FAMILY SYSTEM THERAPY

Family System Therapy

DEFINITION:  "Family therapy is a form of psychotherapy that involves all members of a nuclear or extended family.  It may be conducted by a pair or team of therapists.  In many cases the team consists of a man and woman in order to treat gender-related issues or serve as role models for family members. Although some forms of family therapy are based on behavioral or psychodynamic principles, the most widespread form is based on family systems theory.  This approach regards the family, as a whole, as the unit of treatment, and emphasizes such factors as relationships and communication patterns rather than traits or symptoms in individual members." ("Family therapy," 2008)

KEY FIGURES:

Alfred Adler

Murray Bowen

Virginia Satir

Carl Whitaker

Salvador Minuchin

Chloe Madanes

GOAL:

To help family members improve communication, solve family problems, understand and handle special family situations, and create a better functioning home environment.  Family theraoy is often used when the child or adolescent has a personality, anxiety, or mood disorder that impairs their family and social functioning, and and when a stepfamily is formed or begins having difficults adjusting to the new family life.  Families with members from a mixture of racial, cultural, and religions backgrounds as well as families made up of same-sex couples who are raising children, may also benefit from family therapy.  ("Family Systems theory," 2012)

CONCEPTS:

8 interlocking concepts:

Triangles - Smallest stable relationship system.  Traingles usually have one side in conflict and two sides in harmony, contributing to the development of clinical problems.

Differentiation of self - Variance in individuals in their susceptibiliy to depend on others for acceptance and approval.

Nuclear family emotional system - Four relationship pattersn that define where problems may develop in a family.

1. Marital conduct
2. Dysfunction in one spouse
3. Impairment of one or more children
4. Emotional distance 

Family projection process - Transmission of emotional problems from a parent to a child.

Multigenerational transmission process - Transmission of small differences in the levels of differentiation between parents and their children.

Emotional cutoff - Act of reducing or cutting off emotional contact with family as a a way of managing unresolved emotional issues.

Sibling position - Impact of sibling position on development and behavior.

Societal emotional process - Emotional system governs behavior on a societal level, promoting both progressive and regressive periods in a society. ("Family Systems theory," 2012)

TECHNIQUES:

Family systems theory is more than a therapeutic technique.  It is a philosophy that searches for the causes of behavior, not in the individual alone, but in the interactions among the members of a group.  The basic rationale is that all parts of the family are interrelated.  Further, the family has properties of its own that can be known only by looking at the relationships and interactions among all members. ("Family Systems theory," 2012)

References

 Family therapy. (2008). Retrieved from http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Family  

             systems therapy

Family systems theory. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.genopro.com/genogram/family-systems-

             theory/