FAMILY

THERAPY
Mr. Godfrey Livingstone Mbowe
Psychological Counselor.
Assistant Lecturer
STRUCTURAL FAMILY
THERAPY
 Structural family therapy is a theory developed by Salvador Minuchin.
 The focus of the therapy is based on five specific principles.

1. The structural therapist focuses on “the interactions between people rather than their
individual psyches”

2. “Matrix of identity” based on personal interactions within the family. “Matrix of identity”
means we develop our selves as we interact with spouses, parents, children, and other family
members.

3. Family structure based on social interactions

4. “Well-functioning family” based on how family responds and develops according to family
needs

5. The position of a family therapist is to help the family outgrow constraining growth patterns
and develop as a stronger entity

STRUCTURAL FAMILY THERAPY

 Structural family therapy works to understand how
individuals within the group interact with spouses, parents,
children, and other family members.
 Recognizing the structure of the unit - the hierarchies, sub-
relationships, and boundaries - can help to strengthen the
family.
 Once the structure is established, the counselors can begin to
understand where changes and what types of family
counseling services will help restructure the family in a
positive way.

STRUCTURAL FAMILY THERAPY

SYSTEMIC FAMILY
THERAPY
 Systemic Therapy is rooted from family therapy
or something known as family systems therapy.

SYSTEMIC FAMILY THERAPY

 Systemic family therapy focuses on belief systems.
Family members’ perceptions and socio-cultural
beliefs play an important role in the family dynamic.
 The wider cultural context can create change in
behavioral patterns and a systemic family therapist
promotes family level solutions instead of perceiving
something as an individual’s problem.
 Systemic therapy can be broken down into five parts:

SYSTEMIC FAMILY THERAPY

 1. Analyzing the problem
 2. Identifying patterns
 3. Beliefs and explanations
 4. Emotions and attachments
 5. Contextual factors
 Systems theory is a type of family counseling that believes the
behavior of a system can only be understood by considering
individual characteristics within it, and the relationship between
those elements.
 Any problem is not specific to the individual, but part of a larger
process involving many other people, behaviors, and meanings.

CONT’D
STRATEGIC FAMILY
THERAPY
 Strategic therapy is a theory that has
changed from a combined number of a
variety of psychotherapy practices.
 There are five different parts to strategic
therapy including a brief social stage, the
problem stage, interactional stage, the
goal-setting stage and the task-setting
stage
STRATEGIC FAMILY THERAPY
 Strategic family therapy is a type of family counseling that
looks at patterns of interactions between family members.
 Strategic behavioral therapy is solution-based, and is about
identifying solvable problems, setting goals and creating
strategies to achieve them.
 When a therapist provides family counseling services, he or
she is not particularly concerned with the history and
evolution of a problem within the family unit, but is more
concerned with helping individuals think strategically and
execute solutions to deal with them

STRATEGIC FAMILY THERAPY

NARRATIVE FAMILY
THERAPY
 Narrative family therapy assumes that all people are storytellers, each
with their own individual narratives about how things are.
 Throughout the course of life, personal experiences become personal
stories, and people give meaning to these stories—ultimately, they shape
a person’s identity.
 Narrative therapy is a type of family counseling services that helps
separate the person from the problem.
 It helps people rely on their own skills to view problems objectively,
instead of through the lens of the narrative they have built up.
 As the narrator of their individual story, each person has the capacity to
rewrite it.
 Teaching a person how to make room for other stories and framing the
problems within the larger sociocultural context empowers them to
objectify their problems
NARRATIVE FAMILY THERAPY
TRANS-
GENERATIONAL
THERAPY
 To understand problems within the family, oftentimes it is
important to first study the trans-generational history of the
family.
 This mechanism works to understand past difficulties, which in
turn allows the therapist and patient to predict future conflict.
 If the family has responded to past problems in a certain way,
it can provide insight into predicting future dysfunction.
 It’s a type of family counseling that considers generational
reactions and how they differ.
 This can be how kids react differently than their parents, for
example, or how couples of different generations react
differently.
TRANSGENERATIONAL THERAPY
PSYCHO-
EDUCATION
 This approach to family counseling allows those with mental
health problems to better understand their condition.
 The therapist can equip them with tools to alleviate symptoms,
control their behavior, and ultimately function better within the
family unit.
 Additionally, the family is given the same tools in handling
their loved one who has a mental illness.
 People who have been diagnosed with mental health
conditions (or life threatening or terminal illnesses) need to
better understand their own condition, and they need a strong
support system around them.

