Carolyn Snyder
SW 581
May 14, 2004
Family Therapy Groups
1) I will introduce myself and explain the purpose and goals of this group.
a) The group to understand the three prominent approaches to family
therapy, also to understand basic group work concepts and apply
these concepts to family groups.
2) Verbal Communication: Virgina Satir’s meaning of effective
communication includes being able to firmly state your case, clarify it, ask
for and be receptive to feedback.
a) Example: A 17-year-old daughter asks, “Dad, can I have the car
tonight?” Dad, who is in the middle of doing his taxes, says, “No.”
The daughter interprets this to mean that her dad does not trust her
with the car and that he does not understand. However, Dad really
meant that he needed the car tonight or maybe Dad was really too
involved in doing his taxes, that he would rather discuss it later.
b) Activity: Separate the class in ½ & have each ½ come up with a
scenario of an ineffective communication within a family setting.
Then each group role-plays their scenario.
1) Avenues of Communication: Perez states “five avenues of
communication.” Evaluating how a family communicates using
these avenues provides clear clues regarding where change is
needed.
a) Consonance: The extent to which the receiver of a
communication accurately hears and understands the
sender.
b) Condemnation: When family members severely
criticizing, blaming, negatively judging, or nagging others
regularly.
c) Submission: When a person feels so downtrodden, guiltridden, or incapable that they succumbs completely to
another’s will. This person does not feel valuable or
worthwhile enough to be assertive about his or her own
rights and needs.
d) Intellectualization: The process of having all
communication on a logical, rational realm, any emotion
is suppressed or denied.
e) Indifference: Remaining apparently unconcerned, not
caring either way, and appearing aloof.
2) Activity: Separate class into small groups and draw a piece of
paper with a scenario of the 5 avenues of communication. Then
each group role-plays their scenario.
3) Nonverbal Communication: Includes the facial expressions, voice inflections,
and body positions that convey information about a person’s thoughts and
feelings.
4) Family Group Norms: Janzen and Harris define these norms as “relationship
agreements, which influence family behavior.” Frequently the most powerful
norms are those that are not clearly and verbally stated but rather those that are
implicit. These rules are repeated family transactions that all family group
members understand but never discuss. It is important to establish norms in
families that allow the entire family and each individual member to function
effectively and productively.
a) Example: Family A has a conservative set of norms governing
communication and interpersonal behavior. This norm allows superficial
conversations between the family members but does not allow personal
conversations. This would include anything to do with feelings,
interpersonal relationships, or opinions about careers or jobs.
b) Example: Family B has an open set of norms governing communication
and interpersonal behavior. Everything is discussed among the immediate
family members but also among several generations. Some of the things
that are open for discussion are methods of birth control, abortion, capital
punishment, and politics around heated issues.
c) Activity: Have individuals think of what type of family norms they grew up in
and what family norms they currently have within their own family. If
individuals want to share with class, they can.
5) Family Roles: “A culturally determined pattern of behavior that is prescribed for
an individual who occupies a specific status.”
a) Example: The parental role prescribes behaviors helpful in supporting,
directing, and raising children. Parents might assume worker roles if
employed outside the home. Children might assume the role of “student”
in school and “helper” in the home.
b) Example: Family members may hold a variety of informal roles, often
related to the person’s personalities and interactional patterns. These
roles may include troublemaker, the oppressed one, the illustrious star, the
scapegoat, the perfect loner, the old battle ox, or the black sheep.
c) Questions Holman explores: (Page 382 in Text).
6) Personal & Group Goals: Salvador Minuchin emphasizes the importance of a
family therapy assessing a family and, on the basis of this assessment,
establishing therapeutic goals. The main purpose is helping the entire family
function better.
a) Janzen & Harris emphasize the importance of working toward a problem
consensus in family treatment; a problem consensus involves the family
member and the therapist arriving at a general agreement about what
problems are to be dealt with in therapy. They stress to make an effort to
elicit information from all family members during the initial assessment.
b) Hidden Agendas: A personal goal held by a group member that is unknown
to the other group members and that interferes with the accomplishment of
group goals. Unknown personal goals cam be destructive both to the
group and to the group process.
