The Significance of Family Therapy - Essay Example

The Significance of Family Therapy Effectiveness of family therapy Every family is a candi for a person with one or more psychological issue that may require psychotherapy. Psychologists and psychiatrists are constantly working to find the perfect therapy method for treating patients. While it can be agreed that it is almost impossible to find one single mode of treatment that can be said to be the best for treating all types of disorders, some are seen to have some benefits that can be reaped across all types treatment. Family therapy is one such approach in treating psychological issues. Family therapy refers to the inclusion of the entire family in the therapy session when treating one or a few members of the family. Family therapy is effective in treating patients for psychological disorders. However, the challenge is that this kind of therapy can be time consuming and in this case it is necessary for family to be able to understand the importance of this so that they can be supportive when they are needed to be involved in family therapy when one of them is being treated. When family therapy is required, it means that the entire family has sacrifice so as to be able to attend the therapy sessions. Some members of the family are likely to find this as an inconvenience and therefore be reluctant to attend. This is why it is important for people to understand how important this family therapy is in restoring a member of the family to his or her psychological or mental health. Children benefit even more from family therapy Literature review indicates that family therapy is very effective for children. If a child is having some psychological problem, involving the family in the therapy can produce better results than just having the child alone in therapy. Families should be supportive of the child so as to ensure the child is able to recover properly. In the modern world, a lot of children and young adults are being affected by many issues that may make then to develop some psychological problem. These issues are such as pressure to perform in school, relationships problems, divorce from their parents, absent parents, etc (Maxwell, 2012). Helping these people these young people must be a priority for any family because of these issues are not effectively dealt with while the child is still young, there is always a chance that the child may face some bigger problem in their adulthood. The task of a parent is to protect the child, no matter what it takes. Additionally, the role of a family is to protect and assist nay member of the family. Family provides primary support for the members and this is why family is so important. Family therapy for couples Family therapy can also be good for helping couples or others in relationships such as coworkers to work out their differences and restore their relationship (James, 2011). This is becoming another necessary issue to be addressed. Just like the children have been affected by the numerous issues that are present in the modern world, adults have also been affected and many people, who are in a relationship, romantic or otherwise, have to find a way to solve their issues. In most cases, solving these issues is not easy for couples and they end up having only two options. These two options are to either look for professional help or to break up. For most married people, breaking up is neither necessary nor expedient, especially when they want to protect and preserve their marriage. Preserving the marriage can be useful especially where children are involved. As identified above, one of the issues that have affected children and young adults is their parents’ divorce. No matter how peaceful a divorce can be, children in that family will have to suffer some negative psychological issues. At the same time, staying in a family where the parents are not in good term with each other also affects the children. Because of these factors, many couples are choosing to seek professional help so as to make sure that they can save their marriage, for the sake of their offspring, if not for their own sake. Family therapy in this case becomes very important. In such a case, family therapy can involve just the two parents, or it can involve the parents and the children as well. By attending family therapy, the family is able to get better and restored. The good news is that researchers, as indicated by the literature review, have confirmed that the use of family therapy can be very useful in restoring families. Apart from those in familial relationships, family therapy has also been identified as a useful way for other people in different types of relationships. For instance, it is common for coworkers to have issues among themselves that make them not able to work together probably due to personal differences. Yet, it is known that working as a team in workplaces is considered a necessary thing in order for workers to be able to achieve the common goals of the firm. In such a case where the employees find it hard to work together, they will either not be able to be productive or one of them may have to leave the firm and look for a job elsewhere. These two options are not usually feasible, looking for help so that they can work out their differences and start working collectively regardless of their differences is usually a good thing for such people. Again, the good thing is that scholars have identified that family therapy, or in this case group therapy is a feasible to help people in such situations. Using family therapy to treat other forms of issues Family therapy can also be very useful in treating anorexia, especially in children. Anorexia is an eating disorder that many people, especially children can suffer from. This is a dangerous psychological disorder because it really affected the physiological heath of the patient. Psychotherapy can be used to treat such patients. Fortunately, it has been established that family therapy is very effective in treating such patients. Family therapy is also effective in helping obese patients to lose weight. While treating anorexia or obese patients, family therapy becomes a very good way to quicken the process in helping the patients to be able to recover. Research has indicated that children especially benefit more from family therapy. It is necessary for parents and other members of the family to recognize this factor as it can be the genesis of helping their children. If a child is having any of these psychological disorders, it is necessary for the parents to not just send the child to therapy, but to actually be involved in the therapy. The time sacrifice can be a cost to pay, but a worthy cost anyway because the child will recover faster and better. It is necessary to note that family therapy is effective in two major ways. First, it helps the patient to recover faster and more effectively. Secondly, and this is even more important, it helps the patient to be able to avoid relapsing. Relapse in any psychological treatment is usually a major concern. A lot of people such as drug addicts are face relapse after being successfully treated. With family therapy, studies have indicated that the chance of relapse is usually diminished. As a result, it is necessary for families, and especially parents to know that when they make that sacrifice of attending their child’s therapy, they are not only helping the child to recover faster, they are also helping to make sure that the child or any member of the family, to not relapse after they have been treated. Multicultural