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Family Interaction Patterns: Structural Family Therapy in Contexts of Cultural Diversity

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Dr. Yvette Stupart is a clinical counselor and educator. She gives insights on how to experience emotional health and relational well-being.

Interactions between family members are an important frame of reference for structural family therapists.

Interactions between family members are an important frame of reference for structural family therapists.

What is the Focus of Family Therapy?

The principal purpose of the different approaches to psychotherapy is to help people feel differently, and to change their thinking and behavior. Individual and family unit therapies are approaches to understand human beliefs, and to care for emotional and psychological difficulties in clients.

While individual therapy focuses on helping clients to gain insights on themselves and their bug in society to change, family therapy emphasizes the family organization and changing its system. Irresolute the organisation of the family leads to change in the individual members.

The systems perspective views the family unit as a self-regulating system held together by unspoken rules to maintain itself. Structure is a very important, and this defines how a family unit organizes and maintains itself.

What is likewise important is how the family adapts and changes over time; for instance, learning to connect with teens. Psychological symptoms are viewed equally indications of a dysfunctional family. Thus in family therapy, the focus of treatment is the family organization, and not the problem or symptomatic family fellow member.

Family therapy is a developing field with diverse viewpoints to understanding and working with families, and these approaches include:

  • Bowens Family Systems
  • Strategic
  • Structural
  • Experiential
  • Psychoanalytic
  • Solution-Focused

This guide focuses on structural family therapy (SFT). If you lot are considering family unit therapy or want ameliorate you knowledge on SFT, this article presents relevant information on its origins, key concepts, therapeutic goals, and some of the therapeutic interventions used in the approach.

Salvador Minuchin and Structural Family Therapy

Salvador Minuchin- Founder of Structural Family unit therapy

Your Cognition of Minuchin and SFT

Salvador Minuchin

Salvador Minuchin developed structural family therapy (SFT). This approach is considered to be the most influential approach to family therapy worldwide.

Minuchin was built-in in Argentina in1921, and was trained in child psychiatry and psychoanalysis. He moved to Israel in 1952 and worked with displaced children.

Structural family therapy was developed out of work with people from the lower socioeconomic groundwork. In the 1960s while he was training as a psychoanalyst, Minuchin began to develop structural family therapy through his work at Wiltwyck School in New York. This was a school for boys who were troubled. He recognized that he needed to see the boys' parents for effective handling of their bug.

Minuchin was self-taught in family therapy and collaborated with a many of his colleagues including Jay Haley (strategic family unit therapy) in the 1960's. He was manager and head of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Dispensary from 1965-1981. It was at that place that he refined the theory and practice of SFT.

Minuchin started his own heart in New York in 1981 where he continued to exercise and teach family unit therapy until 1996. He retired in 1996 and 2005 and continued to travel and teach beyond the world. He has contributed to numerous professional journals and co-authored many books including, "The Craft of Family unit Therapy: Challenging Certainties" which was i his latest boothousand. In this book, Minuchin includes the bones principles of Structural Family Therapy (SFT) and explores the craft of the arroyo.

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Overview and Role Play of Structural Family Therapy

Important Concepts in Structural Family Therapy

Structural Family Therapy is concerned about how families are organized, and the rules that govern their transactions. According to this approach, family problems are maintained past dysfunctional family structures or organisation.

Families are organized in subsystems with boundaries regulating the way the members interact with each other. SFT recognizes families are competent and capable to solve their own bug. The arroyo likewise retains traditional views concerning the importance of power and hierarchy in the family.

SFT is an approach to understanding the nature of the family, the presenting problem, and the procedure of change. This change occurs in family unit members through a new way of their thinking and restructuring of their relationships. The hierarchies, and the clear and even the subconscious rules, must exist understood before the therapist can help the family to change. This change could result in a better style of parenting and interacting in the family unit.

The 3 essential concepts in SFT are:

  • family structure
  • family unit subsystems
  • boundaries
The members of a family cannot be understood in isolation because they function together.

