Systemic Family Therapy Flashcards

Flashcards for reviewing key vocabulary terms related to Systemic Family Therapy.

Systemic Approach

The systemic approach seeks to understand conflict and psychological problems through the lens of patterns of interaction within larger systems, generally the family system, and not as individual issues within a person.

Focus of the Systemic Approach

Maintaining the current pattern of behavior, assuming behavior is adaptive and maintained by the environmental processes around it.

Intrapsychic to Interpersonal

Based in Social Constructivism, reality is constructed; people’s selves are adaptable and malleable, changing, shaped by their contexts.

Complementarity

Family behaviour and roles are interdependent and mutually reinforcing.

Circular Causality

Relationship difficulties are not linear and do not have a starting point or cause, but are circular and impacted by communication and the relationships between individuals.

Circularities

Repetitive patterns of interaction within a family system: action → response → action → response etc.

Homeostasis

The process a system goes through once patterns have been established, maintaining the system's established patterns.

Triads

A structural unit involving three individuals – eg. parents and a child.

Triangulations (Bowen)

The process in which two people in conflict draw in a third person to reduce anxiety or stabilize their relationship.

Conflict Detouring

The process in which a symptom presented by the third party is involved and intensified to maintain the homeostatic dynamic.

Stable Coalition

When one of the parents joins the child across generations against the other partner, this often results in a loss of authority of that parent over the child.

Patterns of Behaviour (Bateson)

Sequences of behaviour between and within people – containing cognitive, emotional and behavioural aspects, including patterns in relationships between people, beliefs, events and behaviours.

Process

The way (HOW) people communicate within a relationship.

Content

What is being said within the communications.

Family Structure

The subsystems (shaped by interactions – which are shaped by specific qualities of the individuals – age, gender, function/role etc.) which are demarcated by interpersonal boundaries which affect the amount and type of contact with others.

Boundaries

The safeguards of autonomy and separateness of the individuals within the family unit.

Rigid Boundaries

Control – high independence but little affection and nurturance.

Diffuse Boundaries

Enmeshment – high feelings of support and nurturance, low independence, trouble relating to individuals outside of the system.

Family Life Cycle

The model of change and development – including the common hurdles within the specific stage they are going through - of the family unit as is normative within the Western context.

Beliefs

The guiding, unspoken principles which dictate and organise how families conceptualise the world and how they should behave – eg. beliefs regarding gender, authority, etc.

Punctuation

The beliefs influence behaviour in a way that becomes predictable – forming repetitive patterns. When individuals act unlike these predictions families can be very surprised.

The Genogram

A basic grounding map, used within therapy as an organising tool, of the client and their relationships within their family units. It illustrates information about the family over three generations.

Constructivism (Kelly)

The theory which states that individuals actively construct their realities through experience and interaction – they are not merely passive observers, but interpreters and builders of their own meaning of what is observed; which is influenced by prior knowledge, cognitive structures etc.

Social Constructivism (Gergen)

Meaning is shaped and constructed; however these are also influenced and shaped through personal, social, and cultural contexts. Reality is co- constructed through language, interaction, and shared meaning.

Family Narratives

The constructed narrative/s which the family creates in order to explain and make sense of their experiences; which in turn impacts the interactions individuals within the unit have with each other.

Strategic Family Therapy

The clinician is the main driver of the therapy – they identify problems, set goals, plan interventions, initiate and examine responses to refine the approach.

Reframing

Changing the conceptual/emotional setting in relation to how the situation is experienced to fit a better one; thus changing the meaning.

Paradoxical Interventions (Haley)

Asking the clients to do something which goes against common sense to interrupt problem maintaining behaviours.

Restraining Technique

The therapist discourages the family from changing too quickly, or the therapist expresses worry about the possibility of relapse if improvements occur.

Joining

The therapist joins the system; showing understanding and acceptance - to make sure the family accepts them and the interventions before they unbalance the system.

Formulation/Conceptualisation

The working model the therapist creates based on their experience with the family; which includes structure, flexibility, resonance, context, developmental stage and how the index patient’s symptoms reinforce the preferred transactions.

Enactments

A therapeutic technique whereby the therapist encourages the family to act out real interactions during the session in order to assess and alter maladaptive behaviours.

Positive Connotation

Symptoms are given a positive explanation for whatever is being exhibited; this is told to the family during the intervention with the injunction that it should remain the same.

Circular Questioning

Questions which activate a feedback loop; designed to get the family to reflect about their own dynamics and internal processes.

Invariant Prescription (Palazzoli & Prata)

To strengthen family ties and hierarchies, the parental system is asked to go out and not tell anyone where/what they did; which strengthens the ties between partners.

Second-Order Cybernetics

Acknowledges the role of the observer (the therapist) in the description of the system.

Brief Solution Focused Therapy

Therapeutic interventions are focused on finding exceptions to the rule (the problem).

Narrative School

A way of freeing clients from limiting beliefs imposed by their social contexts through linguistic collaborative effort.

Dominant Story

The current story accepted by the individual; generally centred around beliefs and values which affect how they attribute meaning.

Alternative Story

The story which does not align with the dominant paradigm but still explains and has meaning; indicates a possibility for change.

Problem Saturated Story

A dominant story saturated with issues which prevents the family/individual from finding new meaning through alternative stories.

Deconstruction

Interpretation of the beliefs, ideas, and values which underlie the dominant story.

Searching for Unique Outcomes

Looking for times when the norm was not the case and the situation surrounding it + what it means.

Externalisation

The objectification of the problem in order to separate it from the person.

Mapping of Influence

Uncovering the impact of beliefs on the lives of individuals.

Unique Outcomes

Times when the problem was not present – which lies contrary to the dominant story.

Outsider-Witness Group

A third person/audience is invited to listen to and acknowledge the constructed narratives.