Integrating
Couples & Family Work
Into
Individual Counseling
David Kaplan, PhD
Chief Professional Officer
American Counseling Association
dkaplan@counseling.org
800-347-6647x397
AzCA Annual Conference
May 2013
www.counseling.org/kaplan
Who am I?
Who am I?
Past President of the American Counseling
Association (ACA)
 Past President of the International Association of
Marriage and Family Counselors (IAMFC)
 Founding President of New York Association of
Marriage and Family Counseling
 Book: Family Counseling for all Counselors
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Who am I?

A reasonable number of journal articles
(and one in the United Airlines in-flight
magazine) about family counseling.
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Teach coursework in family counseling
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15 years private practice specializing in
family work
My goals for today

Get you excited about family work,
especially going in and out of individual
counseling

Give you ideas to get you started…

And where to go to keep growing
Who are you?
Your Goals for Today?
What are we going to do?
When do I suggest to my client that they
involve family members in their
counseling?
 How do I get family members into my
office?
 Now that I’ve got the family in my office,
what do I do?
 Where do I go from here?
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The literature supports the
use of family work in many
areas including:
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School Problems
Eating disorders
Anxiety disorders
Unipolar and bipolar depression
Physical illnesses
OCD
Psychosis
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Traumatic brain injury
Two theories to
embrace
Constructivism
The Purr of the Qubit, George Johnson
In the latest of a steady stream of small
developments, researchers in the Netherlands
and Japan reported in the journal Science last
week that they had caused an electrical
current in a superconducting ring to flow
simultaneously clockwise (representing 1) and
counterclockwise (0).
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,423540,00.html
Physicists Put Atom in 2 Places at Once, Malcolm W. Browne
In a paper published in the current issue of
the journal Science, Dr. Christopher
Monroe and his colleagues at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology in
Boulder, Colo., described how they had
divided a single beryllium atom into two
distinct states of existence and had then
separated the two states in space.
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/28/science/physicists-put-atom-in-2-places-at-once.html
Annie Hall
Q: I’m going to try to present this with minimal confusion since it
has me stumped. I currently do social work in a home health
setting working alongside nurses (CAN, LPN, RN), therapists (PT,
OT, ST), etc. I began working here after almost a year ago from
being laid off from a job of 7 years in a totally different setting
(very clinical). With that said, here is the deal. My co-workers and
I were discussing school. I shared with them that I was working on
my PhD and one of them replied, “Well, don’t expect me to call
you doctor.” I was outdone, all I did was laugh and said, “Don’t
worry. I hope not to have to be your doctor.” So, a few people
chimed in saying that unless you earn an MD that’s the only thing
that makes you a doctor. That’s when my confusion began! After
years of schooling, calling professors “Dr.”, working alongside
psychiatrists, etc., ,have I all this time been mislead? Of course
not, but where is this thinking from? Anyone ever heard or
believe the same way? I feel if you work for your degree, you
should be respected as such, but not to recognise is at all is totally
ridiculous to me.
A: In order to stay sane on these types of issues, I take a
constructivist perspective. There is no “truth” to any of this as the
concept of “doctor” (as with any other title) is made up anyway. If
some people want to construct their reality that physicians are the
only ones entitled to be called Doctor, bless their little hearts. That is
their prerogative. I choose to construct a reality that those with
PhD’s are entitled to be called Doctor because research doctorates
were around for centuries before the PhD appeared on the scene.
Fortunately, there are many whose construct of reality is in line with
my own.
So getting back to the sanity part, I have learned that I get to
construct my reality and others get to construct their reality. If I want
to introduce myself as “Dr. Kaplan,” that’s okay, and if others want to
introduce me as “Mr. Kaplan,” that’s okay, too. The insanity part will
come into play if you try to force your version of reality on someone
else and will be amplified if you get into righteous indignation.
Systems Theory
 Equilibrium
(homeostasis)
 Seemingly
unrelated parts of a
system are more related then we
think
 Law
of Unintended Consequences
How to deal with LUC
Four key systemic areas that
determine if you should involve
the family
Communication
Problem
Solving
Roles
Boundaries
Preparing for Family Work
Getting the family into your office
 Attire
 Seating
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COMMUNICATION
Name: Satir
 Frequency of communication
 Quality of communication
 Triangulation
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PROBLEM SOLVING
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Names: Whitaker, Haley
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Compromise
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Family rules
ROLES
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Names: Bowen, Minuchin
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Play appropriate roles
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Technique: Separation Triangle
BOUNDARIES
 Name:
Minuchin
 Family
Closeness Continuum
– Enmeshment-Interdependence-Disengagement
BOUNDARIES
 Techniques:
–Disengagement:
Spend time together
Develop new family
–Enmeshment:
“Who I am” essay
“Going home again” (Bowen)
Where to go from here
Annotated References
A., & Whitaker, C. (1978). The
family crucible. New York: Harper & Row.
Napier,
The Family Crucible is one of my favorite books.
If you don’t get excited about systems theory
after reading this book, you might want to
check your pulse. The Family Crucible includes
a thorough list of classic readings.
Annotated References
Minuchin, S., Rosman, B. L., & Baker, L.
(1978). Psychosomatic families: Anorexia
Nervosa in context. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
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You get two for the price of one with this book.
It provides insight into the importance of
understanding and changing family roles and
boundaries, as well as the family dynamics of
eating disorders.
Annotated References
 Satir, V. (1964). Conjoint family
therapy. Palo Alto, CA: Science &
Behavior Books.
Any book by Satir is useful in
understanding the importance of
communication in families and how to
change dysfunctional patterns to
functional ones.
Annotated References
Haley, J. (1982). Problem solving therapy
(2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
This excellent and intriguing book addresses
how to use paradoxical interventions to
produce a lot of change in a short amount of
time. This is probably not the first family
systems theory book to read, because paradox
is one of the riskiest and most powerful
interventions available, and the book might
intimidate you if you aren’t familiar with
alternative approaches.
Join C&FC Organizations
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International Association of Marriage &
Family Counselors (IAMFC) www.iamfc.com
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American Association for Marriage &
Family Therapy www.aamft.org
Get Continuing Education
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Ackerman Institute for the Family
www.ackerman.org
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Philadelphia Child & Family Therapy Training
Center www.philafamily.org
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The Strategic Family Therapy Center
 Google
www.mri.org
“family therapy training institute”
Just do it!
Goals for Today

Get you excited about family work,
especially going in and out of individual
counseling

Give you ideas to get you started…

And where to go to keep growing
David Kaplan, PhD
Chief Professional Officer
American Counseling Association
dkaplan@counseling.org
800-347-6647x397
AzCA Annual Conference
May 2013
www.counseling.org/kaplan