The members of a family unit cannot exist understood in isolation because they office together.

Family Subsystems

The family is a basic human organization and consists of various subsystems. These are subgroups within the family'southward structure with the responsibility to carry out various family tasks. Subsystems in families could be based on generations, gender, and mutual interests and role functions

These subsystems categories include:

  • spousal (wife and husband)
  • Parental (mother and father)
  • Sibling (children)
  • Extended (grandparents, other relatives)

The higher up subsystem categories are common, but at that place are numerous possibilities of sub-groupings. For example, a mother and her youngest child could form a tight subsystem from which others are excluded).

Each family unit fellow member plays a different role in different sub-groups (subsystems). For example, in the case of Pauline who is married with ii children. She is a female parent in the parental subsystem, a wife in the spousal subsystem, and 3rd sister in the sibling subsystem of her ain family of origin.

Each subsystem has appropriate tasks and functions. And so when one subsystem, for case, the sibling subsystem, intrudes on some other subsystem, such as the spousal subsystem, where it does not vest, this could issue in structural difficulties.

Outcomes of Family Therapy

Family Structure

There are rules that organize the way the family interacts, and unlike families interact differently depending on their rules. These repeated interactions promote expectations that constitute lasting patterns.

According to Minuchin and his colleagues in Mastering Family Therapy, "Family members adapt to family rules that allocate roles and functions.This adaptation fosters shine performance, anticipating responses, security, loyalty, and harmony" (p. 33).

It is possible to empathize the structure that governs a family'south communication patterns by observing the family'due south actions. This would include which family member says what to whom, in what manner, and also the results of the interaction. In addition, it is important to find how appropriate the hierarchical structure in the family unit is.

The repeated sequences emerging in family therapy reveal the structural patterns of the family. But the family structure is reinforced by expectations that establish rules in it. The structure is also shaped partly past general, and partly by family specific constraints. For example, all families take some kind of hierarchical construction, with developed and children having differing amounts of authority (Nichols & Schwartz, 2005).

If the underlying structure is altered, this will take ripple effects on all the family transactions. And then according to Jorge Colapinto, "Consistent with its basic tenet that the bug brought to therapy are ultimately dysfunctions of the family structure, the model looks for a therapeutic solution in the modification of such structure."

In structural family therapy, the son is considered a member of the sibling subsystem while the father is a member of parental subsystem.

In structural family unit therapy, the son is considered a member of the sibling subsystem while the male parent is a fellow member of parental subsystem.

Boundaries

Boundaries are invisible barriers that let contact betwixt individuals, subsystems, and families. They protect the integrity of subsystems by regulating what enters and leaves them. For example, when children are immune to freely interrupt their parents' chat, this erodes the boundaries separating the generations and the spousal subsystems from the sibling subsystem.

Boundaries range from rigid to diffuse. Rigid boundaries are very restrictive and permit little contact with outside subsystems. This leads in disengagement, where individuals or subsystems within the family become isolated. This could limit amore and support in the family system

Lengthened boundaries are unclear to the extent that others can intrude into them. They lead to enmeshment, where family unit members go over-involved in each other's lives. While a sense of mutual support is beneficial, too much could event in lack of autonomy and dependence.

Clear or salubrious boundaries are an appropriate blending of rigid and diffuse features. While articulate boundaries help family members achieve a sense of their own individuality, they besides lead to sense of overall belonging inside the family organisation.

The lines below illustrate the iii types of boundaries.

  • ____________ Rigid purlieus (disengagement)
  • - - - - - - - - - - - Clear boundary (healthy range)
  • . . . . . . . . . ...... Lengthened purlieus (enmeshment)
Couples (the spousal subsystem) must maintain a boundary around their relationship despite the demands of their children (sibling subsystem).

Couples (the spousal subsystem) must maintain a boundary around their relationship despite the demands of their children (sibling subsystem).

