Family Systems Therapy Flashcards
Bowenian 8 concepts
- Differentiation of self
- Nuclear Family Emotional System
- Triangles
- Family Projection Process (projecting unresolved tension or anxiety on one member)
- Multigenerational Transmission process
- Emotional Cutoff
- Sibling Position
- Societal Emotional Process
Strategic THERAPY
Jackson, Bateson, Haley:
- novel set of strategies generate change within systems.
- ID solvable problems
- set mutual goals
- design interventions
- examine outcome.
Strategic THEORY
- Cybernetic feeback loops = circular causality.
- Sender, receiver, intent/impact. -Report and command.
- 1st vs. 2nd order change.
- Focus on better solutions to problems.
1st order change (strategic)
system can absorb change without really changing whole system
2nd order change
The entire system has to change in order to accomodate a drastic input. System cannot accomodate input without making a long term change.
Strategic assessment
Focus on function of behavior, why it gets perpetuated based on history of it
Strategic techniques
Start with most motivated person, gain clear understanding of problem, ask about attempted solutions, observe and interrupt sequences of poor solution-making.
Bowen’s counterbalancing
Competing life forces of togetherness (fusion) and Individuality (cutoff)
Differentiation of self
Ability to be one’s own person while still connected to system
MRI Thinktank
Mental Research Institute (communications research with report/command, cybernetics, etc)
Haley and Madanes Approach
Problematic family hierarchies show function of symptoms in system. Goal is to downplay insight, focus on functional solutions, especially better generational boundaries. Paradoxical techniques too.
Milan Model
Cybernetics create hierarchy in family where symptoms are functions of system. Goal is to interrupt destructive “games” and provide reframing or insight based on functions. Reframe without blame, circular questioning
MRI model
circular causality of problems (cybernetics), misguided solutions cause problems. Goal is to simply solve the problem by interrupting feedback loop, change behavioral response.
Paradoxical injunctions
prescribing the symptoms.
FACES IV key concepts
- cohesion
- Flexibility
- Communication
Cohesion (from FACES)
level of emotional bonding between family members
Flexibility (from FACES)
amount of change in leadership roles and relationship rules (i.e. egalitarian/democratic/dictator/chaos
Communication (from FACES)
facilitates function, meta-communications
R-DAS
Revised Diadic Adjustment Scale
Creator of Structural Therapy
Minuchin
How is family structure organized?
Hierarchically ordered subsystems based on generation, gender, and function, whose interactions are regulated by boundaries. Family structure also bound by rules/behavior pattern.
Executive subsystem (in structural theory)
The parents
Mechanism of change in structural family therapy
re-aligning family structure and boundaries
How problems develop (structural)
increase of rigidity of structures that no longer work. Problems maintained by dysfunctional family organization.
Disengaged families
too rigid of boundaries, failure to support where needed. Goal with these families is to make boundaries more permeable
Enmeshed families
diffuse boundaries, dependency on one another, stunts develop. Goal is to differentiate individual subsystems and strengthen boundaries
Enactments
When therapist simulates a family in session to demonstrate how they handle problems. Therapist can guide family to create new behavior sequences in an enactment.
Who are the creators of experiential family therapy?
Virginia Satir, Carl Whitaker
For Experiential therapy, it is what kind of encounter?
Emotional - here and now experience emphasized with individuals and their emotions. Self-awareness is essential.
Problem development (experiential)
- emotional suppression (stuff it),
- denial of impulses,
- intolerance of emotional encounters (dismissal).
- Inauthenticity
- Being ultra-reasonable
- Dysfunctional communication
Goals of experiential therapy
Family growth through emotional access and expression to increase congruence
Experiential therapeutic techniques
Understand functions of defenses.
- family sculpting
- roleplaying
- family art therapy
- experience adventure
Role of therapist in experiential therapy
Like that of person-centered, but with activity.
Leading figures of CBT family therapy
- Skinner (conditioning)
- Wolpe (systematic desensitization)
- Liberman (role rehearsal and modeling)
- Stuart (contingency contracting)
Problem development for CBT
Problem not in person, but in behavior. Develops from conditioning, social learning, and modeling.
Behavioral exchange theory
behavior in relationships maintained by ratio of cost:benefit. Good relationships have high ratio of benefits to costs. Increase the frequency of a desired behavior. Quid pro quo.
Social exchange theory
maximize reward, minimize cost/risk. Marital problems arise out of a lack of reciprocity.
Goal of CBT family therapy
extinguish undesired behavior and reinforce positive alternatives; identify automatic thoughts/behaviors.
Conditions for change (CBT)
Behavior changes when reinforcement/contingencies change.
Behavioral parent training model
Have parent use operant conditioning with children (shaping, token economies, contingency contracting/management, time out, etc)
Premack principle
using high probability behavior to reinforce low probability behavior.
Leading figures of psychoanalyitic family therapy
Freud, Nathan Ackerman, Scharff
Object Relations
Self is a self-defined construct outside of other systems, but it influences its context while it is influenced by its context. selfhood and identity are relationally based.
Development of behavior disorders (psychoanalytic)
Poor adult adjustment. Failure to accept children as separate objects, who will then fail to develop a cohesive, differentiated identity from family. This creates intense attachment.
Normal family development
Growth dependent on healthy ego relations between well-differentiated family members. Parents provide empathy, become idealized model. Good-enough mothering enables children to achieve a sense of identity.
Identification
appropriation of traits from a parent
Introjection
taking in aspects of other people, which become part of self-image
Projective identification
an unconscious defense mechanism where unwanted aspects of self are attributed to another (similar to Bowenian)
Transference
distorted emotional reactions to present relationships based on unresolved, early family relations
Goal of therapy (psychoanalytic)
intrapsychich restructuring (i.e. freeing family members from unconscious constraints so they can interact with each other as healthy individuals)
Conditions of change (psychoanalytic)
climate of trusting relationship.
Feminist theory
political examining assumptions about what it means to live as women and men and exploration of flexibility, empowerment, power dynamics.
Carol Gilligan’s theory of sense of self and moraligy
it is based on relatedness and care for others - concepts of connectedness and interdependence.
Sandra Bem’s gender schema theory
looking at life female/male behavior in terms of “gender appropriateness”
Solution-focused leaders
Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg
Solution-focused theoretical formulation
Out of MRI group; people constrained by narrow views of their problems into perpetuation rigid patterns of false solutions (like strategic)
Normal family development (solution-focused)
Clients are experts on own lives; they are resilient and resourceful
Development of behavior disorder (solution-focused)
failing to look at function of problem, or how it came to be.
Solution-focused techniques
- miracle question
- exception question
- coping question
- scaling question
- compliments
Names in Narrative therapy
Michael Wite, David Epston
Narrative theoretical formulations
there is power in a person’s story, and emphasizing parts of it can be functional or dysfunctional
Mode of change (narrative)
Strenghts-based, restructuring of narrative
Techniques
externalize problems, deconstruct narratives, focus on strengths (reframing), preference questions, experience of experience (audience to own story), unique outcomes (sparkling events, times resisted problem, etc)
Names in Emotion Focused Therapy
Greenberg and Sue Johnson
Domains of flourishing
emotional regulation (cognitive), emotional presence (mindfulness) emotional relationship (psychoanalysis)
Goal of EFT
- access attachment-based emotions
- listen for interpersonal themes and patterns
- utilize therapeutic relationship as an attachment experience
Sound relationship house (Gottman)
- love maps
- share fondness and admiration
- turn towards
Gridlock conflicts (Gottman)
stuck focusing on conflict when focus needs to be on repair
