Assignment 1: Structural Versus Strategic Family Therapies sample essay

Assignment 1: Structural Versus Strategic Family Therapies sample essay

Assignment 1: Structural Versus Strategic Family Therapies sample essay
Structural and strategic therapies are two professional approaches that apply systems thinking to view the family as a single emotional unit with parts that are related to make up the whole family. In fact, they perceive the behaviors exhibited by the different family members as being informed by the family’s functioning. To be more precise, individual family members are inseparable from the network of relationships that characterize the…
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Students will:
Compare structural family therapy to strategic family therapy
Create structural family maps Assignment 1: Structural Versus Strategic Family Therapies sample essay
Justify recommendations for family therapy
To prepare:
Review this week’s Learning Resources and reflect on the insights they provide on structural and strategic family therapies.
Refer to Gerlach (2015) in this week’s Learning Resources for guidance on creating a structural family map.
The Assignment
In a 2- to 3-page paper, address the following:
Summarize the key points of both structural family therapy and strategic family therapy.
Compare structural family therapy to strategic family therapy, noting the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Provide an example of a family in your practicum using a structural family map. Note: Be sure to maintain HIPAA regulations.
Recommend a specific therapy for the family, and justify your choice using the Learning Resources.
 
Structural versus strategic family therapies sample essay
Part 1.
Structural and strategic therapies are two professional approaches that apply systems thinking to view the family as a single emotional unit with parts that are related to make up the whole family. In fact, they perceive the behaviors exhibited by the different family members as being informed by the family’s functioning. To be more precise, individual family members are inseparable from the network of relationships that characterize the family. In addition, they acknowledge that conflicts are a common occurrence among family members, and that there is a need for professional help to direct the family in addressing the conflict. The professional help takes the form of therapies that are based on family systems as is the case with structural and strategic therapies that apply objective and scientific processes in treatment (Matson, 2013).
Structural family therapy was developed by Salvador Minuchin. It is based on the awareness that every family has a structure that is exhibited through family patterns, behaviors and relationships in the therapy sessions. Using role plays, therapists are able to apply structural therapy to explore the subsystems within the family, such as sibling and parental subsystems (Wright, Stern & Phelan, 2012). Assignment 1: Structural Versus Strategic Family Therapies sample essay.
Strategic family therapy was designed by Cloe Madanes, Milton Erickson and Jay Haley who examined family functions and processes that include problem-solving patterns and communication as presented by families outside the therapy sessions. It applies paradoxical interventions, redefining problem scenarios and reframing with the intention of creating the desired change. It is based on the premise that change can rapidly occur without intensively analyzing the source of the reported problem (Wright, Stern & Phelan, 2012).
A comparison of the two therapies (structural and strategic family therapies) reveals that they are similar in exemplifying groundbreaking therapeutic approaches for treating dysfunctions in families perceived as systems. They both focus on the hierarchical organizational power structures, communication patterns and interpersonal relational styles as the sources of the family dysfunction and solution. Still, there are differences between the two. Structural family therapy focuses on interpreting contact in therapy while strategic therapy focuses on interpreting contact outside therapy. Assignment 1: Structural Versus Strategic Family Therapies sample essay. In addition, structural therapy resolves the maladaptive dynamics in the family through evaluating the family structure while strategic therapy resolves the issue through evaluating relationships. Yet another difference is that structural therapy explores functional expectations and does not seek to present a solution while strategic therapy explores family dynamics and seeks to present a solution (Wright, Stern & Phelan, 2012)..
Part 2.

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This is a family of four members comprised of a father, mother and two children. The father is dominant, the mother is submissive. The family is experiencing blocked parental communication.

 
The issue reported in the family is best addressed through strategic family therapy. In this case, the therapy will emphasize on understanding the intricacies of communication patterns, hierarchical structures, and systemic processes to include the invisible and visible repetitive rules, repetitive behavioral patterns, and family functions. This allows the therapist to emphasize the father’s dominance and mother’s submissiveness as a hindrance to parental communication, showing how the hierarchy in the family structure is faulty and caused the dysfunction (Matson, 2013) Assignment 1: Structural Versus Strategic Family Therapies sample essay. In applying strategic therapy, the therapist seeks to aid the family to correct the communication problem by modifying personal interactions among the family members so that the family is no longer dominant that he stifles the other members of the family, while the mother is no longer submissive that she is unable to protect the children. Besides that, strategic therapy would also help in exploring the behavioral processes and sequences that help in either maintaining or exacerbating the dysfunction reported as a problem (Finch, 2012) Assignment 1: Structural Versus Strategic Family Therapies sample essay.
 
References
Matson, J. (2013). Handbook of treatment approaches in childhood psychotherapy. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
Finch, A. (2012). Specialty competencies in clinical child and adolescent psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lebow, J. (2012). Handbook of clinical family therapy. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Wright, P., Stern, J. & Phelan, M. (2012). Core psychiatry (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Saunders/Elsevier. Assignment 1: Structural Versus Strategic Family Therapies sample essay