Week 9: Intervention in Couples & Families

Question 1

What are systemic approaches?

Answer 1

thinking about psychological problems and their causes in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Question 2

What are common features across systemic therapies?

Answer 2

• focus on the relationships between people and less on people’s internal experiences
• increasing family/couple’s understanding of their family/couple culture and narratives
• identifying strengths and options the family/couple may not have considered

Question 3

What is family therapy?

Answer 3

a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the improvement of interfamilial relationships and behavioural patterns

Question 4

What is couples therapy?

Answer 4

therapy in which both partners in a committed relationship are treated at the same time by the therapists

Question 5

What are the key concepts underlying systemic therapy approaches?

Answer 5

• circular causality
• functionalism
• homeostasis

Question 6

What is circular causality?

Answer 6

• characterizes a systemic approach
• bidirectional and continuous
• events reciprocally influence one another

Question 7

What is functionalism?

Answer 7

mental life and behaviour are an active adaptation to environmental challenges and opportunities

Question 8

What is homeostasis?

Answer 8

systems regulate themselves by returning to a usual level

Question 9

What are reflective teams?

Answer 9

• built on the idea that a family is a stuck system which needs new ideas in order to broaden its perspectives
• expert, neutral observers introduce multiple perspectives and provide opportunities for change

Question 10

What do reflective teams comment on?

Answer 10

• offering a different perspective
• emphasizing something positive
• normalizing
• casting in a positive light
• defining the problem as dyadic