Reflection On The Family Crucible

The family system is founded on the notions that for change to occur in the life of an individual, the therapist must understand and work with the family as a whole. In working with the family, the therapist can understand how the individual in counseling functions within his family system and how the client’s behaviors connect to other people in the family. This theory also holds the perception that symptoms are a set of family habits and patterns passed down by generation and not a result of a psychological problem or an inability to change (Corey, 2017). Furthermore, the family system theory holds the idea that when a change occurs everyone in the unit is affected by the change.

The family entered into therapy by believing that Claudia was their entire problem and that her actions alone were the root of their problem. As noted before, she was just the perceived problem. And in order for the parents to see that Claudia was only the perceived problem the therapists reversed the blame that the parents had projected on to their daughter. I believe this technique was most striking. Through the art of helping the family to view their situation differently, the therapists initiated change allowing the family to step outside their norm and see that their failure in marriage was affecting their parenting abilities. The therapists then gave Claudia meaning in reducing her feeling of failure and at the same time proposed the more serious problem that the parents had slowly began drifting away from each other.

The basic concepts of this type of therapy are boundaries, subsystems, complementary and alignments which are easily applied and grasped. The most important aspect the therapist must keep in perspective is that every family is made up of structure and that these structures are seen only when the members of the family interact. If the therapist does not consider the entire structure of the family and intervene in only one of the many subsystems are most likely not to attain a lasting change.

In The Family Crucible, Augustus Napier and Carl Whitaker’s form of therapy was strongly influenced by family systems theory, a burgeoning theory of the time. General systems theory examines relationships between elements that constitute a whole (Andreae, 2011, p. 243). When applied to families, this theory views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the complex interactions in the unit (The

Systematic family therapy is aimed at professional counsellors and healthcare staff offering counselling skills. Its origins derived from earlier works in the 1950’s Stratton (2011) and the emphasis of systematic therapy was placed on understanding psychological difficulties within relationships (Boston, 2000). Systematic Family therapy has being identified as very effective (Stratton , 2011). However some criticisms suggest that it may be less effective than individual therapy if working with children or adolescents (Stratton, 2011).

Whitaker’s (1978) conceptualization of the dynamic was evident when he told the family “It’s really the family that has the anxiety about everybody’s getting together, and the family he’s acting for” (p. 9). Recognizing the importance of Don’s participation in the therapeutic process, the family agreed to a second session with all members present.

The following treatment plan will look at the Jarrett family, an upper-class family that struggles with the death of the oldest son, Buck. After the last harsh confrontation with her husband (Calvin), Beth decided to run away to Houston and leave the family. Without knowing if Beth wants to come back, Calvin and Conrad join therapy to face this delicate situation. By considering this information, our treatment plan will look at their family dynamics from three theoretical perspectives: Bowenian family therapy, Structural Family therapy, and Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy.

Evaluation of an assumption can be done with data collection and analysis. To evaluate Dr. Napier’s philosophical assumption that we marry or partner with our “worst nightmare,” I would suggest using almost any information that demonstrates patterns of behavior associated with personality psychology, and information that can be gathered systematically through observation and measurement also known as scientific method. I would confer with books written by experts in the field of experiential therapy with couples, articles from social science journals, and legal statistics representative of the population experiencing a high rate of divorce as a result of irreconcilable differences.

While reading The Family Crucible, the authors made it feel like I was watching a life-time television series. There were several high points and low points during the family therapy session that left me unsure of how the show would end. This book takes you on a journey using family counseling to help a family heal and communicate better with one another. I thought it was interesting how this systematic therapy took place in a time where therapy was looked at as taboo. Many times in that era family therapy was not an option. The main focus was on the family member with the issue and not on the parents or other family members. In the book the authors used different theories and approaches during the counseling sessions which were quite interesting. This process after time enabled the family to look at the journey they were on in order to understand how the family, as a whole, should function.

In this paper I will be describing how the first two session of the Brice family went. I will talk about what systems approach to therapy was used, and will include how Whitaker and Napier conceptualized the family’s difficulties. I will also describe how this differs from an individual understanding, and will talk about what specific interventions they used to support their systemic understanding of this family.

Family therapy is a technique that has many alternative approaches to every aspect of treatment which Nichols (2014), states may present a challenge when describing a basic technique. The two models of family therapy in which I feel that I would be most effective and comfortable with would be, experiential family therapy and solution-focused brief therapy. I feel most comfortable with these models because, I adapt to the role of the therapist of both therapies naturally. According to Nichols (2014), when families seek therapy they are stuck in a life-cycle transition, sometimes they are obvious and sometimes they are not obvious. I’ve found that during the first session an excellent question is to ask the client why now so that they can

In the Structural Family Therapy model, therapy is not focused solely on the individual, but upon the person within the family system (Colapinto, 1982; Minuchin, 1974). The major idea behind viewing the family in this way is that “an individual’s symptoms are best understood when examined in the context of the family interactional patterns,” (Gladding, 1998, p. 210). In SFT, there are two basic assumptions: 1) families possess the skills to solve their own problems; and 2) family members usually are acting with good intentions, and as such, no

Co-therapist: Whitaker believed that the use of a co-therapist was beneficial to the family because it allowed some distance with the therapist to keep objectiveness. The balance between the therapist allows for one to be confrontational and for the other to provide support. The role of the therapist could change during the course of therapy so that both therapists formed strong therapeutic bonds with the clients.

Becvar, D. & Becvar R. (2009). Family therapy: a systemic integration. (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

The social workers who first adopted the systems perspective were aiming for a kind of homeostasis or equilibrium. In this type of system, each part serves an essential function in maintaining a balance to produce a well-functioning whole (Hutchison, 2013). This is exactly the kind of perspective that would best serve the Doe family as we take into consideration the multiple layers of challenges they are facing. The complicated dynamics of this family should be approached in a way that addresses the needs and desires of each member, respectively and collectively. For this process to unfold as smoothly as possible, the intervention of a team of professionals, including social workers and therapists, should be implemented as soon as possible, in order to provide this family with affordable group therapy that will assist them with healing and recovery.