🧠STRATEGIC FAMILY THERAPY (HALEY / MRI)

Key Concepts, Interventions, MRI (Mental Research Institute) Model, Exam-Style Scenarios, Comparisons, Memorization AnchorsMemorization Anchors

Strategic Family Therapy

A problem-focused, directive therapy model that aims to change interaction patterns maintaining symptoms.

Key Figures

Jay Haley, Milton Erickson, Cloe Madanes, MRI group (Watzlawick, Weakland, Fisch).

Core Assumption

Problems persist because current solutions maintain the problem.

View of Symptom

Symptoms serve a function within the family system.

Therapy Goal

Eliminate the presenting problem by changing interaction sequences.

Focus of Therapy

Presenting problem and current behavior, not insight or history.

Role of Therapist

Active, directive, and strategic; designs interventions to disrupt patterns.

Change Mechanism

Interrupting problem-maintaining feedback loops.

First-Order Change

Superficial change that does not alter the system.

Second-Order Change

Fundamental change that restructures the system.

Attempted Solutions

Repetitive behaviors that fail and maintain the problem.

Cybernetics

Feedback loops that maintain stability (homeostasis).

Positive Feedback Loop

Escalates behavior and change.

Negative Feedback Loop

Maintains stability and symptom persistence.

Power and Control

Symptoms often reflect struggles for power within relationships.

Hierarchy

Problems arise when hierarchies are unclear or inverted.

Symptom Prescription

Therapist instructs client to deliberately engage in the symptom.

Directive

Clear instructions telling clients what to do between sessions.

Paradoxical Intervention

Therapist prescribes the symptom to reduce resistance.

Reframing

Giving behavior a new meaning to alter response to it.

Ordeal

Making the symptom more inconvenient than the problem itself.

Restraining

Therapist discourages change to provoke it.

Pretend Technique

Family pretends to engage in the symptom to gain control over it.

Task Assignment

Specific behavioral homework to interrupt sequences.

Behavioral Sequencing

Changing the order of interactions maintaining the problem.

Therapist Control

Therapist maintains authority and direction in treatment.

MRI Model

Brief therapy focused on stopping ineffective attempted solutions.

MRI Focus

“What are you doing now that isn’t working?”

Problem Definition

Narrow and concrete definition of the presenting problem.

MRI Intervention Style

Simple, direct, and practical.

MRI Goal

Stop the cycle maintaining the problem.

Scenario: “A therapist instructs parents to argue only at scheduled times.”

Paradoxical intervention.

Scenario: “Family repeatedly talks more about a problem, making it worse.”

Attempted solution maintaining the symptom.

Scenario: “Therapist assigns a task to disrupt nightly conflict.”

Directive.

Scenario: “Therapist reframes child’s defiance as loyalty to a parent.”

Reframing.

Scenario: “Therapist prescribes insomnia to a client who fears not sleeping.”

Symptom prescription.

Scenario: “Therapist focuses only on current interactions.”

Strategic present-focused approach.

Scenario: “Client resists change; therapist discourages improvement.”

Restraining technique.

Scenario: “Therapist designs intervention to alter power structure.”

Strategic focus on hierarchy.

Strategic vs. Bowenian

Strategic is directive and symptom-focused; Bowenian is insight-based and multigenerational.

Strategic vs. Structural

Strategic changes sequences; Structural changes boundaries and hierarchy.

Strategic vs. Solution-Focused

Strategic analyzes problem-maintaining patterns; SFBT focuses on solutions and exceptions.

Strategic = Strategy

Therapist plans interventions carefully.

Problem = Solution

The solution is often the problem.

Directive = Action

Therapist tells clients what to do.

Paradox = Resistance

Used when clients resist change.

Focus = Now

No deep history or insight work.