Summary: How Family Consultations Differ From Other Family Interventions

Parent-child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an interactive therapist-parent, parent-child evidence based treatment originally developed for use in young children (ages 2-7) with disruptive behaviors (Gurwitch 341). Today, PCIT is not only implemented for families with a wide-array of mental health problems including trauma, substance abuse, maltreatment, autism, and anxiety, but also across multiple cultures, with successful implementations in varying ethnic and cultural communities around the world (Lieneman 239). Since it’s development in 1974, both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have shown significant positive outcomes of PCIT for children and their families including improved child behaviors, reduced parenting stress, and improved parent-child relationships (Gurwitch 341). To date, it is one of the most researched, highly regarded and effective evidence-based treatments in child psychology.

Family is something that plays a tremendous role in our life. Even though the structure of families has changed over the years, it is important to acknowledge that there many families out there whether they are traditional families, nuclear family, stepfamilies or others which tend to have different types of problems in their families. Therefore, many families attempt to go to family therapy in order for them to obtain help in solving the different types of issues they might have at home. As stated in the book Family Therapy by Michael P. Nichols (2013), “The power of family therapy derives from bringing parents and children together to transform their interaction… What keeps people stuck in their inability to see their own participation in the problems that plague them. With eyes fixed firmly on what recalcitrant others are doing, it’s hard for most people to see the patterns that bind them together. The family therapist’s job is to give them a wake-up call” (2013).

To begin my intervention I need to gather information that will help me understand the family. Mrs. Mann, a 38 year old Hispanic mother of three children, Trig (10 yrs.), William (8 yrs.), and Sally (5yrs.) contacted the community behavioral health clinic after her son Trig was suspended from school for fighting. Mrs. Mann works part time as an office manager and is highly concerned for her son. Mrs. Mann shared that due to the physical abuse and alcohol addiction of her husband she demanded that he leave the house. Mr. Joe Mann left the house three months ago after the demands of his wife. This event has changed the structure of the family, creating stress and communication issues. Based on the information from Mrs. Mann my client, Trig,

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

Complicated grief is having many difficult dealing with loss. Even though that sometimes the loss has according many time before.according to katherine walsh there have been a history of depression or even anxiety for a person to go through a complicated grief. Complicated grief is when it last a long period of time and you can't just move on it hold on to you very tight. For complicated grief therapy is required. According to phsyo guides 10 percent of people going through a loss going through a complicated grief. There may need family therapy to help them during this period of time. J.william gave 4 way to deal with the loss. The first one is trying to accept that there are gone and there are not coming back. The second one is dealing with

In addition, Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), has shown to be effective in child abuse victims and their parents. Improvements of parenting skills, less child behavioral problems, and better parent-child relationship are all outcomes of PCIT. In this therapy the parent and child have directed interaction. The parent is taught communication skills. After that the parent can play with the child while the therapist coaches the parent. Clear commands are taught to use at home and in public. In this activity the child must lead the activity and the parent mustn’t criticize the child to create a positive relationship. The study suggested that PCIT decreased reports of abuse and decreased behavior at school (Paul, Gray, Elhai, Massad, & Stamm, 2006).

The direct role of the strategic family therapist is more invasive than any other therapist. In the strategic family therapy the therapist spends most of their time giving attention directly to the family to focus on their challenges. The role of the strategic family therapist provides solutions to the client’s issues. As a strategic family therapist it important that the therapist focuses on the core issues within the family. The therapists will start interventions based on the needs of the family. The main concerns of the strategic therapist are the functionality of the family. The basic role of the therapist is problem solving in therapeutic sessions. This will enable the therapist to motivate family members to work towards

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.

A child’s anxiety is decreased when parents are present, parent’s confidence levels increased concerning exercises to be done at home, and often the time it takes to go through the exercises is shortened due to the compliance of children when parents are present (Tecklin 2008). Rosenbaum states that parents and family members know a child best and understand their limitations and tendencies, which can be quite resourceful for therapists trying to understand the child (2009). Parents were often under the assumption that therapists held a “hierarchical position over them… therefore needed to step down from the pedestal of professionalism to lean from and share the perspectives and expertise that parents bring to the collaborative process” (Hanna & Rodger 2002). Obviously these scholars are under the impression that if parents and therapists, as equals, combine their efforts, children will experience a better outcome from their therapy

Discussion of treatment goals occurred with the family and themes emerged around interactions and effective communication. The first goal: The client and family will learn how to identifying stressors and learn emotion regulation. The second goal: the family will learn effective communication skills and interactions to develop a secure attachment. The third goal: build caregiver self esteem and confidence, not only improve self-image, but to model behaviors for her daughters.

Strategic family therapy focuses on the family’s current communication patterns that serve to maintain a problem. While the treatment goals derive from the problem/symptom presented and a belief that change can be rapid and does not require insight to the causes of the problem/symptom. Also by using resistance to promote change by applying specific strategies. Ask the family about the problem that brought them in and one the family can clearly define. Assuming that certain behaviours and/or interactions among the family members to be maintaining the problem. The observations of the family interactions and inquiring in to the problem should continue until the counsellor has a clear picture of the reinforcing behaviours. Once the problem has

As the article indicated with this approach the parents feels comfortable with the counselor which lead them to being open, which leads the parent to communicate in a way the therapist can ask question, and see nonverbal communication that allows the therapist to determine the problem. Therefore, they then can suggest how to solve the problem, and maybe avoid seeing an outside therapist. The strategic model only concern with the presenting problem feeling are not explored, nor is causation explored (Metcalf, 2011). Therefore the model can be helpful when intermediate cooperation which is when parents want to help the child however they are not ready to reveal or look at their issue. The parents might play a role in the problem, however initially looking at the child issues can get the family into counseling where the therapist can begin to explore the child concerns in the family. According to Metcalf (2011) it is small amounts of change in families that are often enough to promote more broad and deep changes in family interactions and structure. When referring difficult families to therapy, the strategic model can help as

The main instrument used to measure progress in the Parent and Youth Mediation Program, which is intended to reduce conflict and enhance communication between adolescents and their parents, was the Parent Adolescent Questionnaire. The assessment examines the relationships between parents and adolescents, enabling the clinician to plan effective modes of treatment interventions through understanding the many dimensions of the parent-adolescent relationship. The assessment, based in behavioral family systems therapy, organizes information into the domains of overt conflict, skills deficits, beliefs and family structure. This enables the clinician to emphasize problem-solving and communication skills, cognitive restructuring of extreme beliefs and distorted thinking, and identify problems in family functioning in later interventions. Additionally, the scales assess global distress and conflict in multiple areas, including communication, problem solving, school, siblings, and maladaptive

Family-centered care is a collaboration among patients, families, physicians, nurses, and other professionals for the planning, delivery, and evaluation of health care. Family-centered care can improve patient and family outcomes, increase patient and family satisfaction, build on child and family strengths, decrease health care costs, and lead to more effective use of health care resources. Family presence during health care procedures decreases anxiety for the child and the parents. “Research indicates that when parents are prepared, they do not prolong the procedure or make the provider more anxious (Harrison, 2009)”