Cardinal Concepts in Structural Family Therapy

Structure Subsystem Boundaries

Organized patterns by which members of the family interact

Families contain of circumstantial subsystems

Regulate the contact between subsystems

Expectations reinfoce family unit structure

Subsystems include spousal, parental. sibling and extended

Range from rigid to diffuse

Sequences during family unit interactions reveal the structural patterns of the family system

Members in a subsystem bring together together to perform tasks for the benefit of the subsystem and the whole family

Rigit boundaries permit little contact with outside subsystems

Appropriate hierarchical structure is important in the family unit

Each family member may belong to several subsystems at the aforementioned fourth dimension

Diffuse boundaries allow others to intrude into subsystems, leading to enmeshment

Observing the interactions among members indicates the construction

The spousal subsystem is especially important for family operation

Articulate boundaries are appropriate and facilitate parental and family unity
Change occurs in family members through adjusting their thinking and reorganizing of their relationships.

Change occurs in family members through adjusting their thinking and reorganizing of their relationships.

Goals and Techniques of Structural Family Therapy

The primary goal of SFT is to bring about structural changes within the family organisation. This is achieved by modifying the family's way of interacting and developing appropriate boundaries. Another goal is to create an effective hierarchical structure where parents are in charge of their children.

The functions of the therapist are to:

  • Join the family unit in a position of leadership and so that information technology is active and involved.
  • Map the family'southward underlying structure (boundaries, hierarchy, and subsystems) and identify its potential for change.
  • Programme and implement interventions to transform an ineffective structure to healthy functioning.

Some techniques structural family therapists use include:

1. Joining and All-around

Joining is the process of edifice a therapeutic brotherhood with every member of the family to get a motion-picture show of how the family interacts. From his or her initial greetings and comments, the therapist eases the family members' anxiety and wins them over. For it is important to build alliance with each member of the family unit. The therapist conveys respect for the individuals in the family unit, and for the hierarchical structure.

ii. Working with Family Interactions

The therapist gains insight on the problem through observing enactment or the spontaneous behavior sequences that explain it. Through this exercise, the therapist elicits information about the family unit structure and could help to:

  • Discover if the boundaries are clear, if for example, two people can speak with being interrupted
  • Decide who is on the defensive and who attacks
  • Identify family members who are primal and those who are on the periphery
  • Detect out if there is enmeshment, for example, parents bringing the children into their discussions.
The SFT approach aims at changing the family structure, and promoting positive interactions for healthy family functioning.

The SFT arroyo aims at irresolute the family structure, and promoting positive interactions for salubrious family functioning.

3. Mapping Underlying Structure

The family structure is revealed when members interact, and mapping captures the interrelationship of the members. The therapist draws a family unit map to identify rigid, diffuse or articulate boundaries, transactional styles, and the structure of the family system, to notice changes that are needed in the organization.

4. Enactments

The therapist encourages members to role play family conflicts within the session. He or she observes every bit family members demonstrate how they deal with conflicts. And then the therapist devises interventions to modify their interactions, and creates structural changes in the family.

6. Boundary Making (Restructuring)

Purlieus making restructures the boundaries and increases either closeness or distance between family systems. For example, in enmeshed families interventions are intended to strengthen boundaries between subsystems and increase independence of individuals.

7. Unbalancing

During unbalancing, the therapist joins and supports, that is, briefly have side with one individual or subsystem as opposed to another. The goal is to use his authority to interruption an impasse in the family system, and modify the relationships in a subsystem or betwixt subsystems.

Summary of Important Concepts About Structural Family unit Therapy

  • Salvador Minuchin developed structural family unit therapy (SFT).
  • Three important concepts in SFT are family unit construction, family unit subsystem and boundaries.
  • Family unit structure is dependent on the repeated interactions in the family, and its hierarchical structure.
  • Family subsystem includes spousal, parental, and sibling
  • Boundaries range from rigid to diffuse.
  • Rigid boundaries atomic number 82 to disengagement.
  • Diffuse boundaries lead to enmeshment.
  • A combination of the features of rigid and diffuse is considered as good for you (clear) boundaries.
  • The primary goal of SFT is to bring modify inside the structure of the family system.
  • The structural family therapist assesses the family and instructs family members to collaborate to determine the structure and changes necessary.
  • Some SFt techniques include joining, enactment and unbalancing.
  • SFT is suited for treating different types of families such equally single parents, nuclear, blended and extended families.

