This example of a family’s interesting dynamics that come about can be seen in a show called, “The Fosters.” In this show, the Foster family lives in San Diego where Stef Foster and Lena Adams (in later seasons being Lena Adams-Foster) parent five children, four of them being foster children and one coming from a previous marriage. The children’s names are Brandon (17yrs old), who is the oldest, Mariana (16) and Jesus (16), who are twins that were adopted after Stef and Lena got together, and Callie (17) and Jude (13) who are siblings that both got adopted. Stef is the birth mother of Brandon, coming from a previous relationship with another charater named Mike.
The feud between these families was so intense that it took a double suicide to make the parents realize, it just shows you have to be aware of what is
Experiential family therapy is a general theoretical model that has evolved since its beginnings in the 1950’s to include current models like Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy and internal family systems model. Grounded in the belief that dysfunction in the family comes from suppressed emotions, experiential therapy endeavors to create experiences in the here-and- now that will allow families to examine their internal processes, and not get stuck at the intellectual level of problem-solution or cognition. Experiential therapists encourage transformation through individuation and self-actualization, believing that to bring a
For the family intervention session the family me and my group worked on is the Scott family. The Scott family is a family where the members of the family have become distance among each other due to the mother Cindy pregnancy. Cindy is pregnant for another man while her husband is away because of the war. The daughters found out about their mother pregnancy, so it made them distance with their mother and them become closer to their auntie Layla. Auntie Layla feels that she need her sister Cindy to step up and take responsibility of her own children instead of playing the mother role to her nieces. The youngest daughter Sophia is anger at her mother because her mother is making her lie to her father and keeping the secret away from him about the baby.
Sam is a seven-year-old boy with a younger brother named Riley, who is 5 years old. Sam’s mother, Kimberly, is 31 years old and Sam’s father, Casey, is 32 years old. Both are also the parents of the younger brother Riley. Sam’s mother and father were married for four years then they got divorced. Kimberly, the mother, moved out of the family home and into a home of a man, Danny, that she was taking care of as her job. The children were to spend the majority of the time with her, the mother, while Casey, the father, got the kids on the weekends. Both of the boys have a history of asthma but other than that they are healthy. Kimberly works from the home because she has been caring for Danny. Kimberly and Casey were not happy with each other. They tried not to fight or argue in front of the children. Sam is not comfortable at Danny’s house. He feels like his mother pays more attention to Danny than she does to him or his brother, Riley. He wants to live with his father, Casey. After the separation and divorce and the eventual move out of the only home he has ever known, Sam begins to develop some emotional upset. He shouts at Riley for no reason. He shouts at his mother and often refuses
In a small town was a family. This family was the type that always liked being together, it did not matter what they did as long as they did it together. They were a family of five, two girls, Rose and Sara, a boy, Ronnie and the parents, Cynthia and Alfonso. The kids always got what they wanted, everything was fine, until Alfonso's drinking got out of control. Cynthia and Alfonso worked at the same place except they were on different shifts. She was worked second shift while he did first shift. So that meant that he was at home with the kids after school. He was never home though, the kids never knew where he was. Cynthia would try her best to run around and do errands and cook dinner before leaving for work, but her time management wasn't
Each member of the family is experiencing problems within the context of the family and other super systems they are involved in. Joel and Julia are reconciling after a yearlong separation.
The Morgan family members are Caucasian and live in Tampa, Florida. Clare Morgan is a 42 year old twice divorced woman who works as a Bank Administrator for Bank of America. In Clare’s first marriage she had her first son Justin but after a month her husband divorced her. In Clare’s second marriage, her husband did not want to have kids and left her while she was pregnant with her second child Cody. Justin is now 15 years old football player in high school. Cody is 8 years old in elementary school, who play baseball for the local little league. Both children are A students however neither father choose to keep in contact with them. Lately, Justin has become rebellious and Cody feels the lack of communication from his father is his fault.
The hierarchy seems inconsistent in this family. It seems that the therapist is on top of the hierarchy with the mother and children underneath her. Working for Child Protective Services the therapist holds the most power and authority. The mother doesn’t have clear and consistent authority in the family. In terms of functioning there are no clearly defined roles in the subsystems. There is a diffuse boundary between the executive subsystem and the sibling subsystem this result in a confusion of roles. The mother is acting more like a peer in the sibling subsystem fighting for power and influence with her children. Within the sibling subsystem it seems that Anthony is on top of the hierarchy and Vanessa seems to be the least powerful member. She seems to be isolated and excluded. This is evidenced by the fact that she had her own room before Anthony moved back in. With Anthony moving in she had to move out her room and move in with mom. In this context Anthony has more power than mom and this places him above his mother in the hierarchy.
Vanessa states she often feels “overwhelmed”. When she first brought the children to live with her they obeyed the “rules” for the most part. The children would occasionally give her a hard time. As the children got older, their disrespectful behavior increased. She expected them to do more around the household, but Tanisha and Jermaine felt Vanessa treated them as if they were in the “army” and more often than not, refused to do their homework and chores. No one in the family can seem to come to a clear compromise. Vanessa has given Tanisha more responsibility in caring for her brother Jermaine. Vanessa states, “I am fed up and I don't know how much more I can
Conflict perspective- Ms. Johnson is experiencing the conflict perspective, due to the kids moving in with her. She is used to living alone and living on a very conservative budget to support herself. Eventually, with Ron and Rosalind coming to live her living arrangements and financially will drastically change. Ms. Johnson is feeling a little of psychodynamic perspective also with the kids living with her. She expresses to the social worker that they are driving her a little crazy. Fortunately, Shirley enrolled the kids in preschool before she was sent to prison. This gives Ron and Rosalind a social support. They will be in a safe environment and they will be learning things to help prepare them for school. The kid’s physical and cognitive
The children's (Audrie, Patrick, and Charlotte) stated that their mom (Margaret) does not take care of them. The children stated that they are not safe with the Margaret. The children stated that they do not want to live with Margaret. The children stated that Margaret whips them. Margaret's friend Joy whipped them on their butts, and the unknown neighbor whipped them. It is unknown when this occurred. Margaret was asked was this truth about the neighbor whipped Patrick. Margaret stated that: "Patrick was lying."The children do not have any bruises on them.
Another game he liked to play was making Jane or Mum start fights with people who live near them.. These kind of situations put them in a difficult positon because they are placed in a situation where their mindset is thinking cause pain to others so no pain is inflected on me. Jane showed signs of posttraumatic stress disorder when she moved out. She was always scared of leaving her place because she didn’t want Richard to find her (Elliott, 2005). She was scared of him spending so much time with her daughter because she didn’t want her daughter to go through what she did with Richard. The posttraumatic stress disorder would also effect her relationship since she was scared to trust others or get to close to others (Elliott, 2005). One of the ways Jane coped with her posttraumatic stress disorder was by substance abuse. She drank whenever Emma was at daycare (Elliott, 2005). It would start out with a glass of wine or two and then it would be bottle after bottle of wine (Elliott, 2005). Jane started seeing a doctor, who she would constantly tell that she needed help. Her doctor didn’t understand why she needed help, so a counselor was not recommended immediately. Once the counselor was recommended, Jane started to attend, but then
Regina, three of her siblings, and their mom, who they call Cookie, live in Long Island, New York and tend to not live in a place for long, They don’t have much money to spend on a decent house, car, or clothes because Cookie always spent her money on things that she didn’t need. Growing up Regina had two older siblings, Cherie and Camille, who came from a different father than Regina and her two younger siblings, Norman and Rosie, who also came from different fathers than Regina. One day the family left their old home to go to a new place to live, which Cookie finally got enough money to afford a two story house with no neighbors around. Cookie never treated any of the kids nicely. She would kick them, throw them, punch them, and call them
On June 27, 2008, Kristi Birkeland gave birth to identical triplet boys. Their father, Jack, who was mixed up with the wrong people was around for only five years of Tee, Fletcher, and Cruz’s lives until one day he quit coming around. From then on Kristi raised the three boys all by herself and figured her deadbeat husband Jack had once again gotten himself in trouble. Like their father, even at a young age Cruz and Tee were always in trouble, but Fletcher was different, he was quieter. Twelve years had passed and the boys were seniors in high school. Fletcher was the star on the high school football team and had scouts from all over watching him, his brothers, on the other hand, were too busy getting in trouble. The summer after he graduated, Fletcher worked all summer until that fall,