Selected Essays And Book Reviews
COUN 601 - Marriage and Family Counseling
Lesson 19. Structural Family Counseling (Part I) {718 words}
1. Discuss some important definitions.
A. accommodating - elements of a system that automatically adjust to coordinate their functioning. People may have to work at this. It is the system adapting to a new environment or to new environmental issues.
B. boundary - a concept used in structural family therapy to describe emotional barriers that protect and enhance the integrity of individuals, subsystems, and families.
C. cross-generational coalition (similar to triangulation) - an inappropriate alliance between a parent and child who side together against a third member of the family. Focuses on at least two or more generations being involved. It is possible to have multiple coalitions in a family. Coalitions always change the family structure.
D. disengagement - Salvador Minuchin's term for psychological isolation that results from overly rigid boundaries around individuals and subsystems in a family.
E. enactment - an interaction designed in structural family therapy to observe and then change transactions which make up family structure. The therapist tries to get the family to interact together.
F. enmeshment - Salvador Minuchin's term for loss of autonomy due to blurring psychological boundaries. The blurred boundaries are what cause the members to be too close.
G. structure - the boundaries and relationships used by families to organize the family. This organization allows the family to function in a healthy or unhealthy way. Structure can include power, systems/subsystems, boundaries, coalitions, intimacy, and love.
2. Discuss the basic theory of structural family counseling. This form of counseling is a great approach. Key people are Salvador Minuchin, Montalvo, and Jay Haley. Minuchin was a prolific writer, and that drew people in. This form of counseling provided a very clear blueprint where the analysts can analyze family interactions. The main components are family structure (hierarchy or organization), subsystem, and boundaries (rigid, flexible, or too open). These theorists believe that subsystems are natural, for example parental and sibling. They focus on subsystems, and a subsystem can even be just one person. They focus on rigid and diffuse boundaries by subsystem and individual.
3. Identify the family structure and when it is evident. The family structure is universal in that every family has one. It is idiosyncratic in that every family has its own style of interacting. Therapists focus on the uniqueness of all families. The family structure is evident when one actually observes the family members interact, also when the family has learned a little about structural family therapy. When they understand the concepts, they tend to apply them to their own situation.
4. Discuss coalitions, enmeshed subsystems, and normal development. Covert coalitions occur when the coalition is a secret from other family members. In enmeshed subsystems, many families feel very close even though they are enmeshed. Enmeshment leads to lack of autonomy and independence. A family's development can be normal, and they still have problems. A normal family is one that has a functional family structure. Healthy families will adapt their structure to new environments. Dysfunctional families cannot adapt their structure.
5. Discuss the development of behavior disorders. Disorders occur because of systemic issues. Also, when the family structure is inflexible, and a change in structure is required. When family members die, the structure always changes, but some families do not know how to adapt.
6. Discuss the origins of stress/dysfunction. Stress can come in the form of general stress from larger systems like one's job, where a person is always feeling pushed to do more and do it better. Stress results when the family lacks coping skills. If the family has been very rigid for many generations, they may not know how to cope with difficulty. Many times, the fear of the unknown is greater than the pathology, so families choose the pathology. In spousal abuse, the woman may fear the consequences of leaving more than the consequences of staying.
Tom of Bethany
"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13)
Index to Selected Essays And Book Reviews
Lesson 20. Structural Family Counseling (Part II)
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