Family Theory and Therapy - Ch.3
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75 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Family Systems Theory | Murray Bowen. Goal is achievement of a higher level of differentiation of self on the part of each family member. Often involves working with one family member with the premise being that when one member changes, the others will follow. Each member is assisted in taking responsibility for his own role in problems. Comments are directed to the therapist. 8 interlocking concepts. |
| Differentiation of Self | Family members' ability to discriminate between their identities and experiences that of other family members (vs. fusion). |
| Nuclear Family Emotional System (Undifferentiated Family Ego Mass) | Has reference to a family in which members' identities fused. |
| Triangles | Denotes that relationships have periods of closeness and periods of distance. Triangulation occurs during periods of distance - an outsider takes sides with one person in the relationship. |
| Societal Emotional Process | Denotes that the emotional system governs behavior on a societal level, similiar to that found in a family, promoting both progressive and regressive periods in society. |
| Emotional Cutoff | Unhealthy way of dealing with intergenerational undifferentiation (young adult may sever ties with parents) |
| Sibling Position | Associated with the development of specific personality characteristics. |
| Family Projection Process | Process through which parents transmit their lack of differentiation to their offspring. |
| Multigenerational Transmission Process | Transmission through the generations of the family's emotional process. |
| Therapeutic Triangle | A therapist "joining" or engaging in work with a couple. Through avoidance of triangulation, helps the couple address, with each other, the difficulties they are having. |
| Genogram | Graphic representation of family relationships that includes a minimum of three generations. |
| Questioning | uses process questions to explore the dynamics of family relationships. Purpose is to shift the focus of family members from how others are causing them grief to what they are doing to contribute to family difficulties |
| Detriangulation | Process in which the therapist avoids taking sides with partners and encourages each of them to take responsibility for their part in family problems. |
| Coaching | Technique whereby the therapist helps the family along each step of the way so they know exactly what they are to do. |
| Communications/Experiential Family Therapy | Gregory Bateson, Don Jackson, Virginia Satir, and Jay Haley. Saw the primary purpose of symptoms as being the maintenance of homeostasis in the family. Primary goal of therapy is to alter the interactional patterns that maintain the presenting symptoms. |
| Report level | The stated content of the message (Have dinner on the table by 5) |
| Command Level | Metacommunication or a covert message relative to how the communication is to be taken (ex-I am the boss in this home may be the command level message of the report-level message) |
| Symmetrical Relationships | Egalitarian relationships, which roles are mirror images. |
| Complementary Relationships | Relationships that involve a fit between different roles |
| Principle of Equinfinality | Same results can be obtained via different means. |
| Circular Model of Causality | Behaviors of different subsystems that reciprocally impact each other. |
| Virginia Satir | Identified 5 styles of communication in families. Utilized a communications approach that emphasized feelings and self-esteem of individual family members. Family was seen as a system seeking balance. |
| The Placater | Communication style that is characterized by agreement, apologizing, and or efforts to please. |
| The Blamer | Accuses, criticizes, and dominates. |
| The Super-reasonable | Family member maintains an outward appearance of calm and coolness and is emotionally detached. |
| The Irrelevant | Family member seeks to distract others and seemingly has difficulty relating to what is going on in the moment. |
| The Congruent Communicator | Sends clear, straight messages and is genuine. |
| Structural Family Theory (Salvador Minuchin) | Based on the premise that all families have an underlying organization which may be adaptive or maladaptive. Therapy identifies maladaptive structural elements and makes changes in these structural elements. |
| Alignments | Coalitions btwn subsystems in the family that serve a specific purpose. |
| Power hierarchies | Refers to the distribution of power in families. |
| Subsystems | Some part of the family - females, parents, kids etc. |
| Interpersonal boundaries | Rules that control the amount of involvement family members have with each other and with others who are not part of the family. |
| Disengagement | Occurs when family members and subsystems of the family are isolated from each other emotionally in terms of their interaction. |
| Enmeshment | Occurs when family members and subsystems of the family are overly concerned and overly involved with each other resulting in minimal autonomy of functioning. |
| Complementarity | The extent to which different family roles are in harmony with each other. |
| Inflexible family structures | Rigid structures that do not lend themselves to being changed in the face of changing family circumstances. |
| Joining | Therapist's entrance in the family's interactional system. Includes forming a strong bond with family members, acknowledging the various perspectives of members, and accommodating the family's organization and patterns. |
| Evaluating family structure | Mapping of underlying structures of the family |
| Restructuring the family | Changing the family structure via enactment, spontaneous behavior sequences and reframing. |
| Enactment | Therapist has the family or a subsystem of the family act out, in session, how they typically deal with a specific type of problem. |
| Spontaneous behavior sequences | Occur when the therapist highlights an interaction that is naturally occurring in the moment and assists the family in modifying problem sequences. |
| Reframing | Redefining the family's perspective on problems as problems within the family structure. |
| Strategic Family Therapy | Jay Haley.Consistent with Milton Erickson's work. Emphasizes change techniques over theory. Believe in the possibility of rapid change and use resistance of family members in the service of change. Communication is seen as defining relationship. Every relationship is seen as a struggle for power. |
