EDPC 5341 Theories of Counseling

Summarize the key points of both structural family therapy and strategic family therapy.

Compare structural family therapy to strategic family therapy, noting the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Provide an example of a family in your practicum using a structural family map. Note: Be sure to maintain HIPAA regulations.

Recommend a specific therapy for the family, and justify your choice using the Learning Resources.EDPC 5341 Theories of Counseling

Please follow these instructions from my institution:

Create a purpose statement (also commonly referred to as a thesis statement) as the last sentence of this paragraph: “The purpose of this paper is to describe…”.

The conclusion section should recap the major points of your paper. Do not introduce new ideas in this paragraph; the conclusion should interpret what you have written and what it means in the bigger picture.

Structural Versus Strategic Family Therapies

Structural and strategic family therapies are distinctive psychotherapy approaches targeted at addressing issues affecting the relationship between family members. Still, there two therapies are distinctive with unique principles, strengths and weaknesses that make them ideal for application in different situations. This paper discusses the unique features of structural and strategic family therapies.

Summarize the key points of both structural family therapy and strategic family therapy.

Structural and strategic family therapies are family-based and family-oriented interventions that apply evidence-based practices in addressing concerns affecting the family unit. The two therapies have some key points apparent in their application. The two apply systems thinking. This approach postulates that the family system is comprised of interrelated constituent parts and how each family member functions acts as an indication of the context in which the whole family system functions. The application of systems thinking five key points. Firstly, there is biological interconnectedness that shifts away from linear structured relationships to circular chaotic feedback loops. Essentially, all family members are reliant on each other to thrive. The interconnectedness allows the family to work together to perform its functions. Secondly, there is synthesis in which subsystems are combined to create new systems. In the midst of interconnectedness, the family can appear as complex and dynamic if broken down into smaller parts. Thirdly, there is emergence in which new relationships emerge in unique and diverse ways from the smaller interactions between family members. The synergy within the family leverages self-organization and non-linearity to describe the outcomes of family members interacting with each other (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2015). Fourthly, there are feedback loops and flows between the elements in the family system. Therapy allows for the feedback loops to be observed, understood and interventions applied as the dynamics and types of flows become apparent. The feedback loop can be balanced whereby any changes are self-corrected to ensure stability, or they can be reinforcing whereby changes are stacked thus resulting in instability. Finally, there is causality whereby elements within the system influence each other. Cause and effect show how every aspect of the family system is related, such as parental discipline resulting in disciplined children (Szapocnik & Hervis, 2020). EDPC 5341 Theories of Counseling

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Compare structural family therapy to strategic family therapy, noting the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Structural family therapy is a systematic family intervention that focuses in ensuring that the family hierarchy and power organization is healthy. It achieves this by applying systems thinking to define the different subsystems before defining their boundaries and limits. Based on this approach, the concerns presented by the family are a reflection of three things. Firstly, they are a reflection of an imbalance in the family structure. Secondly, they are a reflection of a dysfunctional hierarchies so that there are no boundaries between the different subsystems. Thirdly, there are a reflection of maladaptive reactions to changing demands on the subsystems. Therefore, the approach focuses on reinforcing the healthy subsystems by highlighting the need for consensus that is differentiated from the subsystems. Also, the approach emphasizes the need to adjust the relationships and rigidity of limits to reflect changing capabilities, such as giving children more responsibilities and authority as they grow older. This approach has the strength of being open to different solutions, although it is restricted to therapy sessions so that some of the things occurring outside the sessions could be ignored (Rivett & Buchmüller, 2017).

Strategic family therapy adopts a directive impression and is imbedded in the systemic model. It perceives the concerns presented by the family as serving a function in reflecting how the family has difficulty in solving a problem. It concedes that if faced with a problem, the family is more likely to refer to past experiences and apply a solution that may have worked in the past. However, symptoms such as emerging difficulties that are increasing or emotional/behavioral difficulties for which past solutions are not valid, the family may find it difficult to find and effectively apply solutions on their own. This causes the family to be stuck in a sequence of maintaining the symptoms. The therapy intervenes by guiding the family to initiate solutions and actions that differ from those they had previously attempted. This approach has the strength of deliberately seeking a solution and maintaining contact both in and outside sessions (Szapocnik & Hervis, 2020).

Provide an example of a family in your practicum using a structural family map.

Recommend a specific therapy for the family, and justify your choice

Structural family therapy is appropriate for the case. According to the therapy, the addiction noted in the child is resultant of a dysfunctional hierarchy with the family. This is characterized by difficulties in establishing boundaries between the child and parental subsystems. This structural family imbalance would be solved by reinforcing the parental subsystem so that there is adequate parental authority with the father and mother presenting a united front in clearly differentiating between the child and parental subsystems (Rivett & Buchmüller, 2017). In this respect, strategic and structural family therapies both apply systems thinking but are fundamentally different with different objectives.

Conclusion

One must accept that psychotherapy is an important tool that helps families to address issues affecting their relationships. In addition, one must acknowledge that structural and strategic family therapies are two distinctive psychotherapy approaches applied in family settings. The two therapies apply systems thinking to include five key points: biological interconnectedness, synthesis, emergence, feedback loops, and causality. Besides that, a comparison of the two reveals that they are distinct. Structural family therapy perceives family concerns as a reflection of family structure imbalance, dysfunctional hierarchies, and maladaptive hierarchies. On the other hand, strategic family therapy concedes that the family will rely on past experiences to solve its problems and external help would be sought for new problems. Overall, it is clear that structural and strategic family therapies are distinctive with unique features.

