Theories Of Counseling

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objective relations

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A psychodynamic approach to family therapy that argues that people unconsciously relate to one another in the present based largely on expectations formed from their families of origin.

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Boundary Setting

Back 2

Technique used within a family relationship to bring about more flexibility. It generally involves building "walls" between people to establish lines of separation of "bridges" to allow more permeable boundaries and connection.

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Circular Causality

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The idea that tenets are related through a series of interacting feedback loops.

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AAMFT

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Acronym standing for the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, a professional group of more than 27,000 members.

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Cohesiveness

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From the Circumplex Model, it represents togetherness, where family members have a sense of identity and belonging dynamics.

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Differentiation

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The ability to retain one's identity within a family system while maintaining emotional connections with the other members.

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Disengagement

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Extreme independence within the Circumplex Model of family cohesiveness.

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Double Bind

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A person receiving two contradictory messages at the same time and being unable to follow both.

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Adaptability

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Comes from the Circumplex Model and represents change that allows a family to balance its needs for flexibility and stability.

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Enmeshment

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The extreme of over-dependence within the Cicumplex Model of family cohesiveness.

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Blended Family P. Family Sculpting

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A family formed by the remarriage of a divorced or widowed parent. It includes the new husband and wife, plus some or all of their children from previous marriage.

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Experiantial Family Therapy

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Based upon humanistic and systemic origins, it contends that therapists can help families best when they are authentic and honest with their own expressions, thus building self0esteem within family members and making their emotional connections stronger.

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Circumplex Model

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The clustering of over fifty concepts describing martial and family MA person's family of origin plus grandparents, in-laws, and other relatives.

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FACES III

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A scale is designed to measure two main dimensions of family functioning: cohesion and adaptability.

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Family Life Cycle

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The name given to the stages a family goes through as it evolves through the years.

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Identified patient

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This individual is the family member in whom the family's symptom has emerged or is most obvious.

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Family Sculpting

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An intervention that involves asking a couple or family member to physically position themselves and other family members into a formation which metaphorically represents the family relationships.

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Genogram

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A three-generational family tree used to help family members and counselors detect patterns of family functioning that have been passed from generation to generation.

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Family Systems Theory

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An approach to treatment that emphasizes the interdependency of family members rather than focusing on individuals in isolation from the family. This theory underlies the most influential forms of contemporary family therapy.

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Mascots

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The jokers in the family. They are the ones who take laughter as an analgesic to their pain.

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Homeostasis

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The tendency of a family system to maintain internal stability and resist change.

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Lost Child

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This child fades into the family woodwork, preferring their own world to the troubled atmosphere at home.

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Multigeneration X

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A term coined by Murray Bowen, to describe how a genogram helps display significant issues in a graphic manner to unveil the impact of one's family history on the present.

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Nuclear Family

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The basic family unit, consisting of father, mother, and their biological children.

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Heroes

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Individuals who pick up the responsibilities abandoned by the alcoholic spouse and, in essence run the family, doing the chores and caring for siblings.

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Pseudomutuality

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Describes the façade of family harmony that covers underlying tension.

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Scapegoats

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Label give to those who respond to their negative environment with defiance and anger. They become the "losers". The on that is the family's James Dean.

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Strategic Therapy

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A highly active and problem-focused school of family therapy. Rather than attempting to alter family structures, this problem focused approach attempts to resolve the presenting problems through a variety of creative and often "paradoxical" directives that have no obvious bearing on the problem or existing family structures..

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Triangling

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A process in which two family members lower the tension level between them by drawing in a third member.

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Structural Therapy

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An approach associated with Salvador Minuchin where a family develops patterns of relatedness with each other, and these patterns constitute a structure that allows the family to respond to the needs of individual family members as well as to external environmental demands.