| Take Charge role | Therapist plays a very active, directive role. Responsible for changing maladaptive family organization and for solving the family's problem. Therapist must maintain his control in therapy. |
| Directives | The tasks that the theapist tells the family members she wants them to perform |
| Paradoxical directives | Tasks assigned by the therapist that he or she wants family members to resist. The resistance will result in the desired change. |
| Ordeals | Making the client's symptoms too much trouble for the client to continue to have. (Assigning hours of exercise in the middle of the night when they have been symptomatic that day.) |
| Restraining | Meeting the family's resistance to change with warnings of the dangers implicit in change and the need to change slowly. |
| Out-positioning | Form of paradox that involves having a family member act in an exaggerated way, consistent with another person's apparent perception of them. |
| Milan Systemic Therapy | Mara Selvini Palazzoli. Form of strategic family therapy influenced by three theoretical models 1 systems 2. cybernetics and 3. communication theory. Focuses on 2 aspects of family interaction the struggle for power and the protective role of symptoms. |
| Hypothesizing | Prior to the session the therapy team formulates its initial hypothesis relative to the presenting problem. |
| Neutrality | Equal acceptance of all family members by the therapist. The therapist avoids allying with individual family members. |
| Rituals | Involve engaging family members in repetitious behavior designed to counter dysfunctional family rules to reinforce the positive connotation of behaviors. |
| Paradoxical prescription/directive | Techinique which involves prescribing the problem behavior. |
| Counterparadox | Method of interrupting the destructive paradoxes in disturbed families that involves prescribing the problem behavior and all the interactions that surround it. |
| Positive Connotation | Involves promoting family solidarity and decreasing resistance to therapy via interpreting symptoms as family preserving efforts. |
| Circular questions | Family members are asked questions that help them to think in relational terms. "What does your brother think of..." |
| Circularity | Behavior in systems like the family cannot be adequately explained using a simple, bi-directional, linear model, behavior can only be understood in the context of the complex interaction patterns of the family. |
| Open system | Family that accepts information from systems outside itself. |
| Closed system | Family that does not accept information from systems outside itself. |
| Homeostasis | Tendency of a system to maintain internal stability. |
| Identified patient | Symptomatic family member or the individual the family identifies as having a problem. |
| Negative feedback loop (Attenuating) | Input that maintains the status quo of a system. |
| Positive feedback loop (Amplifying) | Input that forces a system to change. |
| Multifinality (Equipotentiality) | The same beginning point may lead to different results. |
| Equifinality | Different beginning points may lead to the same result. |
| Psycholoanlytical Couples Therapy | Fairbairn, Kohut, Gilligan, Analyzes couple relations and mate selection as originating from the parent-child relationship during child developmental states. Attempts to uncover unresolved childhood conflicts with parent figures and their impact on current relationship.Critical part is introjection - how the infant processes versions of the love object. |
| Object Relations Couple Therapy | Fairbarin, Kohut, Gilligan. Believes that marriage becomes a closed system that inhibits growth through mutual unconscious interactions between the partners. The mothering figure is the central motivation for selection and attachment of a mate. A partner finds "lost parts" of the self in the other partner. |
| Ego analytic Couples Therapy | Genchiel, Gray, Apfelbaum, Wile. Foster the ability of the couple to communicate important feelings. Dysfunction originates from the individual's incapability to recognize and validate sensitivities and problems in the relationship. Two major categories of problems: dysfunction brought into the relationship from early childhood trauma and experiences and the individuals reaction to difficulties and sense that he or she is un-deserving because of shame and guilt. |
| Behaivoral Marital Therapy | Stuart. Seeks to improve relationships btwn a couple by increasing the frequency of positive exchanges and decreasing the frequency of negative and punishing interactions. Therapist assesses the strengths and weakness of the relationship. Skills that are taught include expressing themselves in clear behavioral terms, improved communication skills, establishing a means to share power and decision making, and improved problem solving skills. |
| Integrative Behavioral Therapy | Jacobson & Christenson. Focuses on the functioning of the couple. Problems and interactions are believed to be repetitious which causes the problems in the relationship. Help couples improve behavior exchanges, communication, and problem solving skills. Individualized and flexible based on specific problems in the relationship. |
| Cognitive Behavior Marital Therapy | Focus is to understand that the couple's emotional and behavioral dysfunction has been related to inappropriate information processing. Seeks to discover negative types of thinking that drive the negative behavior causing relationship difficulties. |
| Emotionally Focused Therapy | Greenberg & Johnson. View emotions and cognition as interdependent and that emotion drive interpersonal expression. Origins are emotion theory and attachment theory. Short term. |
| Structural Strategic Marital Therapy | Haley & Madanes. Views difficulties as an inability to cope with either environmental or personal life changes. Goal is to facilitate a solution in the most efficient and ethical way possible. Focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses is key to success. Key concepts: moving from who is to blame to what can be done, relationship maintenance, encouraging conversations outside of therapy that are not happening. |
| Problem Solving Model | Circular, flexible, and contains the following phases: Contact phase, contract phase, and action phase. |
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