Part IV – Family Therapy Case Conceptualization and Treatment
6a. I believe there are boundary issues in Julia’s family, specifically with her mother. Julia’s mother, as perceived by Julia, “has always tried to keep on top of what’s going on in our lives”, which indicates an overinvolvement in the children’s lives (p. 274). Julia’s mother would worry that Julia would not be working to her full potential and would constantly be on top of Julia to complete her homework and would form test schedules. Additionally, her mother would look over Julia’s homework before she submitted it and made sure Julia had planned enough time to study for her exams (p. 274). Her mother’s overinvolvement, especially at a high school age, is very concerning. Another …show more content…
The goals I would have in family therapy for Julia and her family would be to have a structural, behavioral, cognitive, and experiential change between all members of the family. A structural change would be absolutely necessary in order to get rid of the enmeshed/diffuse boundaries set in place for Julia and her family members. These boundaries only maintained Julia’s symptoms and thus it would be best to get rid of them and start from the beginning to encourage a more collaborative family approach and good boundaries. A behavioral change for Julia’s family would be useful for setting up clear expectations for her mother and Julia, in that her parents allow Julia to have more autonomy when she is home (if she is engaging in healthy behaviors). Cognitive changes for Julia’s family would prove useful for them to see the problematic patterns they’ve been engaging in (i.e. overinvolvement, perceived lack of trust, overprotectiveness) and to figure out ways to cease those patterns and establish new ones of collaboration, appreciation, and honest communication. Getting Julia’s family to process their emotions together and be able to see each other differently by listening to how they feel about the situations would provide great self-awareness for all family members. Because of experiential change, Julia’s family would be able to see why they engage in the interaction patterns they do and learn more about their own experiences, leading to firmer and more realistic family …show more content…
One technique from a 3rd wave treatment I believe to be helpful to Julia would be mindfulness. Mindfulness, as described by Kabat-Zinn in the lecture slides, is “awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally”. Mindfulness involves letting one self experience their own thoughts without trying to control them, instead recognizing that they are there in a non-judgmental way and focusing on the present. Julia experiences a lot of cognitive distortions and possible negative automatic thoughts as a result of everyday stressors that maintain her restrictive behaviors. By encouraging Julia to focus on the present sensations (i.e. a guided meditation), she would react to her intrusive thoughts differently. Instead of trying to control her thoughts and responding with the behaviors typically done, she instead recognizes their presence and lets them go. When the thoughts appear again, Julia will have a decrease emotional reactivity to them as she will be able to let them go much easier and be less likely to engage in the behavior that would typically follow them (i.e. exercising or not eating). Mindfulness would be helpful for Julia when she’s eating a full meal. By engaging in the present and thinking about the sensations of the food, and not its consequence, she will react less emotionally to thoughts of “I’m going to get fat and I’ll be unattractive” and not engage in her restrictive behaviors after (i.e. exercising heavily or
6a. I believe there are boundary issues in Julia’s family, specifically with her mother. Julia’s mother, as perceived by Julia, “has always tried to keep on top of what’s going on in our lives”, which indicates an overinvolvement in the children’s lives (p. 274). Julia’s mother would worry that Julia would not be working to her full potential and would constantly be on top of Julia to complete her homework and would form test schedules. Additionally, her mother would look over Julia’s homework before she submitted it and made sure Julia had planned enough time to study for her exams (p. 274). Her mother’s overinvolvement, especially at a high school age, is very concerning. Another …show more content…
The goals I would have in family therapy for Julia and her family would be to have a structural, behavioral, cognitive, and experiential change between all members of the family. A structural change would be absolutely necessary in order to get rid of the enmeshed/diffuse boundaries set in place for Julia and her family members. These boundaries only maintained Julia’s symptoms and thus it would be best to get rid of them and start from the beginning to encourage a more collaborative family approach and good boundaries. A behavioral change for Julia’s family would be useful for setting up clear expectations for her mother and Julia, in that her parents allow Julia to have more autonomy when she is home (if she is engaging in healthy behaviors). Cognitive changes for Julia’s family would prove useful for them to see the problematic patterns they’ve been engaging in (i.e. overinvolvement, perceived lack of trust, overprotectiveness) and to figure out ways to cease those patterns and establish new ones of collaboration, appreciation, and honest communication. Getting Julia’s family to process their emotions together and be able to see each other differently by listening to how they feel about the situations would provide great self-awareness for all family members. Because of experiential change, Julia’s family would be able to see why they engage in the interaction patterns they do and learn more about their own experiences, leading to firmer and more realistic family …show more content…
One technique from a 3rd wave treatment I believe to be helpful to Julia would be mindfulness. Mindfulness, as described by Kabat-Zinn in the lecture slides, is “awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally”. Mindfulness involves letting one self experience their own thoughts without trying to control them, instead recognizing that they are there in a non-judgmental way and focusing on the present. Julia experiences a lot of cognitive distortions and possible negative automatic thoughts as a result of everyday stressors that maintain her restrictive behaviors. By encouraging Julia to focus on the present sensations (i.e. a guided meditation), she would react to her intrusive thoughts differently. Instead of trying to control her thoughts and responding with the behaviors typically done, she instead recognizes their presence and lets them go. When the thoughts appear again, Julia will have a decrease emotional reactivity to them as she will be able to let them go much easier and be less likely to engage in the behavior that would typically follow them (i.e. exercising or not eating). Mindfulness would be helpful for Julia when she’s eating a full meal. By engaging in the present and thinking about the sensations of the food, and not its consequence, she will react less emotionally to thoughts of “I’m going to get fat and I’ll be unattractive” and not engage in her restrictive behaviors after (i.e. exercising heavily or