factors should future studies include? While research indicates that family therapy is very effective in treating patients with psychological issues, it has also been identified that there are a number of factors that affect the use of family therapy. Multicultural factors for instance are a major concern. Although family therapy is said to be generally effective, how effective it can be is determined by a number of factors. Scholars have been able to identify a number of issues with regard to family therapy. Some of these issues are as follows; Families of same sex marriages Same sex marriage families have not been considered with regard to the development of family therapy. Although family therapy has been developed and researched in the last over fifty years, families that are of same sex marriages have not been considered and therefore how effective this kind of therapy can be with regard to helping such families is not well known. This lack of considering families of same sex marriages such as gay and lesbian marriages may has been caused by the fact that same sex marriages have not been accepted in the mainstream. However as many states in the USA and many countries around the world start recognizing the same sex marriage, this will be researched and become a necessary part of the practice. Changing gender roles in family The other factor that is a major concern is the fact that family set ups are changing. Family therapy as a theory if treating and helping patients with psychological problems was started over fifty years ago. In these times, the conception of a family was that it is made of a female wife, a male husband and children. The woman was seen mostly as the housekeeper and the husband as the breadwinner while the child was seen as the dependent. However, this conception of the family has ever since changed. In fact, in many families, the wife has become the bread winner and many husbands are taking house work. At the same time, young grown-ups are becoming part of the bread winners in the families. As a result, even as family therapy is being used, these old stereotypes of what a family is have to be scrapped away in order to have a better way to implement family therapy. Ethical issues There are many ethical issues that arise when using family therapy. To begin with is the issue of privacy and confidentiality. Within the practice of psychiatry, doctor-patient confidentiality is a major factor that all practitioners have to be wary of (Manuel, 2013). Unfortunately, this concept of doctor-patient confidentiality was conceived in the view that the therapy sessions happen in a one-to-one meetings with one psychiatrist and one patient at a time. However, for family therapy a whole family or at least two persons have to be involved in the process. While the psychiatrist may be bound by the doctor-patient confidentially requirement, the patients are not. How to enforce the doctor-patient confidentially in a family therapy can be an issue that will come up in such cases. At the same time, since family therapy is not just for family members but can also be used for people in other types of prelateships such as coworkers, this brings more issues with regard to doctor-patient confidentiality because one of the individuals can divulge the sensitive information of the other. In therapy sessions, people are supposed to share their sensitive information with the doctor and when this is done in a group therapy, this can lead to the other people having access to sensitive information about those they are accessing the therapy. How the literature review informs the people intended for this article The literature review has been useful in that it has provided evidence to people that family therapy can and is useful in helping their loved ones to recover faster and more effectively from any psychological issues they may be having. As many families recognize this, they will be more likely to be supportive and corporative in cases where they are required to attend family therapy session. As it is now, most people are unwilling to attend family therapy, whether they are the patient of the supporting member of the family. This resistance is caused by the ignorance with regard to how family therapy can be useful in enhancing the quality of treatment the affected person can have from family therapy as opposed to the other types of therapy. With this information being given to the general public this ambivalence towards family therapy will reduce. How can they apply these in their daily lives? They can apply this into their lives by being more supportive and agreeable when they are required to help their loved ones by attending family theory. The patient can also apply this information by agreeing to have their families to attend their therapy session. As has been identified, it is not just the family members who are always resistant towards family therapy, the patient themselves may refuse or be reactant to have their families attend their psychotherapy sessions. With this information, they can now appreciate family therapy more and therefore benefit from family therapy. At the same time, since family therapy is not just for family members but can also be used for people in other types of relationship such as coworkers, this information can he such people to know that they can use family therapy to help them to work together in a better way. Research question for further studies As it has been identified, one major issue that has emerged with regard to use of family therapy is the issue of doctor-patient confidentiality. The question of doctor-patient confidentiality must therefore be answered. For this reason, the research question for further study of family therapy should be with regard to how confidentially issues should be addressed in family therapy. This is even more critical with regard to family therapy when applied to people who are not part of the same family. For instance, if coworkers have to be involved in a family therapy process to help them work well together, the issue of patient confidentiality must be approached in a special way as opposed in the traditional way. Why this question is relevant to the current work As more practitioners continue to find themselves dealing with family therapy issues, they will need to know how to separate two major issues that are important in psychotherapy. These two factors are; the need for the patient to share personal issues in order for him or her to be able to benefit from therapy, and the need to protect them from their personal sensitive information being divulged to the world. As a result, the need to answer the question of how doctor-patient confidentiality must be handled is one issue that must be handled in a careful manner. The question of whether family therapy is effective has already been answered. However, some other questions with regard to family therapy have to be answered. These questions involve the issue of how this can be applied in some nontraditional situations such as same sex marriage. More importantly, the question of how doctor-patient confidentiality should be handled in such therapy session must be looked at in order t make sure that the laws of psychotherapy have not been broken. References James, P. (2011). Family Therapy for Co-Workers. New York, NY: Wiley & Sons. Manuel, G. (2013). Doctor-patient Confidentiality: A Guide fro Pratitioners . New York, NY: Pearson Books. Maxwell, O. (2012). The Modern Child; Forces that Shape the Children of Today. New York, NY: Pearson Education Books. Read More