PSYCHOEDUCATION
 Psycho-education has four primary goals:
 Open exchange of information among the
family
 Medication and treatment support
 Training and self-help support
 Providing a safe place for discussion

CONT’D
FAMILY THERAPY TECHNIQUES OR
STRATEGIES
 Reflective listening is a basic clinical technique used in family
counseling that demonstrates the therapist is registering what
an individual is saying.
 Response back to an individual what he or she just said to
facilitate understanding.
 Reflective responses are especially important in the beginning
phases of family counseling services.
 Here, patients share their thoughts and feelings, it conveys that
the therapist appreciates what the individual and the family are
going through and leads to productive sessions in the future.
 It is an important trust-building exercise within the treatment
process
1. REFLECTIVE LISTENING
 Perspective taking is when the therapist will try to
view problems from the family member’s
viewpoint.
 They will work with the family member and ask
them to recall a time or incident that produced
negativity.
 Then the therapist will view the “negative” incident
from the person’s point of view to understand the
client’s feelings

2. PERSPECTIVE TAKING
 Collecting data is a basic practice of family counseling in
which the therapist records the thoughts of the family
members.
 It is a way of building evidence in order to deal with negative
attributions. For example, a therapist will need to record a
thought (e.g. “The father doesn’t care about his daughter”) in
order to work towards breaking this notion down.
 The therapist will then put together a list of behaviors that
can help spark change.
 Once evidence has been established, the therapist can begin
working with the family to disconfirm/unsettle negative
evidence.
3. COLLECTING DATA
 Opposite action is another strategy often used by family
counseling professionals.
 First, the therapist records the original behavior and then
elicits emotions that are opposing to that behavior. For
example, a person who is feeling sad might watch a
frightening movie, which will induce physical sensations that
are incongruent with sadness.
 It’s a common-sense approach to combating negative
feelings but it can be helpful. Replacing negative and stress
inducing thoughts with their counterparts, especially when
practiced over time, can yield great results for individuals

CONT’D


 By the time a family makes their way into family counseling, they have
likely already been told repeatedly by themselves, friends, and even other
professionals how bad things have become.
 It is critical for the therapist to immediately counter this narrative and
work towards a more optimistic outlook of the family unit.
 To motivate the family to change they must feel hopeful and energized.
No matter the case, therapists will work to infuse positive and optimism in
every stage of therapy. Simply showing up is reason alone for hope.
 A family therapist will often laud members of the family for being there
and being present in sessions.
 Regardless of what ideas are exchanged or what progress is made, by
making time to sit with one another the members of the family or the
couple are committing to the group—the therapist highlights this, which
becomes a tactic in itself.
4. HOPE AND REINFORCEMENT
 Family members often view each other in a negative light. Reframing is
shifting the perspective between family members, hoping to transform
that negativity into positivity. Generally, it involves two stages:
 First, the therapist validates the perspectives of the family
members. This is an important first step and must be applied
universally so all parties know that their side of the story is being
received. For example, the therapist might say to the daughter, “I
understand why you get upset with your mom.
 She criticizes the people you hang out with and the way you dress. I
understand why you think she is too protective and won’t give you the
space you need.” To the mother, the therapist might say, “You do your
best to give her moral values and respect, but the way she dresses is
clearly her lashing out at you specifically.”
 Once the perspectives have been validated, the therapist can move on
to stage two: alternate perspectives. The therapist will show how
benign the issues are by reframing the perspectives.
5. REFRAMING
 From there the family members can start to see the other’s side in a
positive light. Perhaps the underlying reason the daughter feels like
her mom is nagging her is just a sign of her love.
 Also, perhaps the daughter is only dressing differently to establish
independence, which is totally normal for a girl her age. While this is
a hypothetical, this is how these situations are typically explored.
 Authenticity and Flexibility A good family counselor will be
authentic and flexible; working with a variety of families
necessitates them to be.
 They have to be honest and consistent and they have to
accommodate the entire family’s needs.
 It’s important for each family to find the professional that best fits
their needs and can demonstrate the needed authenticity and
flexibility.

CONT’D
QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION.