Structural Family Therapy Vs Bowen Intergenerational Therapy

Improved Essays
Working with the family has become one of my interested groups to work with in the future since the first day of Clinical Skills C class with specified family therapy. One of the vignettes, that we did the role-play in class was Hernandez family. I decided to do the comparison between two theories, Structural Family Therapy and Bowen Intergenerational Therapy, by working with this family.
This family are Hispanic, and their presenting problem is lack of communication, especially with the daughter who is 18-year-old and was diagnosed with anorexia 6 months before the first session. This family included 43-year-old father (AM) who works in IT, 42-year-old mother (AF) who is registered nurse, the son (CM) who is 21-year-old, studying engineering
…show more content…
The change is achieved through therapeutic relationship, especially in this case because of all the conflict between family members. The therapist should have very strong relationship with each member of the family to bring each of them back to the session and also using insight will help the client to increase level of differentiation and especially tolerance for …show more content…
The therapist would utilize the coaching, relationship experiment, process question and especially in this case, encouraging differentiation of self by “I-position”. An example of “I-position” would be if CF were asked to express her feeling to her father regarding her hospitalization in Stanford straightforward and in such a way that took ownership for her feelings. One of the central beliefs of Bowenian therapy is about the differentiation of the family to the point that the therapist has achieved. However, it is essential for the therapist to be aware of their differentiation from their own family of origin by working on their own therapeutic sessions. The therapist would also offer coaching in session to help AF, AM, CM and CF move toward higher differentiation. The therapist would work to communicate two important lessons of differentiation to the client: intrapersonal in which the client is able to separate thoughts from feelings in order to respond instead of react, and interpersonal in which the client know where oneself ends and another begins without loosing of self. Bowenian therapist mostly focuses on relationship quality to improve it as well. In this case, the therapist should look at the parents and children

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    According to the Case Scenario, the family came to therapy to address concerns for the older child, Samuel. The family is worried about Samuel’s recent school performance and deceased participation in the family. There are addition presenting issues with Mark, the husband of Lisa and father to the two youngest children, and his presented issues of drinking and distance from the family. Lisa, the wife and mother of all three children, feels rejected and is wants a positive change in the family. Samuel is free-thinking teenager that goes against the establishment whenever possible, which includes building a relationship with Mark and the family religion of…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The intervention included three, 10-15 minutes’ individual session, one 30 minutes’ session with client, both her parents and grandmother, and five, 20-30 minutes’ session with client and both her parents. There was one initial difficulty following the intervention model with integrity because the client missed 1 family session due to weather. Social worker monitored how often client went to her grandmother’s house and how well she communicated with her parents during their sessions. The interventions appear to have helped the client because she continues to go to her grandmother’s as planned.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The goals of structural family therapy is to get the family members to participate in an active experience of change beginning with an enactment where the family get to explore current concrete issues including lack of effective communication, which is what the Singh family is experiencing (Purple book). It looks to help build on the strengths of the family members and to also help them learn to better problem for solve for any future problems (Purple book). This involves the counsellor to actively engage with families to help them get rid of unhelpful pathological transactional patterns while also building on strengths to help bring about effective solutions (Purple book). The role of the counsellor involves encouraging family members to…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The strategic model evaluates the participants through MRI activities versus structural family therapy. This practice is not concern about the individual underground emotional state of mind or influences families on how to resolve issue within the family. this theory also aim at the problem at hand not the root of the problem; therefore, I not to like to choose this approach on solution because it does not address the root problem that needs to be taking care of. This practice is not lengthy because soon as the problem is resolve the intervention session is complete.…

    • 95 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    As a potential counselor, working with a family will be one of my biggest challenges in my premature career. Treating a family entails many factors such as learning their family system(s), culture/ethnic background, communication patterns and identifying any emotional themes among other important elements. Within this process, it is vital to hear all the voices of each family member to find out the concerns, issues or problems each one bring to the family dynamic. However, applying these elements in a family therapy session may look different for every family that seeks treatment. However, it is important to bear in mind that a family therapy session may be the only place, where each family member can have a voice and speak freely.…

