Brief History Of Marriage And Family Therapy

In 1985 Dr. Howard Liddle developed Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) in an effort to combat adolescent substance abuse along with associated mental health and behavioral issues (Rowe, 2010). Combining multiple theoretical frameworks, such as developmental psychology, family systems theory, and the risk and protective model of adolescent substance abuse, Liddle created a multi-systems approach to focus on the adolescent as an individual, family member, and peer; the parents as individuals and their caregiving roles; the family and their interconnected relationships as well as the family environment; and extra-familial influential systems, such as school, peer networks, and the juvenile justice system (Liddle, 2010). This ecological conceptual framework allows for MDFT to delve deeper into understanding the adolescent’s intersecting environments and relationships in regard to their own development and substance abuse.

Salvador Minuchin, born and raised in Argentina, is known as the founder of structural family therapy (Colapinto, 1982). Before creating what would be known as his most lasting contribution, Minuchin spent years paving his way to his success. Traveling back and forth from Israel to the United States, Minuchin finally settled down in the year 1954 where he began training in psychoanalysis at the William Alanson White Institute in the United States (Nichols, 2014). Following the White Institute, Minuchin began working at the Wiltwyck School, which consisted of delinquent boys from unsystematic, multi-problem, underprivileged families (Colapinto, 1982). At the time Minuchin began working there, therapists had found that certain clinical populations were not responding to traditional psychotherapy (Lappin, 1988). In fact, the population of delinquent children, like those that Minuchin was working with at Wiltwyck, resisted even more so than other populations to this traditional psychotherapy (Lappin, 1988). This was due to the fact that the traditional psychotherapeutic techniques used, were developed for middle-class patients who were verbally articulate (Colapinto, 1982). It was then when Minuchin realized that a new model of change was needed, particularly one that worked with unprivileged, delinquent boys (Lappin, 1988).

A family rarely enters therapy with the clear-cut idea of where exactly it’s problem lie, and the therapist’s job during the first interview is to organize the facts and the characteristics of the family and analyze the emotional process in a way that locates the trouble spots in the relationship system. The choice of a particular method of evaluation depends on the ideology of the therapist, as well as the state of the family that enters therapy.

The Winchester family, John (44), Mary (43), Dean (17), and Sam (15), have come to therapy to seek help for various issues. John and Mary are on the verge of divorce; Dean is skipping school, fighting, and shoplifting, and Sam has withdrawn completely from the family. The family was ordered to attend therapy after the Military Police (MPs) responded to a call from neighbors after an especially loud verbal altercation between John and Dean, in which John threatened to physically harm Dean if he did not leave the premises. John was order to move into the barracks and Mary is threatening to file for divorce.

Family therapy is a form of psychotherapy employed to assist members of a family in improving communication systems, conflict resolution, and to help the family to deal with certain problems that manifest in the behavior of members. In most cases, deviance in a family member is an indication of underlying family dysfunctions. This paper looks the counselling procedure that can be applied to help the Kline family solve their problems. It answers certain questions including those of the expected challenges during therapy and ways of dealing with the challenges.

My first assumption of family therapy was to involve the parents and the individual that had the problem. This book explored further what it

The purpose of this paper is to examine the field of marriage and family counseling beginning with the history and development of the profession and its importance in the field of counseling. This paper will also evaluate five major themes relevant to Marriage and Family Therapy which include: roles of Marriage and Family Therapists; licensure requirements and examinations; methods of supervision; client advocacy; multiculturalism and diversity. The author will discuss significant aspects to the field of Marriage and Family Therapy such as MFT identity, function, and ethics of the profession. This paper will assess biblical values in relation to Marriage and Family Therapists and to the field

Diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, whether cognitive, affective, or behavioral, within the context of marriage and family systems. Apply psychotherapeutic and family systems theories and techniques in the delivery of services to individuals, couples, and families for the purpose of treating such diagnosed nervous and mental disorders.(ONET)

In the Structural Family Therapy model, therapy is not focused solely on the individual, but upon the person within the family system (Colapinto, 1982; Minuchin, 1974). The major idea behind viewing the family in this way is that “an individual’s symptoms are best understood when examined in the context of the family interactional patterns,” (Gladding, 1998, p. 210). In SFT, there are two basic assumptions: 1) families possess the skills to solve their own problems; and 2) family members usually are acting with good intentions, and as such, no

The purpose of this paper is to prepare an annotated bibliography on family therapy with emphasis on ethnicity and sociocultural influences on the problems of communication. This research includes twelve resources on authors with the following annotations: Delineation of the main focus or purpose of each author 's work; Background and credibility of each author; Intended audience for the work; Any unique feature of the work; Theoretical understandings; Family therapy strategies or techniques; and a Conclusion or observations presented in the work.

therapy aims to improve family relations, and the family is encouraged to become a type of

1David C. Olsen. Integrative Family Therapy: Creative Pastoral Care and Counseling Series. Minneapolis: Fortress Press; 1993; page 15.

By trying to help counsel Sujay and his parents, as a counselor, my first I would take the approach by having them clarify to each other what they anticipate from each other have them to listen, and hold their remarks until the end of each statement. Counselor will have the parents of Sujay to talk about their culture and beliefs to their son, so he can have a clear understanding of his heritage.

He recognised that these patterns could go back to generations. He observed a lack of personal autonomy within these families. During this time therapists realised that sometimes therapy would start from a child in the family but the cause of the matter will be failed relationship between parents. The behaviour of parents could be result of their own family system behavioural patterns carried thru generations. During couple’s therapy it was observed that both partners are unable to differentiate themselves from their own

In Marriage Counseling: A Christian Approach to Counseling Couples Everett Worthington shares that individuals achieve meaning in life through intimate relation-ships (with God and with humans) and through demonstrating to themselves that they can effect desired outcomes in work and relationships (called effectance). Intimacy and effectance are exercised most fully in marriage and family life and in life in the church body. However, intimacy and effectance are exercised in different ways at different times in the life cycle. Development theories can be described within two categories which are the Stage and Transition theories. Stage theories gives us an idea of what happens across a long period of time. Transition theories help us understand what hap-pens as we move from one stage to the next.