Harry Aponte Describes Structural Family Therapy

Endmost Thoughts on Structural Family Therapy

This guide is intended to assistance yous understand SFT'due south system focus on the trouble of the family unit's structure rather than the individual perspective. Cardinal to the approach is agreement the concepts of family structure, subsystem,and boundaries.

With an emphasis on these key concepts, the primary goal of therapy is to help to bring about structural changes in the family. Therefore structural family therapists are active in family sessions, as they brand suggestions, and directly the activities of the family.

Importantly, structural family therapists focus on modifying the family structure within the firsthand therapeutic context. As such, they apply techniques including enactments, highlighting and modifying interactions, unbalancing, and purlieus making to restructure family dynamics during the sessions.

References

Colapinto, J. (1982). Structural family therapy. Retrieved from http://www.colapinto.com/files/SFT.doc Accessed August 21, 2013.

Corey, 1000. (2001). Theory and practise of counselling and psychotherapy (half-dozenthursday ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Doorey, Marie. Minuchin, Salvador. Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 21 February. 2014

Goldenberg I. & Goldenberg, H. (1995). Family unit therapy, pp. 356-385. In Raymond J. Corsini, & Wedding, D. (Eds.) Current Psychotherapies. Itasca, IL: Peacock Publishers.

Munichin, S., Lee, W. & Simon, J. (1996). Mastering family therapy: Journeys of growth and transformation.. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, Inc.

Nichols, Thou. P. & Schwartz, R. C. (2006). Family therapy: Concepts and methods. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the writer's knowledge and does not substitute for diagnosis, prognosis, handling, prescription, and/or dietary advice from a licensed health professional. Drugs, supplements, and natural remedies may accept dangerous side effects. If significant or nursing, consult with a qualified provider on an individual footing. Seek immediate help if you are experiencing a medical emergency.

© 2014 Yvette Stupart PhD

Yvette Stupart PhD (writer) from Jamaica on Dec 04, 2017:

Hi Marshalee, I am very happy that you lot found the information on Structural Family unit Therapy helpful. All the all-time for your oral exam. I am sure your preparation will pay off.

Marshalee Johnson Spencer on Dec 04, 2017:

Hullo Dr. Stupart. Cheers for this post. It has assisted me in understanding this particular family unit therapy meliorate. The information is surely useful for my upcoming oral exams in Counselling Psychology at the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology.

Yvette Stupart PhD (author) from Jamaica on October 26, 2017:

Hi Thomas, cheers for reading my hub and your kind words. I am happy that you lot institute the material helpful in your studies. All the all-time for your graduate work in Counseling Psychology.

Thomas Kiseu ( tkiseu@yahoo.com) on October 26, 2017:

Thanks a lot for the wealth of noesis you lot accept shared in this article. I institute your explanation in SFT easy to understand and was very helpful in my studies. Am currently in my postgraduate 2d yr Counselling Psychology studying at Kenyatta Academy in Mombasa , Kenya( E Africa)

Yvette Stupart PhD (author) from Jamaica on August 13, 2017:

Thank you Martha. I am happy you found my commodity on Structural Family Therapy helpful.

Martha Anhalt on August 13, 2017:

Your methods of explanation and summary are clear and well done throughout this article. Thank you so much.

Yvette Stupart PhD (author) from Jamaica on July 23, 2017:

Hullo Andy, I am happy you found my hub helpful. I wish yous all the all-time for your studies and your pursuits to help at-risk teens and their families.

