A Co Parenting Plan

1. The following paper discusses a case scenario of Adrian, Judy, and Pam. The family is presenting to therapy in regards to their concern about their adult daughter (Pam) not listening to her parents (Adrian and Judy) requests. From the beginning of the session, it is apparent each member has a different view of what their role is in the family. Roles are vital in ensuring healthy family functioning and should be clearly defined so that each member understands what they are to accomplish (Tobin, 2016a). It is revealed later into the session that Judy and Adrian were not able to conceive children, so they adopted both Pam and their deceased son, Victor. Victor committed suicide ten years ago.

“The Myth of Co-Parenting; How it Was Supposed to Be. How it Was” by Hope Edelman and “My problem with Her Anger” by Eric Bartels both explain the strain child rearing and lack of communication can put upon a marriage. The two articles describe their personal experiences with this issue, but the authors have differing points of view on the subject. Although they have different perspectives, both Edelman and Bartels explore ideas of traditional gender roles and unrealistic expectations in relationships.

Thought lecher and the course reading material, this semester has increased my knowledge about a variety of techniques and theories. While reading, The Family Crucible: The Intense Experience of Family Therapy, there were several themes that could be commonly characterized in family therapy and the scenario of this book. Some of these techniques were, triangulation, resistance, transference, stress, and using or having a scapegoat (singling out one individual). Furthermore, some of the theories connected from this course to The Family Crucible: The Intense Experience of Family Therapy were, General Systems Theory, and Family Systems Theory.

One thing that almost everybody will have to deal with at least once in their lifetime is parenting. In parenting, both parents are needed to make the job easier on themselves, their marriage and their child. In the essay The Myth of Co-Parenting: How It Was Supposed to Be. How It Was. by Hope Edelman, Edelman tells her experience with co-parenting. Edelman, along with many women, initially believed that co-parenting was possible. She soon figured out, however, that it was not a realistic goal. Some points that Edelman hits in the essay are the gender roles and societal expectations in parenting, being the nurturer versus being the provider, and how poor communication can ruin

In the documentary A New Eden: God in America, the class was given the opportunity to explore America’s chase to religious freedom and the political challenges it took to achieve such and opportunity where people for the first time were given a chance to seek religious faith that was not imposed upon them, but one that they can personally choose to live for themselves. The problem that would come about during the arrival Catholic immigrants’ as it was thought to believe their arrival would come to oppose the very religious they worked so hard for, while from their perspective they were merely trying to live an average life in America with all it has to offer just like everyone has. The challenge was most expressed in a judicial case of public

Interracial marriage has traditionally been viewed as a means of expressing a hatred of oneself, of escaping something in one’s culture or self that one no longer wants to identify with. Jacki Thompson Rand describes the outcome of this phenomenon in an essay on her experience as the child of an interracial marriage. She explains how her mother married a white man in an effort to make herself more white, and therefore more legitimate: “My mother 's marriage to my father was a racial love

Marriage has been constantly changing over the past centuries. Currently, trends in marriage have adopted a new way of getting married through splitting responsibilities and work, resulting in social freedom for individuals. "The Myth of Co-Parenting,” by Hope Edelman demonstrates the difficulties of taking all the responsibilities while in “ My Problem with Her Anger,” explains the needs of having a better understanding of each other. Due to marriage changing over the last centuries, marriage couples desire individuals’ expectations and freedom to be met in marriage.

In her article “The Myth of Co-Parenting: How It Was Supposed to Be. How It Was”, author Hope Edelman claims that perhaps the ideal, balanced, and harmonious marriage that many couples yearn for is merely an unachievable myth. Edelman’s anger and frustration drives her essay as she recounts her childhood, analyzes societal gender roles, and narrates her own relationship in order to explore the concept of shared responsibility in a marriage.

Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarksian have shed new light on the subject of minority families and their differences to the traditional nuclear families in their essay, “The Color of Family Ties.” According to their work, those of White descent make up most of all nuclear families which can be described as a father, mother and children all living in one household. Gerstel and Sarkasian point out that it is not always the case that, “Black and Latino/a, especially Puerto Rican families are more disorganized than White families, and that their families ties are weaker,” as they are often thought of by those in politics or the media (62). In fact Gerstel and Sarkasian write, “Blacks and Latinos/as, are as likely as

When conflict occurs within a partnership there is oftentimes a withdrawal from intimacy within the relationship before the conflict is resolved and intimacy can occur again. This is known as the intimacy-conflict cycle. In Little Miss Sunshine the parents, Richard and Sheryl, tend to manage their dissatisfactions with cyclic alternation responses, which are instances when one of the partners voices a complaint that prompts the other’s response in order to resolve their conflict (Galvin, et al., 219). This is seen very

Kevin Rodney Sullivan's 2005 movie is an overt comedy that, while not ignoring the race issues altogether, uses them more frequently for humor than to illustrate serious points. Both film’s premises are about the same situation of an interracial marriage.

The “Angry Couple” video depicts a therapeutic session concerning an angry couple who appears to be having difficulty listening to the concerns each have with the other, their relationship and with their therapist. Before the therapy session begins, Dr. Susan Heitler arranges the room for symmetry and interaction. She then begins the therapeutic session by asking a few intake interview questions to better assist the couple in the counseling process.

The two articles used were “Understanding the Occurrence of Interracial Marriage in the United States through Differential Assimilation” (Lewis, Ford- Robinson, 2010) and “Marital Dissolution among Interracial Couples” (Zhang, Van Hook, 2009). The first article “Understanding the Occurrence of Interracial Marriage in the United States through Differential Assimilation”, spoke about the unprecedented changes that our society is going though in the 21st century.

The use of mezzo-perspective is to focus on the group or family unit as a whole. Although the mezzo-perspective mainly focuses on a group or family unit, this type of perspective can also benefit an individual because it affects many different individuals at once. Research has shown that family units that are dysfunctional can benefit from structural family therapy. This type of therapy breaks down the family dynamics into subsystems. Each of these subsystems work within groups forming alliances, triangulations and boundaries with one another and others outside of the family. Furthermore, this type of subsystem analysis will be visible in the case study of the Clark family. Bob and Marie are parents of three children that appear to have a breakdown of boundaries both enmeshed and disengaged. Additionally, the parental alliance has fallen apart due to the discord around discipline of the children, over-bearing actions by Marie with her children, and intimacy issues. Lastly, triangulations appear to be repeating through generations, Bob and Marie actions display similarly to their own parents, that they wanted to avoid when having their own family.

“American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us,” by Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, and “America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity,” by Robert Wuthnow, give different thoughts to religion and politics in the United States. Putnam and Campbell utilize the concepts of shocks and aftershocks to highlight religious changes in the United States. On the other hand, Wuthnow uses observations to focus on the encounters of religious diversity in the United States. Wuthnow compares American Christianity with other popular religions in America and how Christianity has affected the perception of religion. Putnam and Campbell’s “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us” is a more persuasive assessment of American religion and politics.