Personal Statement On Family Therapy

My personal and educational experiences have influenced my desire in pursuing my degree in Marriage & Family Therapy. My last semester of college, I was interning at Care Fresno. During this time, I lived in a high crime apartment located in southeast Fresno. I was able to reach out and mentor at risk families. This experience has equipped me with skills, such as: be able to empathize, communicate, and lead other effectively. After I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree, I started working as a Drug & Alcohol Counselor at Aegis Treatment Centers. While at Aegis Treatment Centers, I realized how much I enjoy providing empathy, psycho-educating, and teaching individuals how to cope with their emotions.

Family systems therapy is one of the newer counseling techniques that are not used as much as many of the other counseling theories. Studies showing the efficacy of treatment are limited; however, those that have been conducted show promise. According to a study on problematic behavior in Research on Integrative Family and Systems Treatment, there was a significant decrease in the problems in the child after family treatment was incorporated (Frasier, Grove, Lee, Green, & Solovey, 2014) and secondary studies have shown a decrease in anxious symptoms after modeling behavior in the home was incorporated (Fisak & Grills-Taquechel, 2007).

At the end of any educational journey, we all have a dream or a goal for our professional career. My dream is to work with children by working with the family as a whole. By starting with Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT), I can educate myself on the workings and dynamics of a healthy family. Understanding how family roles interact, support, and distract from healthy behaviors are the foundation for prescribing tools and techniques to help a family better interact and relate to one another. Through MFT, a counselor can bring families closer together while overcoming emotional walls and challenges through effective communication and listening.

The Behavioral Health and Human Services Licensing Board is a compilation of the Indiana Code and Administrative Code for all social workers, marriage and family therapists, mental health counselors, and addiction counselors. This reflection paper examines the Indiana Code and focuses on the specific requirements to become a family and marriage therapist associate, and what requirements need met to become a fully licensed therapist. In addition, to move from an associate to a licensed therapist one must obtain a number of supervised hours that will be further examined in detail.

In the last third of the twentieth century, the nuclear family formed around marital ties and a strict division of labor based on gender, has changed to a multiple types of kinship relations. The word that best defines today's family, is the diversity, since the family now has a unique and exclusive meaning, including single-parent families and families consisting of same sex couples (Walsh, 2011). This new (or as some argue , renewed ) diversity of family forms has generated numerous comments and controversies about the consequences of these changes in the production of basic civic values necessary for social order. The changes in the family in recent

Solution-focused therapy was developed in 1982 at The Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (). SFBT was inspired by Milton Erickson and MRI models, both Insoo and Steve de Shazer Kim Berg had worked on the MRI models which SFBT is created from (Mo Yee Lee, 2011). Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is theoretically based, evidence-based, empirical researched and has been clinically practice for the past 32 years (). The assumption and basic premises of SFBT emphasized by the creators is that its merely about the techniques and more about its logic/rational (). To effectively execute SFBT it requires the clinician to “deeply” understands and the concepts to influence clients change (). Why does SFBT standout amongst others models, because SFBT practice is rooted in the present and future. The focus is not on exploring

This clinician met with the patient, and his mother to engage in a family therapy session to discuss and develop a safe and stable discharge plan. The patient's mother reports "he really loves us". She reports she is concerned about the patient driving his vehicle upon discharge. She reports prior to admission she "took his keys" for safety purposes and he became physically aggressive due to wanting to drive his vehicle. She reports she completed paperwork and is awaiting a Medicaid hearing. She reports no date has been provided yet. She reports the patient was not consuming his psychotropic medication approximately two months prior to admission. She reports she advocated for his discharge from Duke Hospital because she was not aware his mental

There are several types of therapy for Somatic Systems disorder. The first step, for a

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.

The family that I have been observing is a husband, wife who is pregnant with their second child, and an autistic child. The family originally came into therapy because of the child. They were becoming overwhelmed and frustrated with the lack of services and support their son’s school was providing them. The current therapist has experience with advocating for a child who has special needs because her of her own son. The therapist had offered to go down to the school and help speak with the school psychologist, the counselor, and the district to ensure that her client’s concerns were being heard. This was all done before I started to shadow the clients. During this time the husband had disclosed in therapy that he is unsure if he wants

Sutherland, O., Dienhart, A., & Turner, J. (2013). Responsive Persistence Part II. Practices of Postmodern Therapists. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 39(4), 488-501. (2013, October 1). Retrieved August 29, 2014, from Ebsochost.

The word family can be defined in many ways. When I think of the word family, I think of two or more individuals who are sometimes related by blood or through a strong bond of unconditional love, as well as, a shared experience, values, responsibilities, the law, even related through a community. Different families view themselves in different ways. They have different roles, have certain boundaries or rules, communicate and solve problems in a different way, and can adjust to change differently. I will discuss my own family and how I view my family through the lens of the General Systems theory and apply each central property as it contains to my family and how we communicate. There are six significant properties within the General systems theory, wholeness, interdependence, boundaries and openness, hierarchies and subsystems, calibration and feedback, and lastly there is equifinality.

Therapist met with the client at the group home for individual therapy. Therapist introduced himself to the client. Client was informed of the risks and benefits of the therapy, freedom of choices, privacy rights, confidentiality, and the limits of confidentiality. Therapist explained child abuse, dependent adult and older adult mandated reporting laws and limits of confidentiality to the client and informed on the status of marriage family therapist intern under the supervision of the clinical supervisor, Sally S. Michael, LMFT. Therapist-assisted with client (intent, plan, and means) for homicidal and suicidal ideation and other potential high-risk behaviors. Therapist discussed with client the demographic and special service needs, and current

Families as Systems looks at the family as a web, with everyone within the family being connected. If one part of the web is struggling, then it affects all of them. Within this web there are many different relationships. The parent- parent relationship, the child- parent relationship, and for a family with multiple kids, the sibling- sibling relationship (Brown & Stoffel, 2011).

The first session we met we discussed the purpose of family therapy introducing the concept to see it was something they may find beneficial to them. Understanding how family therapy works and interacts is the key objectives of therapists; they should be healers, concerned with engaging with the family therapeutically, around issues that cause problems whilst remaining respect. This means to join families and experience the reality whilst becoming involved in the interaction which form the family structure and the way they think and behave (Minuchin and Fisherman 1981). Information was given about structural family therapy and how this may be beneficial for family A. Mrs A was given information on how Family therapy can play an