History of Marriage and Family Therapy

What we bring as a person to the counseling room determines the direction we take with our clients. Coming from what I describe as a dysfunctional family and my questions of why is my family the way it is, why do I behave or think the way I do I drown to the family counseling theory. Many people including myself have why questions about their family. Some of those why questions are, “why is my family like this, where did I get this habit from, will my family ever change? The family systems approach helps solve some of those why questions.

Marriage and Family Therapists (also known as MFTs) are relationship specialists. MFT focuses on the relationships that the client has and assists them to function as a stable individual and as a relationship parent. MFTs are trained assess to diagnose and treat individuals, couples, families and groups to achieve more adequate, satisfying and productive marriage, family and social adjustment (California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists). According to American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) Marriage and Family Therapists are mental health professionals with a minimum of a master’s degree and two years supervised clinical experience. Marriage and Family Therapists are trained and licensed to independently diagnose and treat mental health and substance abuse problems. The role of a MFT is to help individuals and families to address issues and guide them in the situations and everyday life so that they can function within society. MFTs provide a wide variety of services for clients. Some services that MFT provide but are not limited to is diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders, marriage and relationship counseling, and pre-martial counseling. A few of common disorders treated by MFTs are depression, martial/family

Gladding, S. T. (2010). Family therapy: History, theory, and practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.

Family is something that plays a tremendous role in our life. Even though the structure of families has changed over the years, it is important to acknowledge that there many families out there whether they are traditional families, nuclear family, stepfamilies or others which tend to have different types of problems in their families. Therefore, many families attempt to go to family therapy in order for them to obtain help in solving the different types of issues they might have at home. As stated in the book Family Therapy by Michael P. Nichols (2013), “The power of family therapy derives from bringing parents and children together to transform their interaction… What keeps people stuck in their inability to see their own participation in the problems that plague them. With eyes fixed firmly on what recalcitrant others are doing, it’s hard for most people to see the patterns that bind them together. The family therapist’s job is to give them a wake-up call” (2013).

Salvador Minuchin, born and raised in Argentina, is known as the founder of structural family therapy (Colapinto, 1982). Before creating what would be known as his most lasting contribution, Minuchin spent years paving his way to his success. Traveling back and forth from Israel to the United States, Minuchin finally settled down in the year 1954 where he began training in psychoanalysis at the William Alanson White Institute in the United States (Nichols, 2014). Following the White Institute, Minuchin began working at the Wiltwyck School, which consisted of delinquent boys from unsystematic, multi-problem, underprivileged families (Colapinto, 1982). At the time Minuchin began working there, therapists had found that certain clinical populations were not responding to traditional psychotherapy (Lappin, 1988). In fact, the population of delinquent children, like those that Minuchin was working with at Wiltwyck, resisted even more so than other populations to this traditional psychotherapy (Lappin, 1988). This was due to the fact that the traditional psychotherapeutic techniques used, were developed for middle-class patients who were verbally articulate (Colapinto, 1982). It was then when Minuchin realized that a new model of change was needed, particularly one that worked with unprivileged, delinquent boys (Lappin, 1988).

The counselor will ask questions to clarify and summarize the family’s concerns. I will answer any questions and address any concerns raised by the family about the therapy process. I will also assist in laying down parental authority and a sense of impartiality among the children. This will reinstate equilibrium in the family and motivate all members to participate in the therapy.

My first assumption of family therapy was to involve the parents and the individual that had the problem. This book explored further what it

During the first session boundaries and ground rules were set. In this session my goal was to get to know the whole family and learn about each of their concerns and what they each wanted to gain from therapy. I went around the room and asked each one to describe how each one viewed their family structure as a whole. I let Marge begin since she seemed to be the most eager one in starting family therapy. Her main concerns were having her husband’s support, her son’s

A marriage and family therapist may work in collaboration with other health care professionals, be involved in research, or use the family perspective to analyze public policies.

Graduates with a Marriage and Family Therapist are trained mental health professionals who have a family-oriented perspective and treatment approach.

The family is made up of five people: Claudia, the IP; Carolyn, mother; Laura, the sister; Don, the brother; and David, the father. The family is coming into therapy because there have been mounting concerns about Claudia and her behavior—acting out, staying out late, some fairly typical teenage stuff. For the purpose of this paper, I will be starting at the beginning where the family is first coming into therapy. I will first school that I will apply is Structural Family Therapy and the second school is Bowen Family Therapy.

It takes very special people to want to make a difference in people’s lives, to want to help them to be better. Some people seek to become counselors after overcoming a most important life challenge. The individuals that seek the profession of marriage and family therapy do not think of this work as a job or career, more typically a constellation of life experiences that demand explanation and a sense that others seek one out for assistance and emotional sustenance become driving forces leading one to counseling profession (An Invitation to Counseling Work).

therapy aims to improve family relations, and the family is encouraged to become a type of

Approaches to Family Therapy: Minuchin, Haley, Bowen, & Whitaker Treating families in therapy can be a complex undertaking for a therapist, as they are dealing not only with a group of individuals but also with an overall system. Throughout history several key theorists have attempted to demystify the challenges families face and construct approaches to treatment. However, there have been key similarities and differences among the theoretical orientations along the way. While some have simply broadened or expanded from existing theories, others have stood in stark

Many would agree that the dynamics of the family structure have changed drastically. Families are faced with many challenges, often times outside intervention is necessary in coping with the plethora of issues families face. We are living in a time of increased racial tensions, stress, bullying, domestic violence, mental illness, same-sex marriage, drug abuse, increased divorce rates, blended families, and cohabitation. The use of Marriage and family therapists appears to be increasing. According to Gladding, (2004), 56.9 million people utilized marriage and family therapists. This paper will discuss the understanding of marriage and family therapists and the family life cycle.