Structural Family Therapy

Question 1

Structural Family Therapy

Theory of Change

Answer 1

Change occurs through restructuring the family’s organization.

Question 2

Structural Family Therapy

Therapist’s Role

Answer 2

•Therapist is active and involved.
•The therapist helps the family understand how family structure (relationships and hierarchies) can be changed, the impact of rituals and rules, and how
new patterns of interaction can be integrated into the family

Question 3

Structural Family Therapy

Treatment Goals

Answer 3

• Restructure family system to allow for symptom relief and constructive problem solving
• Change dysfunctional transactional patterns and create new ways of relating
• Help create flexible boundaries

Question 4

Structural Family Therapy - Primary Concepts

Alliances

Answer 4

Subgroups based on gender, generation, developmental tasks

Question 5

Structural Family Therapy - Primary Concepts

Coalitions

Answer 5

Alignments where 2 or more family members join together to form a bond against another family member

Question 6

Structural Family Therapy - Primary Concepts

Power Hierarchy

Answer 6

Leadership and direction must be provided by the adults,
typically parents. Sometimes when parents are intimidated or insecure, the power is upside down and it leads to chaos

Question 7

Structural Family Therapy - Primary Concepts

Subsystems

Answer 7

Families organize themselves by generation, relationship, and necessity. Examples: marital subsystem – spouses; parental subsystem: parents; executive subsystem: people who run the family; sibling subsystem – kids.

Question 8

Structural Family Therapy - Primary Concepts

Disengaged Boundaries

Answer 8

Where family members are isolated from each other. Can lead to AOD use and is a result of rigid boundaries

Question 9

Structural Family Therapy - Primary Concepts

Enmeshed Boundaries

Answer 9

Family members are overly dependent and too
closely involved and reactive to other family members.
Can lead to incest.

Question 10

Structural Family Therapy - Interventions

Joining

Answer 10

Therapist’s first task; involves blending in with the family, adapting the family’s affect, style, and language

Question 11

Structural Family Therapy - Interventions

Tracking

Answer 11

The therapist pays close attention to family members and how they relate to one another during an enactment or spontaneous behavioral sequence, noticing boundaries, coalitions, roles, rules, etc.

Question 12

Structural Family Therapy - Interventions

Mimesis

Answer 12

The therapist tracks the family’s style of communication and uses it.

Question 13

Structural Family Therapy - Interventions

Unbalancing

Answer 13

Supporting someone who is in a one-down position, thus changing hierarchical position.

Question 14

Structural Family Therapy - Interventions

Reframe

Answer 14

Putting the presenting problem in a perspective that is both different from what the family brings and more workable.

Question 15

Structural Family Therapy - Interventions

Enactment

Answer 15

The actualization of transactional patterns under the control of the therapist. It allows the therapist to observe how family members mutually regulate their behaviors, and to determine the place of the problem behavior
within the sequence of transactions.

Question 16

Structural Family Therapy - Interventions

Boundary Making

Answer 16

Special case of enactment, in which the therapist defines
areas of interaction that he rules open to certain members but closed to others. Example: a son is asked to leave his chair (in between his parents)
and go to another chair on the opposite side of the room, so that he is not “caught in the middle”

Question 17

Structural Family Therapy - Phase of Therapy

Beginning

Answer 17

Join with family; both accommodate to and challenge rules of family system; assessment/mapping of hierarchy, alignments, and boundaries; reframing of problem to include whole system

Question 18

Structural Family Therapy - Phase of Therapy

Middle

Answer 18

Highlight and modify interactions; utilize enactments of issues to challenge participants and unbalance system

Question 19

Structural Family Therapy - Phase of Therapy

End

Answer 19

Review progress made; reinforce structural change; provide tools for future