· Interventions are used to enable the client and their family to change and reduce their distress.

· Ultimately, every intervention a therapist makes is an expression of a value judgment (Corey p. 456).

Techniques:

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· Personal characteristics such as respect for clients, compassion, empathy, and sensitivity are human qualities that influence the manner in which techniques are delivered" (Corey p. 456). Central consideration is what is in the best interests of the family..

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Why Family Therapy?

Family relationships are an important component of any child’s psychological health. Therapy, and improving the parent-child relationship, can be a vital part of the solution to a variety of teen dysfunctional behavior (such as discipline issues, problems at school, depression, eating disorders, self-mutilation, and drug and alcohol abuse). What I do is attempt to uncover the emotional dynamics fueling your child’s behavior, improve family communication, and teach parents how to guide their children more effectively. Family therapy can also greatly benefit families struggling with divorce, grief, and other difficult life transitions.

Research indicates that marriage and family therapy is as, or more, effective than standard and/or individual treatments for many mental health problems, such as: depression, adult/adolescent drug and alcohol abuse, children’s conduct disorders, eating disorders, chronic physical illness, and marital distress. Marriage and family therapy: