The Practice of Family Therapy - Research Paper Example

The Practice of Family Therapy A description of the case study and how the problem effect on all members of the family The paper discusses the problem of alcohol addiction on family members, and it gives a case study of Gustavo, a young man aged thirty-two years. Gustavo is an addict to taking alcohol and the addiction as well affects the family members as well as his kinship and how he relates to other people including the girlfriend. The young man’s addiction has not only affected the family members, but as well affected the way the family functions. In essence, the roles of the family have gotten stalled, and all focus gets shifted to Gustavo. The father, who is the head of the family, has had certain roles added to him. Apart from providing for the family, the father has had to work extra hard to pay for his son’s debts as he continues drinking. Despite the father's old age, who is now sixty years old, he is forced to contend with the situation, and once things get tough, he sorts out other intervention? The young man’s addiction worries everyone and instills a relationship of indifference amongst the family members. The father, therefore, decides to enroll him in a rehabilitation program, hoping that the young man would change. Gustavo gets enrolled in an Alcohol and Drug Addiction Support Program by the parents hoping that their son would change and turn away from alcoholism. The brothers who are younger and aged sixteen and twenty turns away from offering his care due to his alcoholism. The brothers get worried about his situation as well as of the financial troubles he begets the family due to his loss of job and alcoholism. Besides, Gustavo gets his relationship with his girlfriend cut off due to his state. The relationship between him and the girlfriend gets estranged, and Gustavo only comes to realize once he is in the rehabilitation program. He as well consents to the idea of attending the rehabilitation institution, but, however, doesn’t agree with the impression that drug and substance abuse is a disease. The alcoholism behavior, not only disturbed the family members but as well as his close associates and fellow workers. The alcoholism disturbs his relationship with the fellow employees. However, despite all the challenges, the mother and father still cared for him. The mother cared for his health despite alcohol consuming most of his time. Gustavo got unwell most of the times and the mother had to care for his health status. The father on the other hand had to work to pay off the debts that had accumulated in the pubs and bars, which he did pay on his son’s behalf bit by bit. A description of the situations that prompted the family to seek help from my agency and the identification and explanation of both the intake and assessment phases of the therapy process The family got to seek the services of the agency since their son’s situation was seemingly getting out of hand. Gustavo was getting more addicted to alcoholism, and the situation was getting the family roles stalled. All the care was getting shifted to him due to his deteriorating health and rising upkeep charges. The concern of the family on their son’s condition and the estranging of their son’s relationship with others was also an area of concern that prompted the family to seek the services of my agency. The Therapy Intake and assessment process takes into account a number of steps and starts before the client comes for the first appointment. Intake interview The first meeting with the therapist, an intake interview is conducted. Certain therapist as well would conduct an intake interview with the child or addict so as to get to know the experience and the problems as well as engage the addict fully in the treatment process. (Hanna, & Brown, (1999). Likewise, I will consider incorporating the family systems theory that proposes that it is difficult to understand individuals while in isolation from one another, but rather as a part of their family. The fact is because the family is considered an emotional unit. ( Nichols, 2014). In essence, therefore, as a therapist, I would incorporate Gustavo’s family and question the parents concerning the child’s early development, present functioning and the problem at hand. Likewise, during the stage, I will engage in building an alliance with the family of Gustavo and come up with a hypothesis concerning what maintains the problem. Pre-treatment assessment In regards to the therapist and the presentation of the problem by the addict or child, the therapist may resolve to carry on a pre-treatment assessment. The appraisal may involve answering of more questionnaires by the parent, as well as the child. The results of the assessment would grant the therapist more information concerning the situation. (Carr, 2000).In essence, I would require Gustavo to complete a number of pretreatment tasks, including answering questionnaires. The family system theory entails that certain behaviors may get influenced as a result of other family members behaviors. (Nichols, 2014).As a result, therefore, I would seek to know whether any of the family members, be it the nuclear or extended family exhibits the behavior currently exhibited by Gustavo. Introduction stage The introduction stage is the first phase of the treatment. At this stage, I would get Gustavo to get acquainted with the playroom, myself, the therapist as well as the play therapy procedure. The family as well will have to get acquainted with the therapy procedure at this stage. Tentative acceptance stage At this stage, the child would probably be looking forward to the therapy sessions, entering playroom as well as meeting the therapist. At this stage, there are certain changes that take place. Some of them are uncomfortable and may be difficult to adapt to prompting the child to get back to the older comfortable patterns. During this stage, I would require the parents to help me closely monitor Gustavo. Growing phase This stage is considered the most important stage, as well as the longest part of the whole therapy process. At this stage, the child comes to understand his difficulties better, how to resolve his problems as well as how to live a more honorable and better happier life. The stage is quite difficult, and the children typically make significant advance and slide back into some of the previous behaviors and symptoms. In the case of Gustavo, I would encourage the family to try impact on behavior development and understand all his difficulties. I would as well challenge the family to view their individual roles in the problems that trouble them. I would also encourage the family to take an active role and interact more with each other including with Gustavo. Termination phase The termination phase is the last stage of the therapy process. The phase starts when the child’s behavioral and emotional functioning has stabilized. At this point, the function should have stabilized to the state that