Family Therapy

Therapy is a skill that is used by many people around the world. Therapy can be used to assist people currently facing problems within their home or even within themselves. There are many types of therapy offered, but they all serve the same purpose. They are used to mentally assist and stabilize an individual to a point where they can function comfortably. Family therapy is a type of therapy that is used to help families resolve conflicts and improve their relationships. One specific type of family therapy that is commonly used is known as marriage therapy. Marriage therapy is essentially counseling or mental exercise to improve the marriage between two people. Family therapy and marriage therapy both have been around for a while and they
provide a great way for people to gain new perspectives on the problems they are facing.
Family therapy did not emerge as a vital therapy practice until the early 1960s.
Its first traces date back to the early 1940s due to the emergence of the American Association of Marriage Counselors. Some of the key influencers of family therapy include Nathan Ackerman, Tom Andersen, and Alfred Adler. Patricia Minuchin from Temple University talks about the main concept that drives family therapy in her article “Families and Individual Development: Provocation from the Field of Family Therapy” she states that family therapy “is based on systems theory. Although the field is characterized by theoretical argument and a diversity of alternative techniques for creating change, the systems view of human functioning is well established.” (Minuchin) Systems theory suggest that you cannot understand people in isolated situations. You must look at people within their natural environment or their family to understand them fully. It is challenging to understand families without considering the interconnected relationships of each individual within a family. Beyond the core concepts of family therapy, it is important to understand some techniques that are utilized to help
families.
Some techniques that are used in family therapy include structural therapy, strategic therapy, and narrative therapy. Structural therapy attempts to join the family system in therapy in order to gain an organic understanding of the implied rules and underlining of a family to better work out the kinks. Strategic therapy revolves around actively tackling problems and creating a strategic plan to solve problems. Lastly, narrative therapy strives to alter the effects of a problem within a family, rather than changing the people within the family. By changing the effects of a problem it creates a stage for positive interactions between the people of the family and offers a new meaning to the actions they are already comfortable with.
The atmosphere of family therapy is very different compared to individual therapy.
In individual therapy, the therapist focuses on the person and changing the person in order to better their lives. Salvador Minuchin, author of “Families and Family Therapy” explains how family therapy has a much different atmosphere. Minuchin states “ If the same boy were referred to a family therapist, the therapist would explore his interaction within significant life contexts. In family interviews, the therapist would observe the relationship of the boy and his mother, with its mingled closeness and hostility.”(Minuchin) Family therapy has a much more observant atmosphere. It is about observing the family in their natural state to see how they interact with one another and what is necessary to fix the problem at hand. You cannot fix a family by just looking at one person. Typically family therapists have to deal with problems such as depression, child behavior problems, domestic violence, and even infertility. These problems could be prevalent in an individual therapy session as well, but the focus within a family therapy session is completely different. Focusing more on how these problems can affect the entire family dynamic rather than one
person. To conclude, family therapy has been around for a very long time. It has evolved and become very successful. Thomas Sexton and Charles W. Turner wrote an article about the effectiveness of family therapy. It is titled “The Effectiveness of Functional Family Therapy for Youth with Behavioral Problems in a Community Practice Setting”. This article states that “High adherent therapists delivering FFT had a statistically significant reduction of (35%) in felony, a (30%) violent crime, and a marginally significant reduction (21%) in misdemeanor recidivisms as compared to the control condition.” (Sexton) Overall family therapy shows to be effective in reducing things like repeated crime and other family issues. It is important to understand that family therapy will work differently for everyone, but these results show that generally it is a successful therapy and provides support to many people.