Family Therapy ( MDFT ) : What Is Multidimensional 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.

Furthermore, multidimensional family therapy has been found in drug abuse treatment settings including outpatient, home based, day treatment, and residential. It also has been found in juvenile justice, drug court, and child welfare settings (MFT, 2016).

More importantly, newer research has investigated the importance of family-based therapy for adolescents who practice drug abuse. Research by Liddle et al. suggests that multidimensional family therapy reduces substance abuse, delinquency, risks for future problems, and encourages the protective processes more than group treatments over the course of one year (21-22). Although previous research on family-based

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.

The Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is a home-based treatment program developed by Henggler in 1970 that focuses on the factors of family and community. The program is intended to equip parents of troubled youth with tools to handle the difficulties of their behavior. The MST therapists work with the most difficult juveniles, male and female, between the ages of 12 and 17 who tend to have extensive criminal arrest histories. The MST concentrates on numerous aspects contributing to a delinquent lifestyle, such as juveniles’ homes, families, schools, teachers, neighborhoods, and friends. The psychoanalysts go to a child’s home and work with parents in order to put them in control over their kids.

One of the treatments used are behavioral or psychosocial Interventions. Research on behavioral/psychosocial interventions has made noteworthy advances in the past decade. Controlled trials now offer good evidence that several psychosocial treatment approaches can be effective in treating substance abuse. Some of these interventions are based on modalities that have been effectively used with adults and altered considerably (Riggs, P. D, 2003). Family based interventions include family therapy, parent management training, and multidimensional family therapy. They are based on family systems theory and share the assumption that dysfunctional family dynamics contribute to substance abuse problems (Riggs, P. D, 2003). Parents are shown better monitoring skills, and basic social organization principles to improve their adolescents behavior and reduce drug abuse together with strategies to improve overall family functioning and sustain to gain benefits from the treatment. Community reinforcement therapy combines values and techniques derived from cognitive-behavioral, behavioral, family therapy, and motivational often using encouragements to enhance treatment outcomes (Riggs, P. D, 2003). There are plenty of other methods used to treat substance

According to Samoulis & Liddle (2006), observational ratings of therapist interventions have been used to predict outcomes at 6 and 12 months’ post-treatment for families receiving MDFT. The following outcome measures were as follows; Timeline Follow-Back Interview, which measures the quantity and frequency of daily consumption of drugs; using a calendar and the individual 's own memory in order to help them gather retrospective estimates; Child Behavior Checklist (CBC) and Youth Self-Report Externalizing and Internalizing dimensions, which is a widely used parent-report measure that assesses children’s behavioral problems and social competencies; the CBCL contains groupings of Externalizing (delinquent and aggressive)

Family Systems Therapy practices under the idea that all clients are connected to a larger living system—their family, and that they can best be understood by assessing the interactions they have with their family. Therefore, they believe that actions of one family member will affect all other members of the family. Also, because the family plays such an important role in human behavior family therapists see symptoms as the client’s way of expressing a set of habits or patterns that they experience within their family (Corey, 2013).

Strategic Family Therapist is one of which the therapist is the teacher and the client is the student (Bitter, 2014). Developing a therapeutic relationship with the client is not the goal. The therapist is concerned with asking questions to establish the reason for therapy and then make suggestions or directives (Bitter, 2014).

Throughout the treatment, I worked to identify the problems that were plaguing Buddy and the Herman family. As certain challenges had existed for quite some time it was an ongoing process pulling back each layer and building trust with Buddy to discover the who, what, why, and how. I worked to understand how the issues impacted Buddy’s functioning in school, with his family, and behavioral wise. Once I was able to identify the effect on Buddy we were able to work together to form solutions and properly meet the identified goals.

emotions with their current awareness. It is important to remember that this phase hinges on someone’s ability to tolerate discomfort of reviewing the memories in order to process their trauma.

Another important approach to helping adolescent with substance abuse is family and community support. Family therapies can help strengthen the family relationship and help improve communication. According to Horigian, Anderson, and Szapocznik (2016) they concluded from their research that family therapy has been the most effective approach to help adolescent with substance use disorder. This may allow the adolescent to have a place to reach out to for help and provide a network of support. The community, including school, friends, peers, and mentors are also a great source of support and encouragement that can help the adolescent abstained from drugs.

Researchers at Indian University and Oregon Research Institute conduct a randomized study to test the effectiveness of functional family therapy (FFT) in a community juvenile justice (Sexton & Turner, 2010). Specifically, researchers measure youth risk and protective factors on behavioral outcomes and therapists’ adherence. Researchers use FFT as a main intervention because it is a comprising and evidence-based intervention. In addition, this intervention has created record of studies that show its effectiveness with adolescent-related problems in different settings such as community. Researchers randomly selected 917 families and adolescents who had been sentenced to probation and adjudicated for a crime, and they divided participants into two groups: control and FFT group. After collecting data and doing analysis, researchers found that FFT was efficient in decreasing young people’s behavioral problems only when the counselors adhered to the treatment model. Additionally, researchers found that “the high adherent FFT counselors had significantly lower recidivism rates than the low adherence FFT therapist” (Sexton & Turner, 2010, p.

Family Functional Therapy (FFT) is a contemporary family therapy based on the work of James Alexander and Bruce Parsons. FFT is an integration of systematic and behavioral approaches focused on the function or purpose of the family member’s behavior. All Behavior can create and/or define interpersonal behaviors. Behavior helps create or distance intimacy in family relationships. It generates and maintains intimacy and other relationship dimensions. The main goal of FFT is for the family to improve communication and change risky and damaging behavior while showing support and working to address the behavior through different alternative means. FFT helps decrease intense negativity, develops positive behavior, and adopts constructive solutions.

More specifically, Freud traces the roots of all adult behaviors back to childhood impulses and showed how conflicts related to the development of sexuality in childhood subsequently results in psychopathology or neuroses. (Good & Beitman)