Behavioral transactions and patterns

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Chapter Summary of the book chapter 7, Family-Focused Clinical Intervention Models, no more that 350 wor ds

Short and concise summary

 

Thoburn, J.W. & Sexton, T.L. (2015). Family psychology: Theory, research, and practice (1st ed.). Praeger Publishing. ISBN-13: 978-1440830761

 

Some part from the book CHAPTER #7

  • The models covered in this chapter include the following: 1. Structural and strategic approaches that focus largely on behavioral transactions and patterns within family and couple systems. 2. Multigenerational approaches that focus primarily on the influences of relational history as the foundation of current transactions and interactions. 3. Multisystemic Family Therapy is a family-based model, aimed at help-ing delinquent and troubled youth, is largely integrative, and focused on the larger contextual and systemic issues facing families. 4. Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is a conjoint and systemic family therapy targeting adolescents with mental health and delinquent behav-iors. FFT emphasizes engagement and therapeutic motivation, utilizing a family-focused approach to problem solving and behavior change. 5. Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) is a strength-based, eco-logical, and integrative model that seeks to motivate and utilize family dynamics in the service of treating adolescent drug abuse and problem behaviors.
  • What these approaches share is a focus on the necessary ingredients of any successful theory or clinical model: (1) a theoretical core that describes the functioning of both well-functioning and problem families, and (2) a clin-ical model or map that identifies the unique focus of assessment, change mechanisms, and techniques/interventions that are designed to help pro-mote positive change. In this section, we describe the unique features that define each of the approaches.
  • Primary Goals ofClinical Treatment. The primary focus of SFT is to solve the presenting problems. While that might at first glance seem obvious, it illustrates the pragmatic approach of these models. Whether it is prob-lematic school behavior, family conflict, or other clinical issues, behavior change comes from a change in the underlying family structure that main-tains the problem…Process and Interventions. Structural family therapists are purposeful, active, and directive. Like all models, there are both specific clinical strat-egies and stages to the treatment process.
  • Multigenerational models highlight, as the name suggests, the role of historical, contextual, and constitutional factors in predisposing family members to adopt particular belief systems or engage in particular prob-lematic interaction patterns. Theoretical Foundations. Multigenerational models focus on the histor-ical and contextual relational forces that impact couples and families.
  • In Bowenian multigenerational family ther-apy, couples are helped to: • Become differentiated so that their understanding of family-of-origin processes prevents them from being inducted into recursive, emotion-ally driven interaction patterns. • To develop person-to-person relationships in which they can speak directly to other family members about one another and avoid imper-sonal discussion or gossip. • Recognize the degree to which they are experiencing fusion or lack of differentiation from their family of origin. • Gain insight into how this is affecting their capacity to manage current life problems in their family of procreation.
  • Process and Interventions. Multigenerational and Bowen treatment approaches have the primary aim to promote differentiation of self for the individuals in the family. The objective is to create person-to-person rela-tionships with one’s parents in which the individual uses self-observation skills to reduce emotional reactivity and to “detriangle” from emotional family situations.
  • Multisystemic Therapy (MST) MST is a family-and community-based treatment model with its roots in family systems theory. It is theoretically designed to address chronic behavior problems, and serious emotional disturbances in adolescents. MST was initially developed in the late 1970s to address the clinical needs of juvenile offenders and their families
  • The “process” of MST can be best described by the following steps: • Therapist gathers the desired treatment outcomes of each family member and stakeholder, and then helps the participants develop con-sensus on the overarching goals of treatment and how these can be measured in tangible ways.
  • FFT is a systematic, evidenced-based, manual-driven, family-based treatment program that has been successful in treating a wide range of problems affecting youth (including drug use and abuse, conduct disorder, mental health concerns, truancy, and related family problems) and their families in a wide range of multiethnic, multicultural, and geographic con-text.
  • Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) MDFT was developed as a systemic treatment for adolescent drug abuse and behavior problems. It is a “therapy of subsystems” (Liddle, 2009, p. 349), that is, both phasic and flexible in design and implementation. A therapy of subsystems is one that is ecological, targeting interventions at the individual, relational (parent/child, parent/parent, siblings), fam-ily, and social systems levels.