the parent, child and the therapist are confident in the child’s ability to maintain the gains achieved without frequent play therapy sessions. The dynamics that focused yours and the family’s planning and goal setting, functioning One of the primary dynamics that has contributed to the appropriate family therapy is the need for the treatment of the health problem. Indeed, the family has a key role to play in treating any health problem, as well as substance abuse. The family systems theory supports the analogy and holds that each member has a role to play, and it is easier to understand behaviors of people by looking at their family. Notably, the family’s role has indeed become a strong and continuing theme of many treatment approaches. However, the family therapy is not put to use in its greatest capacity in the substance abuse treatment and requires the broadening of the treatment from an individual view to a family view. As well, the dynamic for the focused family planning and goal setting is the notion that the maladaptive behaviors could get reinforced through family interactions. The Cognitive–behavioral family therapy approaches put to use so as to ensure the maladaptive behaviors that include substance use and abuse do not get reinforced through the family interactions. The behaviorally oriented treatment attempts to alter the interactions as well as target behaviors that trigger substance abuse, so as to improve problem-solving and strengthen coping skills. Another dynamic for the planning and goal setting to appropriate Family Therapy is the need to help the families become cognizant of their individual needs and to provides actual, long- suffering healing for the people. The family system theory entails the need for the integration of the family therapy functions to dislodge power to the parental figures in a family as well as to enhance communication. The system theory holds that the behaviors get interconnected and, therefore, can get easily understood. As an approach to treatment, the family systems theory underscores the mutuality of family members instead of centering on individuals while isolating the family. As a result, therefore, the use of contemporary family therapy in substance abuse treatment is effective in aiding prevention; specifically, keeping the substance abuse from moving from one generation to another. The family units’, as well as the family member’s involvement in the intervention process Family systems theory prospects the family as a dynamic and an interactive unit that undergoes a continual evolution in its structure. The system contains subsystems of discrete units that include the father- mother, mother- child and brother-sister. Meanwhile, the system as well includes super systems such as the community and that the main functions of the family include support, nurturance, and socialization. The involvement of the family in the intervention process is, therefore, a key important issue in ensuring the process succeeds. The family can help an addict seek assistance so as to solve his problem. The family units’ role in offering support is essential in the process so as to solve the problem. (Weeks, et al. 2003) . The drug and substance abuse has gotten considered as a family disease and, therefore, there is a need for family involvement with people combating the drug and substance addiction. The family needs to attend the outpatient and inpatient addiction therapy session regularly. The attendance would help them understand the drugs better as well as their effects and assist their families so as to realize the benefits of the family therapy process. Likewise, the family may engage in the intervention process through nurturing the children in a good way. The family should always play its role in organizing and having a private and non-confrontational, honest talk with addicts so as to implore them while seeking treatment. (Alexander, et al. 2004) The termination phase: the decisions made by the family and the decisions made by the worker issues that you and the family worked through One of the decisions worked on during the termination phase between the worker, and the family included the closure date of the process. The other decisions made included analyzing the benefits of the therapy, as well as the effectiveness of the whole process. The family and the therapist as well came up with a decision to conduct an evaluation of the whole process and see whether the objectives got achieved. The family as well decided that they would regularly attend sessions in which people get educated on the drug effects and ways of dealing with addiction so as to help solve the problem in case it arises. (Alexander, 2013). The therapist as well decided that the client should occasionally visit him so as to see how he is coping up. Follow –up plans The follow-up plans are diverse and include attending to the support meetings and the counseling sessions. During these meetings, one is given an understanding of the effects of the drug and is also helped to live a drug-free life. The client as well is regularly expected to visit he therapist as a follow-up activity so that the therapist can see and analyze the changes he is going through. Likewise, as a follow-up method, there is the need for attending to counseling session so as to understand the effects of the disease. The follow-up would involve visiting the therapists so that he evaluates the change in the life and behavior of the addict. The family can as well engage in conversations and talks with the addicts so as to gauge his behavioral change. The family may also seek to study how he relates to other people and as well as his health status; if it is either improving or deteriorating. It is agreeable that the follow-up process is an all-important process of any therapy session. Besides, it is always possible for a client to feel abandoned after the sessions are complete. As a follow-up, the client requires having extra therapy sessions after the completion of the whole process. The family's Genogram and member’s information References Alexander, J. F. (2013). Functional family therapy for adolescent behavior problems. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association. Alexander, J. F., Carlson, J., Brown, Y., Tullos, J. M., American Psychological Association. & Governors State University. (2004). Functional family therapy. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. Carr, A. (2000). Family therapy: Concepts, process, and practice. Chichester: Wiley. Carr, A. (2012). Family therapy: Concepts, process, and practice. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Hanna, S. M., & Brown, J. H. (1999).The practice of family therapy: Key elements across models. Belmont [Calif.: Brooks/Cole Wadsworth Nichols, M. P. (2014). Family therapy: Concepts and methods. Harlow: Pearson. Weeks, G. R., Sexton, T., & Robbins, M. (2003).Handbook of family therapy: Theory, practice and research. Philadelphia, Pa: Brunner-Routledge. Read More