References

Capuzzi, D., & Stauffer, M. (2015). Foundations of Couples, Marriage, and Family Counseling. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Szapocnik, J., & Hervis, O. (2020). Brief Strategic Family Therapy. American Psychological Association.

Rivett, M., & Buchmüller, J. (2017). Family Therapy Skills and Techniques in Action. Taylor & Francis.EDPC 5341 Theories of Counseling

Experiential Versus Narrative Family Therapies

Experiential and narrative family therapies are distinctive psychotherapy approaches targeted at addressing issues affecting the relationship between family members. Still, there two therapies are distinctive with unique principles, strengths and weaknesses that make them ideal for application in different situations. This paper discusses the unique features of experiential and narrative family therapies.

Summarize the key points of both experiential family therapy and narrative family therapy.

Experiential family therapy makes use of expressive activities and tools such as acting, roleplaying, music and so on to re-experience and re-enact emotional experiences from recent or past interactions between the family members. The clients (family members) focus on the activities that they experience in order to identify the negative and positive emotions associated with self-esteem, responsibility, disappointment, and success. It engages the services of a trained experiential therapist to guide the clients in releasing and exploring their negative feelings that may still linger or are blocked as they relate to past experiences. It is applied in treating substance abuse, grief and loss recovery, anger management, behavior disorder, eating disorder, trauma, compulsive behavior, and various types of behavioral and physical addictions. In applying the therapy approach, clients are helped to live up to their full potential, change the nature of current and future relationships, and gain freedom from unhappy, painful or otherwise past bad experiences (Carlson & Dermer, 2016).

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Narrative family therapy is a distinct form of counseling that separates the family members from their problems. It creates distance between the clients and their problems. This is intended to ensure that they perceive the problem from an objective and subjective perspective, and see how it might be hurting, protecting or helping them to deal with other core issues. The new perspective helps to give the clients more control and feel more empowered to change their behaviors and thought patterns, thus empowering the clients to rewrite their life stories for an idealized future that reflects the desired identity, what they are capable of doing and their purpose, all separate from the problem. This therapy approach is applied among families that define themselves by their problems and whose lives are dominated by the negatives so that the therapy intervenes to help them see the issue as something that is present in their lives but does not define them (Monteiro, 2016).

Compare experiential family therapy to narrative family therapy, noting the strengths and weakness of each.

A comparison of experiential and narrative family therapies reveals that the two are distinctive with unique strengths and weaknesses. Experiential family therapy is focused on aiding the clients to gain individual autonomy as they experience personal growth. It improves the interactions between the family members by making them more authentic in terms of creating a sense of belonging and improving interconnections. With this, the family develops a good support system with the expectation of interactions, empathy and joining that leverages the family dynamics to improve experiences and achieve the desired outcomes. It adopts a realistic approach that is authentic in presenting the problems and solutions. Although this therapy approach acknowledges family problems, it has a weakness in connecting personal issues with the therapy experiences (Neukrug, 2015).

Narrative family therapy is focused on aiding the clients to give meaning to all experiences, whether good or bad. It works under the assumption that each experience adds to developing an identity. Mapping the experiences presents a personal story while giving meaning to the individual’s life with regards to perception of self and the environment. This helps in explaining why two members of the same family may have the same experiences but end up interpreting them differently thereby developing different realities. The strength of this therapy is that it separates the clients from the problem thus allowing them to be objective in developing and applying solutions. However, it has a weakness in being a relatively new therapy approach without much research support (Metcalf, 2017).EDPC 5341 Theories of Counseling

Provide a description of a family that you think experiential family therapy would be appropriate, explain why, and justify your response

The Hernandez family are of Hispanic origin. The family has three members. Mr. Hernandez is a marketing executive who travels much away from home. Mrs. Hernandez is a housewife who suffers from depression. The other family members are complaining that she is an alcoholic. There were some medical issues during the birth of her son so that she ended up losing her womb so that she us unable to have more children of her own. She does not consider herself an alcoholic and claims that her alcohol consumption is under control. The family wants her to recognize that she is an alcoholic and proactively seek treatment for the alcoholism.

Experiential family therapy would be ideal for the Hernandez family. The therapy would be helpful in examining Mrs. Hernandez’s self-identification, as well as her inter-generational and cultural family experiences with alcohol. Including the family members in the therapy helps in exploring the systems that are part of her perceptions of alcohol. This would help in developing an explanation that goes beyond her personal identification with alcoholism. In addition, the therapist would focus on understanding how the alcoholism affects the family and how it has been integrated into the family’s relational patterns. All these understandings will help in providing a more effective and unified intervention plan (Esposito & Hattem, 2015).  

Hernandez family genogram

References

Carlson, J., & Dermer, S. (2016). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Marriage, Family, and Couples Counseling. SAGE Publications.

Esposito, J., & Hattem, A. (2015). Introduction to Family Counseling: A Case Study Approach. SAGE Publications.

Metcalf, L. (2017). Solution Focused Narrative Therapy. Springer Publishing Company.

Monteiro, M. (2016). Spectrum: Autism Conversations in Narrative Practice. Routledge.

Neukrug, E. (2015). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Counseling and Psychotherapy. SAGE Publications.EDPC 5341 Theories of Counseling