Ch 5 Structural Family Therapy

Boundaries

Rules for managing physical and psychological distance between family members and regulating closeness

Clear Boundaries

Normal boundaries that allow emotional connection while maintaining individual identity and differentiation

Diffuse Boundaries

Weak boundaries leading to enmeshment where individual autonomy is sacrificed for connection

Rigid Boundaries

Strong boundaries leading to disengagement where independence is prioritized over emotional connection

Enactments

A technique where the therapist asks the family to reenact interactions to observe and restructure patterns

Hierarchy

The organization of authority within the family system especially between parents and children

Effective Hierarchy

Parents maintain leadership with appropriate limits while staying emotionally connected to children

Insufficient Hierarchy

Parents lack authority and struggle to manage child behavior often resulting in permissiveness

Excessive Hierarchy

Overly strict and rigid authority with unrealistic rules and limited emotional flexibility

Subsystems

Smaller units within the family such as parental sibling or couple subsystems

Cross-Generational Coalition

A dysfunctional alliance between a parent and child against another parent

Joining

Therapist builds rapport by adapting to the family’s style language and interaction patterns

Mimesis

Therapist’s imitation of the family’s communication style to facilitate joining

Complementarity

Mutually reinforcing rigid roles between members such as pursuer distancer or overfunctioner underfunctioner

Systemic Reframing

Redefining problems to emphasize interactional patterns rather than blaming one individual

Boundary Making

Intervention that modifies boundaries by directing participation and interactions to strengthen or soften them

Unbalancing

Therapist temporarily supports one member or subsystem to shift family hierarchy and dynamics

Therapeutic Spontaneity

Therapist’s ability to respond authentically and flexibly within the therapeutic context

Shaping Competence

Reinforcing family strengths and encouraging autonomy by not doing tasks for them

Intensity

Increasing emotional engagement through tone repetition or pacing to disrupt stuck patterns

Crisis Induction

Creating or highlighting a situation to push the family to confront avoided issues