Ch. 14 Strategic Therapy Flashcards
5 Treatment Techniques of Strategic Family Therapy
Reframing Directives Ordeals Pretend Positioning
3 components of paradox
1) restraining
2) prescribing
3) redefining
5 Treatment Techniques of Milan Systemic Family Therapy
-Hypothesizing
-Positive connotations -Questioning and
circular questioning
-Invariant and variant prescriptions
-Rituals
assigned behaviors
a strategic therapy technique in which clients are asked to perform certain actions, such as staying up when they begin to feel sleepy
direct and indirect suggestions
a technique used in strategic family therapy that is a part of a usually purposefully ambiguous but important message to a client family, such as “Go slow” or “You may not want to change too quickly.”
dirty game
power struggle between generations sustained by symptomatic behaviors.
family homeostasis
the tendency of the family to remain in its same pattern of functioning and resist change unless challenged or forced to do otherwise.
family rules
the overt and covert rules families use to govern themselves, such as, “You must only speak when spoken to.”
games
a Milan concept that stresses how children and parents stabilize around disturbed behaviors in an attempt to benefit from them.
Greek chorus
the observers or consultants of a family treatment session (i.e., the team) as they debate the merits of what a therapist is doing to bring about change. They send messages about the process to the therapist and family. Through this process, the family is helped to acknowledge and feel its ambivalence.
hypothesizing
a technique central to the Milan approach that involves a meeting of the treatment team before the arrival of a family in order to formulate and discuss aspects of the family’s situation that may be generating a symptom. Through hypothesizing, team members prepare themselves for treating the family
Institute for Family Counseling
an early intervention program at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Center for community paraprofessionals that proved to be highly effective in providing mental health services to the poor
invariant/variant prescription
a specific kind of ritual given to parents with children who are psychotic or anorexic in an attempt to break up the family’s “dirty game” (i.e., power struggle between generations sustained by symptomatic behaviors).
Milan
approach a family therapy originating in Italy that stresses the interconnectedness of family members while also emphasizing the importance of second-order change in families.
old epistemology
dated ideas that no longer fit a current situation.