7) Family Conflicts, Problems, & Resolutions: Conflicts are inevitable and can be
positive. Conflict can represent the open sharing of ideas and can serve as a
mechanism for improving communication, enhancing the closeness of
relationships, and working out dissatisfactions. Thorman believes that
conflicts and problems in families cluster in four categories.
a) Marital Difficulties: Communication is one of the major causes of conflict in
a marriage. Another major causes of conflict include disagreements over
children, sexual problems, conflicts over recreational time and money, and
unfaithfulness.
b) Parent/Child Difficulties: Second major type of family problem involves
relationships between parent and children, which include parents’
difficulties controlling their children and when the children are teens,
communication is a huge problem.
1) Therapist can help parents improve their control of children by
assessing the individual family situations and teaching parents some
basic behavior modification techniques.
a) Positive Reinforcement: Positive consequences that follow a
behavior and act to strengthen that behavior, instead of solely on
punishment.
b) Time Out: Placing a child in a designated chair or corner for 5
minutes immediately after the child misbehaves so that they can
relate it to the misbehavior.
c) Active Listening: The receiver of the message tries to understand
what the sender really means. Then the receiver summarizes
their understanding into their own words for the sender’s
verification.
d) I-Messages: Nonblaming messages that communicate only how
the sender of the message believes the receiver is adversely
affecting the sender.
e) Activity: Have volunteers from the class to role-play how a parent
would demonstrate active listening and other volunteers to roleplay how a parent would demonstrate I-Messages.
c) Personal Problems of Individual Family Members: Basic principle of family
therapy is that the entire family “owns” the problem, not just one individual.
The therapist is responsible for helping the family defines the problem as a
group rather than blame an individual. This will most likely involve
restructuring various family relationships.
d) External Environmental Stresses: Family problems caused by factors
outside the family. These can include inadequate income, unemployment,
poor housing, inadequate access to means of transportation and places fro
recreation, and lack of job opportunities. Also, this can include poor health,
inadequate schools, and dangerous neighborhoods. The therapist needs
to address these problems by advocating, supporting, or even help to
develop appropriate resources for their clients. The therapist needs to
know what services are available and how to make the connection between
the families in need and these services.
8) Three Approaches to Family Therapy:
a) Communication Pattern Approach: Virginia Satir states that in troubled
families, communication tends to be vague and indirect. She believes that
one reason is that both the spouses have low self-worth because the
spouses try to hide their feelings of inferiority by acting confident and
strong. Neither of spouses reveals what they really want or talk about
feelings of worthlessness for fear of driving the other away. She also
believes that another reason is people who have low self-esteem marry in
order to have another meet their needs. Partners in a troubled relationship
also tend to see each other as a possession.
1) Satir’s goals in family therapy are to improve communication
patterns, to increase the self-worth and self-esteem of each
member, and to en possessiveness. Improving communication
patterns will allow each member to learn how to express needs and
desires.
2) Activity: Have the class think of their communication pattern is
within their own family and their family growing up. Is it vague and
indirect or is it specific and direct? Does the communication allow
feelings and voicing their needs? Then if anyone wants to share
with class, they can.
b) Family Subsystem Approach: Salvador Minuchin uses a system approach
to family therapy. The main emphasizes is on restructuring the major
family subsystems so that each subsystem interacts appropriately and
accomplishes its major duties. In families with children, there are three
major types of subsystems: spouse, parent, and sibling.
1) Minuchin’s goal is to enhance the effective interaction of the spouse,
parent, and sibling subsystems. He encourages the uses of many of
the same communication techniques as Satir, such as I-Messages,
Role Reversal, and the Problem-Solving approach.
c) Functional Approach: Alexander & Parsons describe functional family
therapy as focusing on how individual family members function within the
family context. They are examining how the family members interact with
respect to each other. According to Alexander & Parsons, there are three
main classifications of interpersonal functions.
1) Merging: Is neither good or bad until it is assessed the effects of any
particular merging situation on a family’s internal functioning. If the
merging were negatively effecting the family’s functioning, then it
would be considered dysfunctional. (GIVE EXAMPLE)
2) Separating: Includes those behaviors and interactions that
emphasize interpersonal distance and independence from each
other. (GIVE EXAMPLE)
3) Midpointing: Involves neither merging nor separating but rather,
there are some aspects of both concepts involved in the family’s
functioning. (GIVE EXAMPLE) Alexander & Parsons describe two
techniques that are used in functional family therapy.
a) Nonblaming: Involves helping family members reconceptualize
the problem, instead of blaming specific family members, the
family members reconeptualize the problem as one belonging to
the entire family.
b) Relabeling: Also known as “reframing.” This is a way of helping
family members view the same behavior, issue, or problem from
a different perspective or understanding it in a new way.