    • 2451 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The family is in continuous renovation, acclimating to an endlessly altering social setting. A well-functioning family may not be defined by the lack of pressure or struggle, but rather how effectually the family reacts to the fluctuating circumstances in its situation. The structural family therapist has the position of uncovering and mustering underutilized strong points within the family that continues to outgrow pressuring arrays of interface that hinder the actualization of the family…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Family Crucible Paper The family crucible is an impressive book which written by Dr. Napier and Dr. Whitaker. It shows a family treatment story that how co-therapists help a troubled family by using family system theory and it also points out and analyzes common family patterns as well. This review paper will show the therapeutic techniques that stood out to me most, and I will use examples of Brice family to talk about how I view the theoretical meaning of each action and the interventions.…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Summary Of Soul Food

    • 1994 Words
    • 8 Pages

    I love how the emotions are tracked during in Bowen’s therapy. For Teri, this would be help her identify why she’s egotistical and often negative when it comes to helping her family as well as identify what causes her to continue to have failed relationships. Maxine can benefit from Bowen’s therapy by identifying where the frustration lies when she’s interacting with Teri. With Bird, the Bowen’s theory would help with indentifying the challenges that she’ll face when having a husband with a negative past. If I had to choose one aspect of Bowen’s therapy that may not be as successful or cause the session to be unsuccessful would be how the entire family wouldn’t be included in the therapy and how the children are excluded with Bowen’s…

    • 1994 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Sanchez Family Case Study In this paper the clinician will be identifying the issues and problems of the Sanchez family. The clinician will prioritize the issues of the case. Along the way they will decide what issues can be resolved clinically and what issues require systemic intervention. Finally, the clinician will decide which family member illicit the least sympathy or empathy.…

    • 1641 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Structural Family Therapy

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Conducting a family assessment allows a family to identify their strengths and areas of improvement. Generally speaking, it is normal for an individual to feel some kind of resentment if he or she is the sole individual caring her a parent The familial dispute surrounds who is going to be responsible for the caring of my father. Romika is also the sole individual paying for issues around the house as she lives in the home with our father. In clinical practice, the help of a social worker could have potentially eased the stress of my family. My sisters and I dealt with the diagnosis and organizing travel to accompany my father between us only, we did not have support from outside resources.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    During this stage I would ask each individual family member “what would your life look like at the end of family treatment?” This question would be a little difficult for Renee so I could ask her to draw me a picture of what she wants her family to look like and process it with her. Upon completion of the fourth stage, the final and fifth stage of Structural family therapy emerges. During the fifth stage, the overall goal is plan development.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Strategic Family Therapy sessions with L.E. and her daughter, B.V., on account of their behavior and use of substance use that caused friction in their relationship, and their time addressing the issue towards making a change is where evaluation is occurring in each therapy session. The use of the interventions that pertains to the Strategic Family Therapy model is based on its “effectiveness with changing family interactions” along with changing the issue that bought them to therapy to change their current behavior with each other (Hazelrigg, Cooper, & Borduin, 1987, p. 430). When conducting the therapy sessions for the issue that is between L.E. and B.V., it is important for there to be documentation, and having the two individuals to give…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Biopsychosocial Information “Nick” is a fifteen-year old African American male that has been a resident at The Bridge since July, 2016. Prior to being referred for treatment by truancy court, Nick had been smoking approximately ten blunts a day and spending money on a daily basis for marijuana. There has been a history of family conflict and recently, Nick’s paternal grandmother passed away from cancer. He was residing with his mother and father along with his two younger siblings. Nick’s mother and father have been together for approximately twenty years.…

    • 2050 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are six different main viewpoints when it comes to family systems therapy. Those viewpoints are Adlerian family therapy, multi-generational family therapy, human validation process model, structural family therapy, and strategic family therapy. When it comes to this paper and our group, we decided to divide the six different viewpoints of family systems therapy up between the five of us. Therefore I decided to focus upon the viewpoint of strategic family therapy.…

    • 1492 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Bowen “described the problem families as an emotional field having the potential to involve the therapist in its emotionality” (Becvar & Becvar, 2013, p.144). After a profound amount of research, Bowen discovered that the families where the therapist stayed neutral did better than the families where the therapist directly assisted the clients. In Bowenian family therapy, the therapist is “an observer or researcher who thinks in terms of systems and not in terms of emotionality of the family unit or the content of this emotional process”(Becvar & Becvar, 2013, p.149. It is necessary for therapist to remain rational and disconnected and not become triangulated. They must also be social, calm, friendly, and interested, while also remaining…

    • 1270 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays