Gladding Ch. 1 Flashcards
Most Significant Era of Growth for Family Therapy
Seeds for the field of Family Therapy were planted prior to 1946, but the most significant and
continued growth happened post-WWII as families were slowly reunited.
Studies of Schizophrenia patients and their families in the early 1940’s gave us new conceptual
language to understand how families function:
Schisms & Skew
Schisms
families divided into competing groups (later known as subsystems)
Skew
when one partner in the marriage dyad dominates the system (either through
direct aggression or passive inaction)
Bateson
“Double Binds” - when spouses and/or children within the family system are given
conflicting messages (“Act boldly but be careful!”) and unclear directions about which to act
upon
Jackson (Mental Research Institute)
Brought the idea that we treat families, not pathology
also pioneered Brief Family Therapy
Whitaker (Dual Therapy)
actively included spouses and children into therapy ~ including
couples counseling
Bowen (Family Systems Therapy)
“Multigenerational transmission” pioneer - i.e. family
patterns repeat throughout and over time / “Undifferentiated Ego Mass” - when conflict enters
into the family, members have trouble maintaining identity and appropriate actions - they
FUSED and CONFUSED
Minuchen (Structural Family Therapy)
Recognized that all family therapy was being normed
off of white, middle class families, which was not particularly helpful when treating clients
families with distinct ethnic, racial, and/or religious identities
The Milan Group
In the 1970s, multiple professional organizations both in the United State and abroad formed to
try signify importance of the field, ensure competence and quality of care, and to allow
practitioners to be meaningfully involved with one another
The Milan Group was the most influential of those foreign entities, as it introduced the following
concepts:
1. Circular Questioning: used to highlight differences between and gain information from
members in the systems (i.e. “Who in the family is depressed?” “Who is most like to do
chores without being asked?”)
2. Triadic Questioning: enlisting a third person to comment on the behavior of two others
in the system (“When you hear your mom and dad yell at each other, how does that
make you feel?”)
3. Paradoxical Intention: Controversial, not currently often used. Therapist takes the
stance of arguing against change in order to have the family system adopt the opposite
posture of engaging change.
Circular Questioning
used to highlight differences between and gain information from
members in the systems (i.e. “Who in the family is depressed?” “Who is most like to do
chores without being asked?”)
Triadic Questioning
enlisting a third person to comment on the behavior of two others
in the system (“When you hear your mom and dad yell at each other, how does that
make you feel?”)
Paradoxical Intention
- Paradoxical Intention: Controversial, not currently often used. Therapist takes the
stance of arguing against change in order to have the family system adopt the opposite
posture of engaging change.
Feminist Therapy
Arrives in Late 70s. Challenged nuclear ideals
Multisystemic Therapy
emerges with an understanding of the dynamic interplay between
families and the communities they live in (improvement in one system leads to improvement in
the other)
Social Constructionism
Explosion of postmodern (contextual) family therapy. This can be seen in the idea of social
constructionism: how we think, feel, and act is constructed through engagement with our
environment (family, microsystems, macrosystems)
Reflecting Teams
became more common for conducting family therapy: (1) active treatment
team and family are in therapy space; (2) reflecting team are behind a one-way mirror; (3)
reflecting team observes process of family therapy as it is being conducted; (4) once therapy
has ended, reflection team enters the room and provides feedback on overall processes.
Cybernetics of Cybernetics
Continuing to develop the “cybernetics of cybernetics” - that is, constantly evaluating how the
person of the therapist is impacting the family system and vice versa
National Mental Health Act of 1964
“This legislation authorized funds for research, demonstration, training, and assistance to states in the use of the most effective methods of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health disorders.”
Nathan Ackerman
Urged psychiatrists to go beyond understanding role of family dynamics in the etiology of mental illness and begin treating client mental disorders in light of family process dynamics. Advocated treating families from a systems perspective as early as the 1930s.
Gregory Bateson
interested in communication patterns in families w/ individuals who had been diagnosed w/ schizophrenia. Theorized double-binds.
Double-bind
Two seemingly contradictory messages may exist on different levels and lead to confusion, if not schizophrenic behavior, on the part of some individuals.
Don Jackson
created Mental Research Institute in 1958. Oriented family therapy away from pathology towards relationships. The “relationship” is the client
Milton Erickson
Focused on the unconscious. made direct and indirect suggestions and prescribed ordeals
Carl Whitaker
risked violating conventions of traditional psychotherapy by including spouses and children in therapy. (dual therapy i.e., conjoint couple therapy)
Murray Bowen
Began holding therapy sessions w/ all family members present.
Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy
developed contextual therapy, with one of its major constructs being that human suffering is embedded w/in a biopsychosocial-cultural framework.
Jay Hayley
Most important figure in family therapy in 1960s. formulated his own version of strategic family therapy by expanding on Erickson’s work. emphasised gaining and maintaining power during treatment. gave client families permission to do what they would have done naturally.
Salvador Minuchin
Formulated a new approach based on structure and used it w/ urban slum families because it reduced recidivism. Formulated Structural Family Therapy. Made special effort to account for cultural differences. Paid special attention to hierarchies in healthy families.
Virginia Satir
used props in her work. Wrote “Conjoint Family Therapy.”
John E. Bell
all children 9 years or older and all other adult family members living in the home should be included in family therapy.
undifferentiated family ego mass
Bowen. fused and confused.
Systems Theory
A system is a set of elements standing in interaction w/ one another. Each element is affected by whatever happens to any other element. System only as strong as weakest part. System is greater than the sum of its parts. Systems can be self-regulating – their tendency is to seek homeostasis or equilibrium
Linear causality
direct cause and effect
circular causality
events are related through a series of interacting loops or repeating cycles.
family sculpting
arranging family members as a sculpture in the way they acted or responded to a significant event.
American Association for Marriage and Family Therap
formerly known as American Association of Marriage and Family Counselors.
Mystification
Coined by R.D. Laing. Describes how some families mask what is going on between family members by giving conflicting and contradictory explanations of events.
Feminist Family Therapy
1970s. “is an attitude, a lens, a body of ideas about gender hierarchy and its impact rather than a specific model of therapy or a grab bag of clinical techniques.”
Rachel Hare-Mustin
took position that family therapy discriminated against women because it promoted the status quo that women were unequal in regard to their duties and roles w/in families.
Multisystemic Therapy (MST)
an intensive family-and community-based treatment for working w/ serious antisocial behaviors of hcildren and adolescents. MST is particularly focused on empowering parents and other important members of a youth’s ecology. The goal then as now is to help youth develop necessary skills and competencies to reduce problematic behavior and function more effectively.
Reflecting Team Approach
Tom Andersen. clinical observers of a therapy session come out from behind a one-way-mirror observing room to discuss w/ the therapist and clients.
Therapeutic Conversations Model
Harlene Anderson and Harry Goolishian. postmodern approach in which the family therapist relates to the couple or family in a more egalitarian partnership
Psychoeducational Model
Carol Anderson. approach to working w/ families w/ a schizophrenic member in which attention is given to teaching family members about multiple aspects of mental illness.
Internal Family Systems Model
Richard Schwartz. considers both individual intrapsychic dynamics and family systems.
ackerman
psychoanalytical approach
bateson
patterns of communication in famliies
deShazer and o’hanlon
solution-focused family therapies
white and epston
narrative approach
evelyn duvall
first proposed the idea of a family life cycle
von Bertalanffy
developed and refined systems theory
individual and family life cycles characterized by:
- growth and development
- systemic interconnectedness of people.
- complementary and competitive experiences occurring w/in a societal context.
strong families
open, appropriate, self-regulating
intergenerational coalitions
members of different generations colluding as a team
conflictual triangles
two individuals arguing over and interacting in regard to a third person as the basis for keeping fam together
family cohesion
emotional bonding
family adaptibility
ability to be flexible and change
mccubbin
resiliency model of family stress, adjustment, and adaptation
preventative measures
work on couple relationship
time needed for single-parent families to form into functional units
2-4 years
professional self-disclosure statement
contains essential information about therapy and the mutual rights and responsibilities of all involved
multicultural errors
- overemphasize similarities
- overemphasize differences
- make assumptions that either similarities or differences must be emphasized
most common ethical concerns
- confidentiality
- gender issues
- sex btwn therapist and client
- use of certain theoretical technique (e.g., conscious deceit, neutrality)
- multicultural issues
- use of internet for therapy
managed care
an attempt to reduce health costs and replaces the fee-for-service model
multisystemic therapy
Multisystemic therapy emerges with an understanding of the dynamic interplay between
families and the communities they live in (improvement in one system leads to improvement in
the other)
ontological process of families
Interest in the ontological process of families - how did they come to know what they know?
