FAMILY THERAPY
Family therapy is often sought out to help with:
Death or other family tragedies
Long-term medical issues
Conflict between family members
Mental or behavioral problems with a family member
Life changes such as birth, marriage, moving out/ back in, selling the family home
Financial problems
Unlike in individual therapy, in family therapy, the therapist addresses how issues affect the entire family group. Furthermore, family therapy can help define core family values more clearly and improve relationships with increased trust, honesty, forgiveness, support and comfort.
Why family therapy?
Our family ties are the most cherished relationships we have in life. With our family members we will form lifelong bonds, experience deep emotions equally positive and negative, witness both miracles and tragedies, and learn lessons we’ll take with us throughout life. Just like in any relationship there can be problems. Family Therapy can help bring people back together after a falling out, work through a stressful event or exchange, and strengthen the bonds between family members. A family therapist focuses on improving communication between members, helping solve problems, and establishing and maintaining a healthy and happy home.
Our approach to treatment: We use a Structural Family Therapy model developed by Salvador Minuchin which addresses problems in functioning within a family. Structural family therapists strive to join the family system in therapy in order to understand the invisible rules which govern its functioning, map the relationships between family members or between subsets of the family, and ultimately disrupt dysfunctional relationships within the family, causing it to create healthier patterns. Psychological problems faced by a member of the family can often disrupt the family's evolution process. The problems of an individual can get amplified because of the structure and communication within a family.
The key concepts in understanding the Structural Family Therapy are family structure, family subsystems and family boundaries.
1. Family Structure- Each family member adjusts their behavior in accordance to the invisible family rules to make sure that the family system operates without issues. Family structure is based on family members' repeated interactions which can enhance expectations and establish lasting patterns.
2. Family Subsystems- Families contain many subsystems that perform different tasks according to the family's requirements. Family subsystems can be based on role functions, gender, age group and common interests.
Spouses
Parents
Children or siblings – sisters and brothers
Extended family
Problems arise when one of the subsystems starts to take the role and place of another subsystem.
3. Boundaries
Boundaries are how different members and subgroups within a family system can communicate with each other. In an ideal family system, boundaries should be a mixture of both rigid and diffuse allowing for easy contact for support as well as independence, with the parent subsystem on “top”.
What treatment will look like: After observing how your family interacts, the therapist will draw a chart, or map, of your family’s structure. This chart helps identify the hierarchy, boundaries, and subsystems, within the family unit, such as the relationship between parents or between one parent and one particular child. Using this outline, the therapist can also see where changes are needed and what type of interventions will help restructure the family. Family members may be asked to role-play a problematic situation and, at times, the therapist may appear to be “taking sides” to help disrupt a negative pattern within a family subsystem and change the dynamic of the relationship.
References: Fishman, H & Minuchin, S. (1981), Family Therapy Techniques, Harvard University Press
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/family-therapy/about/pac-20385237
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/structural-family-therapy