Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods

Accommodation

Elements of a system automatically adjust to coordinate their functioning

Attachment

The innate tendency to seek out closeness to caretakers in the face of stress

Aversive Control

Using punishment and criticism to eliminate undesirable response

Basic Assumption Theory

Bion's concept that group members become diverted from the group task to pursue unconscious patters of fight-flight, dependency, or pairing

Behavior Exchange Theory

Explanation of behavior in relationships as maintained by a ratio of costs to benefits

Black Box Concept

The idea that because the mind is so complex, it's better to study people's input and output than to speculate about what goes on in the minds

Blended families

Separate families united by marriage

Boundary

Emotional and physical barriers that protect and enhance the integrity of individuals, subsystems and families

Boundary making

Negotiating the boundaries between members of a relationship and between the relationship and the outside world

Circular causality

The idea that actions are related through a series of recursive loops or repeating cycles

Circular questioning

A method of interviewing developed by the Milan Associates in which questions are asked that highlight differences among family members

Classical conditioning

A form of respondent learning in which an unconditioned stimulus, which leads to an unconditioned response, is paired with a conditioned stimulus

Closed system

A functionally related group of elements regarded as forming a collective entity that does not interact with the surrounding environment

Coalition

An alliance between two persons or social units against a third

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Treatment that emphasizes attitude change as well as reinforcement of behavior

Collaborative model

A more egalitarian view of the therapist's role; advocated by critics of what is viewed as authoritarianism in traditional approaches to family therapy

Complainant

De Shazer's term for a relationship with a client who describes a complaint but is at present unwilling to work on solving it

Complementarity

The reciprocity that is the defining feature of every relationship

Complementary relationship

Relationship based on differences that fit together, where qualities of one make up for lack in the other

Compliments

Used in solution-focused therapy to convey support and encouragement

Concurrent therapy

Treatment of two or more persons, seen separately, usually by different therapists

Conjoint therapy

Treatment of two or more persons in sessions together

Constructivism

A relativistic point of view that emphasizes the subjective construction of reality. Implies that what we see in families may be based as much on our preconceptions as on what's actually going on

Content

What families talk about

Contextual therapy

Boszormenyi-Nagy's model that includes relational ethics

Contingency contracting

A behavior therapy technique whereby agreements are made between family members to exchange rewards for desired behavior

Contingency management

Shaping behavior by giving and taking away rewards

Coping questions

Used in solution-focused therapy to help clients realize that they have been managing difficult circumstances

Countertransference

Emotional reactivity on the part of the therapist

Cross-generational coalition

An inappropriate alliance between a parent and child, who side together against a third member of the family

Culture

Shared patterns of behavior and experience derived from settings in which people live

Cultural competence

Familiarity with and sensitivity to other peoples' ways of doing things

Customer

De Shazer's term for a client who not only complains about a problem but is motivated to resolve it

Cybernetics

The science of feedback; how information, especially positive and negative feedback loops, can help self-regulate a system

Deconstruction

A postmodern approach to exploring meaning by taking apart and examining take-for-granted categories and assumptions, making possible newer and under constructions of meaning

Detriangulation

The process by which individuals remove themselves from the emotional field of two others

Differentiation of self

Bowen's term for psychological separation of intellect and emotions and independence of self from other; opposite of fusion

Directives

Homework assignments designed to help families interrupt homeostatic patterns of problem-maintaining behavior

Disengagement

Psychological isolation that results from overly rigid boundaries around individuals and subsystems in a family

Double bind

A conflict created when a person receives contradictory messages on different levels of abstraction in an important relationship and cannot leave or comment

Dyadic model

Explanations based on the interactions between two persons or objects

Emotional cutoff

Bowen's term for flight from an unresolved emotional attachment

Emotional reactivity

The tendency to respond in a knee-jerk emotional fashion, rather than calmly and objectively

Emotionally-focused couples therapy

A model of therapy based on attachment theory, in which the emotional longings beneath a couple's defensive reactions are uncovered as they are taught to see the reactive nature of their struggles with each other

Empathy

Understanding someone else's beliefs and feelings

Enactment

An interaction stimulated in structural therapy in order to observe and then change transactions that make up family structure

Entitlement

Boszormenyi-Nagi's term for the amount of merit a person accrues for behaving in an ethical manner toward others

Enmeshment

Loss of autonomy due to blurring of psychological boundaries

Epistemology

The branch of philosophy concerned with the study of knowledge

Equifinality

The ability of complex systems to reach a given final goal in a variety of different ways

Exception

De Shazer's term for times when clients are temporarily free of their problems. Used to help clients build on successful problem-solving skills

