Essay On Structural Family Therapy

Stance of the Therapist An important element of structural family therapy model is a strong stance of the therapist in order to interact with the family and influence change. The therapist holds an expert/active stance and is directive. Additionally the therapist assumes leadership in the therapeutic process, thus he/she has the most power in the therapy room (Minuchin, 1974). Therefore, it is important for a therapist to become involved in the structure of the family and has to be inducted into the family. After that the therapist can observe and assess the interaction within the family structure. A structural therapist must be open to understand the perspectives of each family member in order to increase alliance/joining. The therapist himself must experience the family supports and interactions by becoming a part of the system. By joining the therapist can see the communication patterns, coalitions and alignments; this allows the therapist to take
In this model self-disclosure is seen as a distraction; if a therapist self-discloses a personal experience then the attention will shift to the therapist instead of focusing on the family process. However, I have deviated from this principle or element of the stance of the therapist. I have used self-disclosure to join with my client’s especially when working with adolescents that tend to be more resistant to accepting or pushed /challenged like this model’s interventions 9tend to do. Also there has been several times where I have explained the reasons why I used a particular intervention. This is another deviation to the stance of the therapist because in this model the therapist is not required to explain why he/she implemented a particular intervention. Although I have deviated from the stance of the therapist for the most part I stay within the traditional stance of a structural