Model of Family Therapy - Essay Example

I have always observed that people of a family interact with one another on an emotional level. The emotions may not apparently be quite obvious or visible, but they lay the basis of everyday decisions that have an impact upon the overall emotional and psychological balance of the family. It is usually quite helpful to study the social perceptions of the respective roles of different members of a family because most of the times, people tend to stick to these social norms. “Social constructionism … can offer new possibilities for assessment and intervention with families.

” (Worden, 2002, p. 13). Among numerous models of family therapy, I feel that the structural model of family therapy is based on similar principles and adopts a similar approach towards the resolution of the problem. That is why I think the Structural family therapy model fits best my style or personality. A therapist (Marriage and Family Therapist Career) employing SFT must first assess the family’s interactions, figuring out the family’s hierarchy, alliances within the family, such as a mother and son against a father, or siblings against another sibling or siblings.

(AllPsychologyCareers.com, 2011). The structural model of family therapy emphasizes upon a change in the structure of family and requires the therapist to play a very active role in bringing about the change. This model can be applied to a whole range of emotional imbalances. This model perceives family which may show an evolutionary transformation. The family is essentially a living open system in which the individuals depend upon one another to satisfy their individualistic needs. “Families are organizationally complex emotional systems that may comprise at least three – and increasingly today, as a result of longer life expectancies – four generations” (Goldenberg and Goldenberg, 2008, p. 4). Such families can be characterized by such traits as conflict avoidance, intergenerational associations, lack of growth and triangulation.

In the structural model of family therapy, the therapist sees the problem behavior as a component of the family’s stagnation. Thus, the therapist assesses the perceptual and transactional structure which is supportive of the symptom instead of serving as a causal factor. Accordingly, change occurs in terms of the family structure’s modification. This involves changes in the distance between various family members, positional changes. In addition to that, the hierarchical relations are redefined and a different set of rules for the family is explored.

What I like the most about the structural model of family therapy is the fact that it illustrates the significance of the emotional inter-relatedness of the family members more than their blood relations with one another. A father may be blood-related to his child, but he may not be experiencing the necessary emotional relationship with the child. Likewise, the child may not be as close a relative of an uncle or aunt but may be more comfortable in sharing his problems with him/her. All the therapist is required is to see how to manipulate the structure of the family.

In this model of family therapy, the therapist plays with distances in a way that all family members share optimal distance with one another. It is more like a game in which success is achieved by adequate positioning of