Malky Fried
September 20,2015
Professor Kivelevitz
Theories and Techniques of Family Counseling
Reflections on your Family of Origin
"It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons." -Johann Schiller Probably the strongest influence in our lives is the family we grew up in. Our birth order, the personalities of our parent(s), the way we were treated by our siblings, the socioeconomic status of the family, their education, the place we lived — all of these shaped us at the time when we were most vulnerable to being shaped. The big picture of the patterns and significant themes in my family of origin is that there are issues of relative closeness of relationships within the various generations of the several nuclear families and to some extent across the boundaries of the nuclear families. For the most part, these relationships are not problematic or pathological, but the graphic representation reflects personal observations and assessments of the emotional ties that exist in the family unit. This relationship pattern can be linked, to my role as, parent, spouse and potential mental health counselor. There were many patterns that I noticed while generating this assignment. One of the most prominent patterns I became aware of is that the mothers of the last three generations married at a young age. I noticed that this pattern caused different attachment styles between the mother and the child of the family.
Integrated approach to counseling is when you combined theories to cover the clients’ feelings, cognitive patterns, and behavior (Corey, Theory and Practice of Counseling and Pschotherapy 8e, 2009). Each theory focuses one of these key components of a client but in counseling you need to focus on each of these to fully help a client. The key to integrative counseling is to have multiple theories function in harmony (Corey, Theory and Practice of Counseling and Pschotherapy 8e, 2009).
Nuclear family emotional system is a concept describing four primary relationship patterns of emotional functioning, which are matrimonial conflict, dysfunction in a spouse, impairment in children, and emotional detachment (Haefner, 2014). Family reactions to such are imitations of previous generations, as well as predictors of how future generations will react. The family projective process is when children inherit the strengths and weaknesses of their parents, such as emotional issues (Haefner, 2014). Multigenerational transmission is the progression of family ideals and traditions to multiple generations, which are either supportive or detrimental (Haefner, 2014).
Psychodynamic therapy has been around for ages, and has been very beneficial for clients who are suffering from an array of difficulties in life. This form of therapy has the client focus on the past and understand how it has positively or negatively affected his/her behavior and outlook on life. There are many advantages and disadvantages to taking this historical approach when working with families.
As a counseling student, it is very important to formulate a counseling theory tailored to ones’ own personality and beliefs. A counselor may choose a single theory to model when practicing therapy or pick and choose components and techniques from various theories, otherwise known as eclecticism. No theory is considered right or wrong. Understanding the different therapeutic approaches are important to effective counseling, however, counselors must also understand their own personal value, view of human nature, human behavior, counseling techniques and the purpose and goals of counseling. Understanding these components along with the different theoretical approaches will provide the counselor with a 9 knowledge of their own counseling, orientation and is essential to not only the productivity of counseling but the growth of the counselor as well.
women, children, and it also create cross-generational influences unique to every family. In using this example of Asian American families, Brooks (2008) suggested:
A main key concept of NT is that the problem a client presents with is viewed separate from the client. The problem is not the person; it is something the person has. Therefore, the goal of NT is to change the effects resulting from the problem and not the person themselves. To do this, NT uses the technique of externalizing the problem. To externalize the problem, the problem is first given a name and then it is explored and applied to the clients believes, values, behaviors, and ideals that has formed the clients identity. The negative aspects of these areas get rewritten into the new story. The process of externalizing the problem allows the client to see their problem separate from themselves so they can better
The nuclear family emotional process describes four patterns in a family relationship that influence problems that develop within the family unit. Although individual perceptions of relationships change these trends, the underlying forces causing the problems play a significant role in the family emotional process (Kerr, 2000; Nichols, 2003).
There are a few experiences that have lead to to become a marriage and family therapist. My own personal experience with therapy and the positive AFFECT it had in my life is a big factor. I was hit by a car as a pedestrian when I was 17 years old. The result was a brain injury and a broken leg. It was also my senior year of high school and found a lot of my happiness in being a runner on the cross country and track team. After the accident I felt like I lost my identity as a runner and being part of a team and I held onto a lot of hurt and resentment from the accident which resulted in anger issues. But therapy, individually and also with my parents, mended a lot of hurt. I have the desire to help other individuals and families who are going through struggles. I believe that God
During class lecture and discussions, I began thinking about how I have been raised and the social location of my family. Once this paper was assigned, I thought more specifically about myself and the effect my social location has on where I am now and the person I am today. Through the lectures, I found myself relating a lot to the content and studies, which we learned are typically done on a middle class family much like my own. Prior to this class, I had mixed thoughts about my family. We are like most families and we are not like most families. Though these thoughts still hold true, I was able to see why I had both and why they conflicted. While we experience the things a typical family experience, these are unique to us. They are impacted
Thank you for sharing this information, great discussion with an excellent genogram. Genogram provides very important and significant information which included in the genogram would be concerns regarding pregnancies, illnesses, hospitalizations, deaths, and even psychiatric problems such as depression, anxieties, and phobias (Gwen, Rempel, Neufeld, & Kaysi, 2015). In addition, dates and relationships provide the framework to explore emotional boundaries, triangles, fusion and cutoffs between family members, and critical conflicts that occur among family members. The biological heredity will indicate whether there are common themes that show up through generations, which would indicate possible cause to current medical or psychological concerns.
Some of the major influences in my life which have shaped my nature would start with my parents as my biggest influencers. They are vital in a child’s early development. Parents either encourage good habits and values or they demonstrate bad ones. In my case it has been good values that have been instilled in me.
In the second of two family sessions I wish to build upon and expand further the progress achieved from establishing that problems exist not in a vacuum but across a family’s multigenerational history. To accomplish this, the family will be evaluated on how they presently function as a whole and as individuals. Additionally, it will be determined how receptive and adaptive the family and its members are to modifications as a whole and individually. Moreover, to further help with the lowering of anxiety I will provide psychoeducation about healthy and unhealthy triangles and how they can either be beneficial or detrimental to relationships.
The following paper describes a theory of counseling children that incorporates aspects of developmental theory, person-centered , reality, and acceptance-commitment therapy (ACT).
My family has always been very close. We spend a great deal of time together and express our deep feelings and emotions with one another. If one of us has an issue, every member of the family is aware of it and shares the burden. When a person in the family does not share significant information about one’s life with the rest of the members, there is hurt feelings. Also, if a member cannot attend a family event, the family feels disappointed and misses the absent member. It is evident that connectedness is held as extremely valuable.
other words, the more traditional the parents are, the more traditional the children will be. (2003)