FAMILY THERAPY

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION1

Family Systems Theory2

Bowen's Systems Theory2

Contextual Family Therapy2

Carl Whitaker's Symbolic Experiential Approach3

Belief Systems3

Strategic family3

Structural Family4

Critical Analysis5

REFERENCES6

INTRODUCTION

Family therapy emerged as a new paradigm and treatment modality in the mid- 20th century after numerous researchers and traditional mental health providers such as, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts became discontent with their effectiveness with particularly difficult mentally ill individuals. It was even believed that severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia were thought to be untreatable by psychotherapy by the mental health domain at the time. As clinicians and researchers expanded their focus to include others surrounding the person, mainly family members, they began to develop new theories and approaches to fit with their new widened perspective. These innovative ideas developed from research and clinical work with families became the foundation for the movement that would become the field of family therapy (Berger, 2008). One aspect that is often used to differentiate modern and postmodern family therapy is the epistemological and scientific traditions that each aligns with. Held (1995) concludes that the realist antirealist epistemological debate is central to modern postmodern distinction.

However, even as family therapy emerged, it considered itself divergent from traditional, empirical science, based on Western traditions and standards. Realist thinking is based in the positivist tradition in which an ultimate and absolute truth and reality can be discovered and objective knowledge is possible in which the observer is separate and independent from that which they know, observe, and discover. Empirical science, prevalent in the modern Western society, is based on these reductionist and rational premises in which cause and effect lineal pathways are favored. Thus, it would be safe to state that family therapy still resonates throughout the field and approaches that have evolved.

FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY

Bowen's Systems Theory

Bateson and team were studying families and interaction, on the west coast, others around the country also began to do the same. Bowen began by studying mother-child relationships and later expanded his view to include the father and other members of the family system. According to Nichols & Schwartz (2004). This research was of utmost importance to Bowen believing that it was a necessary part of family therapy gaining acceptance in a scientifically dominated time period. Most of his ideas and theories were based on his research. The core of Bowen's theory developed around the feeling process and intellectual process and the degree to which people are able to distinguish between the two processes (Bateson, 2011).. Also, emphasized the careful selection of his ideas and concepts that might be more readily accepted within the scientific context of his times Bowen (1976) explained that family systems theory evolved rapidly in a short period of time between 1957 and 1963. He claimed that "by the mid-1960s, the term systems was being used more frequently," but asserted that in the past decade, the term has become popularized and overused to the point of being meaningless. Furthermore, Bowen's concept of systems has always been called natural systems theory.

Contextual Family Therapy

Ivan Boszormenyi Nagy also became known for his ...