Andy Fires on July 22, 2017:

Thanks for posting this data. I am a third year educatee at Fresno Pacific University studying Social Work. The class I'yard in correct now focuses on family therapy, and unlike ways to arroyo information technology. Since my overall focus is to aid at-risk teens, family therapy will be a big part of the picture show. I found this information to be very helpful in the current consignment. Thank you again for your efforts.

Yvette Stupart PhD (author) from Jamaica on January 31, 2017:

Cheers Nikita for commenting on my hub and for your kind words. I wish you all the best for your farther studies.

Nikita Thompson on Jan 31, 2017:

Good afternoon,

I enjoyed reading your commodity. I was introduced to SFT / Salvador Minuchin principles while in school here in Maryland. ( Washington Adventist Academy/ B. Sc. Counseling Psychology) . I am considering further written report to employ to post graduate coursework/clients. Please go on to share your knowledge, I greatly appreciate it.

Yvette Stupart PhD (author) from Jamaica on October 31, 2016:

How-do-you-do Silvia, thanks for reading my commodity. I don't know any clinician who applies Structural Family Therapy in that surface area. However, you could contact the Minuchin Centre for Family unit. They might exist able to give y'all the information you need.

Silvia Hurtado on Oct 31, 2016:

Hello Yvette, I learned about SFT at Austral University in Argentina while studying Family unit Counseling. Do you know about a psychologist who applies this method in Chesapeake expanse. Md, DC, Baltimore?

Yvette Stupart PhD (writer) from Jamaica on December 04, 2015:

Howdy Tamika, thanks for visiting my hub. I am then happy to hear that y'all plant information technology helpful.

Yep, I am a graduate of Regent University and I had a great experience there. All the best for your studies and professional development at Regent!

Tamika Fifty on December 04, 2015:

Afterward reading your bio, I run across that you were also a graduate of Regent where I am completing my degree! Thanks, I await forward to reading more from you.

Tamika L on December 04, 2015:

Give thanks you then much, I am a student in counseling. This information is very helpful to the new counselor.

Yvette Stupart PhD (author) from Jamaica on March 26, 2014:

Thanks DDE. Structural family therapy focuses on changing dysfunctional behaviors in a family through improving the organisation and boundaries in the family organization

Devika Primić from Dubrovnik, Republic of croatia on March 26, 2014:

Family life is and so important and your ways sounds most useful.

Yvette Stupart PhD (writer) from Jamaica on March fifteen, 2014:

Thank you for reading my hub Eiddwen, and I'k happy yous found it interesting.

Eiddwen from Wales on March 15, 2014:

Very interesting and voted upwardly.

Eddy.

Yvette Stupart PhD (author) from Jamaica on March 04, 2014:

Thanks for you comments mylindaelliott. Structural family therapy is a popular approach to family therapy.

mylindaelliott from Louisiana on March 03, 2014:

Interesting arroyo to therapy. I think I have experienced parts of this just information technology wasn't chosen Structural Family Therapy.

Yvette Stupart PhD (author) from Jamaica on Feb 25, 2014:

Thanks FlourishAnyWay. Structural family therapy is said to be the nigh popular approach to family therapy worldwide. Ane strength is that it tin can be used effectively with different types of families - nuclear, blended, single parent, etc.

FlourishAnyway from United states on February 25, 2014:

I wasn't familiar with this, and I was very interested in your clarification here. Voted up and more!

Yvette Stupart PhD (author) from Jamaica on February 25, 2014:

Thanks for your comments MsDora. Yes, the the focus of structural family therapy is to bargain with the construction of the family system which includes the interactions and hierarchy. Change in the organization of the family leads to modify in family members.

Dora Weithers from The Caribbean on February 25, 2014:

Interesting concept of dealing with the family construction instead of the family member. I tin can come across how the procedures can influence the members and make the whole family more functional.

Yvette Stupart PhD (author) from Jamaica on Feb 24, 2014:

Thank y'all for visiting hub and commenting.

Raymond Philippe from The Netherlands on February 24, 2014:

I wasn't familiar with this approach. Very interesting. Voted equally interesting. Cheers for sharing

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