Critically Consider the Application of Systemic Family Therapy to Working with Children
Critically consider the application of systemic family therapy to working with children.
Family Therapy-defining concepts
At first, family therapy was an experiment. In the post-World War II, many psychologists and psychiatrists strove to comprehend the multiple influences on human behaviour and adjustment. This is the common background of the biopsychosocial approach, the systemic approach, or family systems theory.
Gurman, Kniskern, and Pinsof (1986) state that the ‘Family therapy may be defined as any psychotherapeutic endeavor that explicitly focuses on altering the interactions between or among family members and seeks to improve the functioning of the family as the unit, or its subsystems, and/or functioning of the individual members of the family’ (p.565).
In other words, rather than focusing solely on the individual, family therapy is concerned with the person in his or her own right. The problem of an individual, therefore, is viewed by family therapists as stemming from the source larger than the person. The main advantage of this is the possibility of influencing the problem via a number of people (i.e. family members), instead of just one. Symptoms are changed through alterations of relationships in which people are involved.
The varieties of family therapy practice and family systems theory range from those derived from psychoanalysis (psychodynamic family therapy of Ackerman, Bowen systems therapy, and object relations therapy); to those primarily centred around expressiveness and communications (Satir’s conjoint therapy); to those focused on organisation (structural family therapy of Minuchin); and to those derived from hypnotic practises of Milton Erickson. The unifying theme of the techniques employed is the identification of the family process as the targets for intervention and alteration.
Beginning with Ackerman, one line of family therapists who work with young children concentrates on psychodynamics. Zilbach (1986) emphasises the
Family Therapy-defining concepts
At first, family therapy was an experiment. In the post-World War II, many psychologists and psychiatrists strove to comprehend the multiple influences on human behaviour and adjustment. This is the common background of the biopsychosocial approach, the systemic approach, or family systems theory.
Gurman, Kniskern, and Pinsof (1986) state that the ‘Family therapy may be defined as any psychotherapeutic endeavor that explicitly focuses on altering the interactions between or among family members and seeks to improve the functioning of the family as the unit, or its subsystems, and/or functioning of the individual members of the family’ (p.565).
In other words, rather than focusing solely on the individual, family therapy is concerned with the person in his or her own right. The problem of an individual, therefore, is viewed by family therapists as stemming from the source larger than the person. The main advantage of this is the possibility of influencing the problem via a number of people (i.e. family members), instead of just one. Symptoms are changed through alterations of relationships in which people are involved.
The varieties of family therapy practice and family systems theory range from those derived from psychoanalysis (psychodynamic family therapy of Ackerman, Bowen systems therapy, and object relations therapy); to those primarily centred around expressiveness and communications (Satir’s conjoint therapy); to those focused on organisation (structural family therapy of Minuchin); and to those derived from hypnotic practises of Milton Erickson. The unifying theme of the techniques employed is the identification of the family process as the targets for intervention and alteration.
Beginning with Ackerman, one line of family therapists who work with young children concentrates on psychodynamics. Zilbach (1986) emphasises the