CONTEXTUAL THERAPY- TRANSGENERATIONAL

With phases, key terms

Who founded Contextual Family Therapy?

Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy.

Core idea of Contextual Family Therapy?

Healthy relationships depend on fairness, trustworthiness, accountability, loyalty, and balanced giving and receiving across generations.

How does Contextual Family Therapy view the problem?

Problems arise from relational injustice, unbalanced ledgers, invisible or split loyalties, destructive entitlement, and unfair burdens passed across generations.

What does a Contextual Family Therapy therapist assess?

Who has given, received, sacrificed, been harmed, carried burdens, earned credit, or owes accountability in the relational system.

What is the therapist's role in Contextual Family Therapy?

A trustworthy therapist who uses multidirectional partiality and considers the legitimate interests of every person, including absent family members.

What is the main goal of the early phase of Contextual Family Therapy?

Create contextual holding, hear each perspective, identify injustices, loyalties, burdens, and relational contributions.

What is the main goal of the working or middle phase of Contextual Family Therapy?

Rebalance the relational ledger through crediting, accountability, exoneration, and working through entitlements and legacies.

What is the main goal of the late phase of Contextual Family Therapy?

Family members increasingly manage fairness, responsibility, and trust without the therapist.

When is Contextual Family Therapy ready for termination?

Trustworthiness increases, destructive entitlement and split loyalties weaken, accountability is possible, and unfairness is less likely to pass to the next generation.

What is Multidirectional partiality in Contextual Family Therapy?

The therapist actively supports each person's valid interests in turn without permanently siding with anyone.

Give an example of Multidirectional partiality in Contextual Family Therapy.

The therapist validates a daughter's injury, then recognizes the parent's sacrifices and responsibilities.

What is Crediting in Contextual Family Therapy?

Recognizing constructive efforts, sacrifices, caregiving, and loyalty that deserve acknowledgment.

Give an example of Crediting in Contextual Family Therapy.

The therapist names how a parent consistently provided financially despite emotional limitations.

What is Accountability in Contextual Family Therapy?

Helping a person take responsibility for the effects of their actions while still understanding context.

Give an example of Accountability in Contextual Family Therapy.

A parent acknowledges that past trauma helps explain but does not excuse harmful parenting.

What is Exoneration in Contextual Family Therapy?

Understanding how a person's history and burdens shaped harmful behavior, reducing blame without denying harm.

Give an example of Exoneration in Contextual Family Therapy.

An adult child understands a parent's deprivation while still naming the damage that occurred.

What is Working through entitlements and legacies in Contextual Family Therapy?

Examining what people reasonably deserve, what they owe, and what burdens they should stop passing forward.

Give an example of Working through entitlements and legacies in Contextual Family Therapy.

A client separates a legitimate need for care from using past pain to punish a partner.

What does Relational ethics mean in Contextual Family Therapy?

The dimension of relationships involving fairness, loyalty, care, responsibility, and trustworthiness.

What does Ledger of entitlements and indebtedness mean in Contextual Family Therapy?

An invisible balance sheet of what each person believes they have given, received, earned, or owe.

What does Constructive entitlement mean in Contextual Family Therapy?

Seeking deserved care or fairness in a responsible way.

What does Destructive entitlement mean in Contextual Family Therapy?

Using past deprivation as permission to exploit or harm someone else.

What does Invisible loyalty mean in Contextual Family Therapy?

An unspoken obligation to family members or family rules that guides behavior outside awareness.

What does Split loyalty mean in Contextual Family Therapy?

Feeling that loyalty to one important person betrays another.

What does Revolving slate mean in Contextual Family Therapy?

Passing unresolved injustice from one relationship or generation to a more vulnerable person.

What does Transgenerational legacy mean in Contextual Family Therapy?

Patterns of fairness, burden, loyalty, care, and injustice passed across generations.

What does Contextual holding mean in Contextual Family Therapy?

A trustworthy setting where everyone's pain, contributions, and responsibilities can be considered fairly.

What are the main exam clues for Contextual Family Therapy?

Boszormenyi-Nagy, relational ethics, ledger, entitlement, invisible loyalty, split loyalty, revolving slate, multidirectional partiality, crediting, accountability, exoneration.

What is the memory phrase for Contextual Family Therapy?

Balance the relational ledger.

How is multidirectional partiality different from neutrality?

Neutrality avoids siding. Multidirectional partiality actively supports each person's valid interests in turn.

How is exoneration different from excusing harm?

Exoneration increases understanding of context while accountability for harm remains.

What question summarizes Contextual therapy?

Who has given, who has been hurt, what is fair, and how can trust be restored?