Applying Structural, Strategic, and Solution-Oriented Techniques to the Quest Family Case - Essay Example

Perhaps, these disagreements and this challenges, which have occurred in every age of the family revolution are how scientific research and application progresses. According to Wetchler and Hecker (2003), linear theories and techniques became as prohibited as the term psychoanalytic and as debasing as being labelled a ‘liberal’ in today’s intellectual environment. Three groundbreaking family therapy and counselling techniques, namely, (1) structural, (2) strategic, and (3) solution-oriented, emerged.

Structural therapy attempts to produce a deep-seated transformation in the ‘present’ and is not quite focused on the past, sentiments, ideas, or values. The standpoint of the therapist or the counsellor is that the family has the required abilities, knowledge, or resources to cope with an issue or difficulty but has not yet discovered the means to perform the solution because of its present structure. On the other hand, the strategic technique aims to upset the self fulfilling patterns that function to sustain the problem and to identify the situations for more necessary transactional blueprints to form, thus transforming repetitive patterns into advantageous ones.

Solution-focused technique, then again, focuses on more on solutions than on problems. Indeed, it views the problem as being sustained by an emphasis on the problem to the detriment of the solution pattern which is readily taking place. This paper will apply these three family therapy and counselling techniques to the Quest family case study. The discussion will focus on the strategies inherent in the three models, as well as their strengths and limitations. Resolving the Quest Family Issue The case is about a family, composed of five members, the housewife, the father (Paul), and the three children, Jason, Luke, and Ann.

The issue is that the father is unreasonably busy with his work, which consequently brings about problems, such as those related with the lack of quality time and absent fatherhood, in the family. The major problem that the therapist sees is the stress the mother is experiencing as a full-time housewife and Paul’s lack of time for his family. There are three possible techniques to resolve these issues, specifically, structural, strategic, and solution-oriented. But there are also risks in applying these techniques to this particular case.

In the point of view systems theory, the Quest family case is a clear illustration of the application of ‘openings’, which are a major element of circular probing. For instance, Paul may claim “My children are quite independent.” The notion of being independent is an opening since it is a term that is greatly endowed with value for Paul’s family; and although a grievance is normally aimed at an individual in crisis, the opening has unknown circulations all over the system. Structural Technique Paul’s family system is ‘open’.

It means that it is vulnerable to and affects the immediate environment. This means that the members of Paul’s family are not the sole builders of their family structure; appropriate policies could be enforced by the other relatives of Paul’s family or by the community or the society in the wider terms. When we identify that the relationship of