Strategic and Structural Family Therapy Flashcards

Strategic School of Therapy

Setting the Context

• Strategic therapists captured early theorists' interest.
• They provided a pragmatic, problem-solving focus.
• They devised interventions to outwit resistance and provoke families into changing, with or without their cooperation.

Strategic Therapy: The Leading Figures

• Strategic therapy grew out of communication theory in Bateson’s schizophrenia project.
• It developed into three distinct models:
  1. MRI’s brief therapy
  2. Haley & Madanes strategic therapy
  3. Milan systemic model
• The Mental Research Institute was the birthplace of all three models, inspired by Gregory Bateson and Milton Erikson.
• After the Bateson project disbanded in 1962, Haley moved to MRI until 1967, then joined Salvador Minuchin at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic.
• In 1976, Haley moved to Washington and founded the Family Therapy Institute with Cloe Madanes.

The Double Bind

• The MRI team studied family communication to describe features with psychological consequences.
• The most famous feature is the double bind.
• Example: A young man is going for an interview and has to make a choice between two ties: a red and a yellow one. He asks his father for advice, who in turn asks the son what's wrong with the other tie in return, leaving the young man feeling criticised no matter which choice he makes.