Free Essay Sample on Family Therapy

Introduction

Therapy is one of the crucial ways in which people facing different kinds of emotional and psychological problems can be helped. There are various types of treatments that can be used on people that need psychological counseling. One of the therapies is family systems therapy, and this is an approach that focuses on relationships to be an emotional unit and support for people going through treatment. When the systems approach which looks into parts of a system relative to the whole is used, it is important to note that a family is a small unit that makes part of a whole community. Families are in a great position to solve their problems; however, when there are unwillingness and rigidity, it is difficult to realize this objective. When people are not able to issues by offering solutions to their people, then it implies that the family unit is not functioning in its optimal.

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On the other hand, when a family unit functions well, it becomes therapy to its people. In this regard, people in the family setups, and experiencing conflicts may find it easy to utilize the family therapy approach extremely useful. Family systems therapy can be traced back to Murray Bowens’s theory, which explains that people cannot be separated from their network of relationships. The discussion will focus on Structural and multigenerational family therapies by exploring the components of each one of them and drawing their similarities and differences.

Structural Family Therapy

In several, if not all cultures, family instills its constituents with selfhood, and from it, they can draw a sense of identity. Naturally, human beings have two aspects of personality, and they include a sense of belonging and that of disconnect. One thing, however, should be noted is that a family is stabilized by each person's contribution. The structure of a family is made in a manner where power is equally spread among individuals, but the subsystems are organized in a top to bottom order. As a result, there are members who have more ability than others, but it is balanced through the contributions of each member. Therapists often work closely with families not as professionals but as people who can be consulted on various matters surrounding their people who need help. Structural family therapy by Salvador Munich focuses on joining the family in the therapeutic process to understand the unseen rules that control the functioning of the family of the client. It looks at the relationships between subsets of the family and how they can be disruptive or dysfunctional. The therapy focuses on systems and the set up of the family as well as the subsets.

One of the main components of structural family therapy is that family structure is the unseen organization of basic demands that determine how individuals in the set up interact. It is the structure that guides the way people relate with one another. Another component is that there is an overall arrangement that keeps a family's dysfunctional associations. The method is characterized by authority and a chain of command, and despite people interacting with one another, the flow of power from the top to bottom and vice versa. Because hierarchy boundaries are established, and they can be feeble or strong, lucid or diffused, rigid, or open.

Additionally, when there is a need for restructuring manipulation and looking into the associations within the setup. An abrupt behavioral pattern lays the foundation for the hypothesis regarding family set up. It is also characterized by enactments. This means that how people interact is proposed by a therapist as a path through which diagnosis and understanding of how a family operates are achieved. The enactment will then lead to getting an opening for intervention and restructuring the setup. Besides, it is characterized by a narrative structure in which family interacts, and this means that it is an organized and proposed pattern which the set up should follow.

The structural family therapy focuses on the utilization of subsystems or small groupings that come up based on age, gender, and other features. The subsystems and gatherings can be made up of siblings, parents, or even spouses. In therapy, the boundaries are often regarded as reciprocal, and this means that if they are weak, then the individual is most likely disconnected from the family groupings. As a result, they are more likely to be unhappy because they lack emotional support and back from the family. On the contrary, if the boundaries are clear and normal, then the individual is likely to be more connected happy and fulfilled. For instance, when a mother is close to her daughter and engages in various activities with her, such as cooking cleaning, she is more likely to be emotionally fulfilled than the son. The latter is distant and not involved in the bonding and activities.

According to structural family therapy, when the family structure is altered, the different positions of family members also change. When they remain constant, the case applies to the people in the setup. The symptoms displayed in an individual are a replica of the transactions taking place in the family as a system. For the individual state to change, there must be a change in the family structure and relationships first, and it is in this regard that the therapists need to engage the family in forming the foundation for the solution. It is because the family has to change first because how it operates has a direct impact on individual emotional stability. When families transition and change for the better, then the more the symptomatic distress decreases. Therapy is lead by altering the family structure, and therapists are not viewed as solvers of problems, but the family is regarded as the main people to resolve issues.

Multigenerational Family Therapy

It is a family therapy that focuses on generation impact on the family as well as individual behavior. It seeks to find out multigenerational behavioral patterns, for instance, monitoring of anxiety and help people see how their actions can be rooted in their lineage. Murray Bowell developed the therapy to assist in the treatment of families as well as individuals. The treatment is characterized by normalization, and this entails discussing family's challenges relating them with similar issues in other families. The therapy is characterized by a description of individual family member problems instead of condemning them.

Additionally, it focuses on helping people own up problems and helping an individual instead of accusing them. It motivates family members to use 'I' statements instead of those that accusatory. Another feature of the multigenerational therapy is that triangles characterize it. This implies that a family is formed by small building blocks, which are the three people in a triangle. When there is tension in one person in the relationship, it can be spread among the others, and the connection is stabilized without changing anything.

Another feature is that the differentiation in parents and their offspring are continuously transmitted, and they shaped the identity of each member of the family in relation to their lineage. The combinations of parents actively determine the development of their offsprings who possess the inert features of their lineage. For instance, their attitudes, moods, and other features are replicated in the families. However, in a nuclear setup, there are children who become more like their parents while there are those that become less of their parents in the process of shaping self.

The therapy also utilizes the nuclear family emotional process, which explains that patterns play a critical role in shaping a person's emotional stability. When there is tension in nuclear and extended families, and it is not solved, it is likely to be extended to other generations forming a consistent patter unless one person takes a different path from the original. A good example is a dysfunctional spouse, conflicts in marriage, among others.

There are similarities in both structural and multigenerational family therapy. One of the similarities is that they are both anchored on a family set and recognizes it as the building block of any relationship. Both explain that when there is instability in how people in families relate, then the emotional stability of the individual members is affected. In both, the healing and recovery of a person depend on changing the family structure to accommodate and embrace the individual. In both poor families, relations lowers the emotional stability of a person while stable and normal relationships create calm emotions. In both, the therapist must be involved in family affairs and interactions to known the source of the problem.

On the other hand, there are differences in the two therapies and one of the differences structural looks at the unit as a unit whose state affects the current state of mind of an individual. At the same time, the Multigenerational focus of offsprings and the behaviors passed down from one generation to another. While structural centers on the interactions among immediate family members multigenerational focus of several families with n the lineage establishes common patterns in behavior.

Conclusion

I would subscribe to structural therapy because the emotional or psychological problems of a person can be easily traced through their immediate family. The therapist interacts with the family unit to establish interactions, and through it, they can tell where the problem is an finding the solution can be faster. Additionally, the therapist involves the family from the beginning of the process to the end when recovery or otherwise is realized.

It is important to note that family therapies are some of the most effective approaches in helping an individual because it not only looks at the problem but also its source, which in this case is family relations.

References

Jiménez, L., Hidalgo, V., Baena, S., León, A., & Lorence, B. (2019). Effectiveness of Structural–Strategic Family Therapy in the Treatment of Adolescents with Mental Health Problems and Their Families. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(7), 1255.

Schlussel, T., & Gasbarrini, M. F. (2018). Coaching in Bowen Family Therapy.