Structural Therapy Flashcards
Why is Structural Therapy - Strength Focused?
Doesn’t see families as dysfunctional.
Instead see families who need assistance in expanding their repertoire of interaction patterns
Clear boundaries
Enmeshment and Diffuse Boundaries
Disengagement and Rigid Boundaries
Refer to a range of normal – a balancing of closeness and distance
Overly involved leading to symptoms
Overly distant leading to symptoms
Enactments (structural therapy)
A technique where therapist prompts family to reenact a conflict or other interaction
Occurs in three phases:
- Observation of Spontaneous Interactions
- Eliciting Transactions
- Redirecting Alternative Transactions
Benefits of Enactments
- Providing in vivo practice and experience with new interactions and family patterns
- Reducing the illusion that the problem belongs to a single person
- Increasing the family’s sense of competence and strength by successfully engaging in new preferred behaviors
Three main phases of structural therapy
Join:
The family accommodate to their style (build an alliance)
Map:
The family structure, boundaries and hierarchy (evaluate and assess)
Intervene:
To transform the structure to diminish symptoms (address problems you identified in the assessment)