Expressive leader

Serving social and emotional functions; in traditional families, the wife's role

Externalization

Michael White's technique of personifying problems as external to persons

Extinction

Eliminating behavior by not reinforcing it

Family drawing

An experiential therapy technique in which family members are asked to draw their ideas about how the family is organized

Family homeostasis

Tendency of families to resist change in order to maintain a steady state

Family life cycle

Stages of family life from separation from one's parents to marriage, having children, growing older, retirement, and death

Family myths

A set of beliefs based on a distortion of historical reality and shared by all family members that help shape the rules governing family functioning

Family projection process

In Bowenian theory, the mechanism by which parental conflicts are projected on the the children or a spouse

Family ritual

Technique used by the Milan Associates that prescribes a specific act of family members to perform, which is designed to change the family system's rules

Family sculpting

A nonverbal experiential technique in which family members position themselves in a tableau that reveals significant aspects of their perceptions and feelings

Family structure

The functional organization of families that determines how family members interact

Feedback loop

The return of a portion of the output of a system, especially when used to maintain the output within predetermined limits (negative) or to signal a need to modify the system (positive)

First-order change

Temporary or superficial changes within a system that do not alter the basic organization of the system itself

First-order cybernetics

The idea that an outside observer can study and make changes in a system while remaining separate and undefended of that system

Fixation

Partial arrest of attachment or mode of behavior from an early stage of development

Formula first-session task

Solution-focused therapists routinely ask clients at the end of the first session to think about what they do not want to change as a result of therapy. Focuses them on strengths in their lives and begins the solution-generating process.

Functional Analysis of Behavior

in operant behavior therapy, a study of a particular behavior, what elicits it, and what reinforces it

Fusion

A blurring of psychological boundaries between self and others and a contamination of emotional and intellectual function

General systems theory

A biological model of living systems as whole entities that maintain themselves through continuous input and output from the environment

Genogram

A schematic diagram of the family system

Group dynamics

Interactions among group members that emerge as a result of properties of the group rather than merely their individual personalities

Hermeneutics

The art of analyzing literary texts or human experience, understood as fundamentally ambiguous, by interpreting levels of meaning

Hierarchical structure

Family functioning based on clear generational boundaries, where the parents maintain control and authority

Homeostasis

A balanced steady state of equilibrium

Idealization

A tendency to exaggerate the virtues of someone, part of the normal developmental process in children's relationships to their parents and in intimate partnerships

Identification

From psychoanalytic theory, not merely imitation, but appropriation of traits of an admired other

Identified patient

The symptom-bearer or official patient as identified by the family

Instrumental leader

Decision-making and task functions; in traditional families, the husband's role

Intensity

Minuchin's term for changing maladaptive transactions by using strong affect, repeated intervention, or prolonged pressure

Internal family systems model

A model of the mind that uses systemic principles and techniques to understand and change intrapsychic processes, developed by Richard Schwartz

Internal objects

Mental images and fantasies of oneself and others, formed by early interactions with caregivers

Introjection

A primitive form of identification; taking in aspects of other people, which then become part of the self-image

Invariant prescription

A technique developed by Mara Selvini Palazzoli in which parents are directed to mysteriously sneak away together

Invisible loyalties

Boszormenyi-Nagy's term for unconscious commitments that children take on to help their families

Joining

A structural family therapy term for accepting and accommodating to families to win their confidence and circumvent resistance

Linear causality

The idea that one event is the cause and another is the effect; in behavior, the idea that one behavior is a stimulus, the other a response

Marital schism

Lidz's term for pathological overt marital conflict

Marital skew

Liz's term for a pathological marriage in which one spouse dominates the other

Medical family therapy

A form of psychoeducational family therapy involving collaboration with physicians and other health care professionals in the treatment of people with medical problems

Metacommunication

The implied command of a message

Miracle question

Asking clients to imagine how things would be if they woke up tomorrow and their problem was solved. Helps clients identify goals and potential solutions

Mirroring

Expression of understanding and acceptance of another's feelings

Modeling

Observational learning

Monadic model

Explanations based on properties of a single person or object

Morphogenesis

The process by which a system changes its structure to adapt to new contexts

Multigenerational transmission process

Bowen's concept for the process, occurring over several generations, in which poorly differentiated persons marry equally immature partners, ultimately resulting in children suffering from severe psychological problems

Multiple family group therapy

Treatment of several families at once in a group therapy format

Multiple impact therapy

An intensive, crisis-oriented form of family therapy developed by Robert McGregor in which family members are treated in various subgroups by a team of therapists

Mystery questions

Questions designed to get clients wondering how their problems got the best of them, which helps to externalize the problems