Introduction
Jeffrey and Michelle, who have been married since 1984, have three children, namely Julia, Sarah, and David. The family has perpetually experienced domestic disputes, which have resulted in Julia being used as the medium of communication between the family members. Worse still, the entire family avoids addressing its problems and pretends to be living a good life without issues. The 28-year-old Julia, who resides in Los Angeles away from the family who stays in Detroit, is overwhelmed with caring for her brother David who experiences panic attacks and anxiety. David’s anxiety was worsened by the outbreak of COVID-19, which made him resort to alcohol and marijuana abuse. On the other hand, Julie’s sister Sarah has been having a turbulent marriage with her spouse, Roscoe. Julie is also concerned with changing her master’s program and settling in her own home. Furthermore, she is also in grief after losing many loved ones and pets during the year and the clinical termination when the year began.
The family has resorted to seeking therapy to address and resolve its different relationship matters to foster good family communication and support. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to apply the strategic and structural therapy approaches to assess the family’s case and provide interventions that will aid in meeting its expectations. The paper will also deliberate on socio-cultural attunement with regards to the Henning’s family.
Haley’s Strategic Family Therapy
Jay Haley and his colleagues pioneered strategic therapy in the 20th century. One of the essential principles of family therapy is that an individual’s problems are somehow associated with the challenges caused by a family’s need to transform and restructure at transitional phases (McDowell et al., 2017). Such scenarios show a family situation in which a younger individual becomes indicative to help the parents evade conflicts in their marriage; hence the latter party shifts their attention to the child. The strategic approach assumes that individuals are strategic in predicting other people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions. According to McDowell et al. (2017), this ability indicates a constant power struggle whereby the family members try to impact one another’s character and define themselves. This struggle can also be externally exhibited when troubled family members try to influence a therapist to sympathize with them.
The theory identifies the family’s predicaments who seek assistance but want to be in control. These views and premises underscore the role of attempted resolutions to challenges, which either worsen the matters or result in denial of the problem’s seriousness. Strategic therapy does not have a prescriptive family concept, which exists according to parent or children hierarchies (McDowell et al., 2017). However, the approach concentrates on the family’s daily interactions, which contributed to the challenges and the cognitive skills to resolve them.
Assessment of Henning’s Family using Strategic Approach
Family Hierarchy
Julia’s family comprises her parents, Jeffrey and Michelle, and her siblings Sarah and David. Presently, Julia is living and working in Detroit while her rest stays in Los Angeles. The troubled relationship between Jeffrey and Michelle has made them reluctant and negligent in organizing their family, and hence much of the work is left for Julia. Julia has noticed that she has been the channel of communication between her parents and siblings. Furthermore, she has to take care of her brother, who suffers from severe panic attacks and devastating anxiety. Recently, the brother has started abusing alcohol and hard drugs. These responsibilities, together with her obligations, is overwhelming to Julia.
Leadership Patterns
Seemingly, the leadership pattern which the father traditionally provides has been delegated to Julia. She is the one to promote communication among the family members. She makes decisions on her own with no other family member, not even the parents, to assist her. The lady is obligated to take care of his brother, who experiences panic attacks and anxiety and abuses drugs. While the parents have failed to take the initiative to reorganize the family, it is Julia who finds it imperative to seek the services of a therapist, much to the advantage of the family.
Communication
The communication pattern in this family is indirect. Julia explains how she has become the central communication medium among the family in that each person addresses another through her. She is frequently conveying information and gauging emotional reactions between the parents and siblings. The parents are also pretending that the family is not troubled and chooses not to address the problems they are facing until Julia contemplates seeking professional assistance.
Strategic Approach Interventions
Julia stated that David is facing anxiety and drug addiction. The therapist can offer family-based treatment for him, which combines family therapy with cognitive-behavioral intermediations. This method targets the behaviors in the family setting, which promote anxiogenic and avoidant behaviors. To solve substance abuse, the treatment can enable David’s coping ability and minimize the negative consequences of alcohol and marijuana on his family members. The approach can also eradicate family qualities that pose a barrier to treatment. A therapist can also use a paradoxical approach to solving the conflict between the family members by instructing, for instance, the parents to be regularly engaging in arguments. They are likely to stop quarreling if they realize they can control their emotions and that it is not right to be shouting at each other.
Minuchin’s Structural Family Therapy
Salvador Minuchin popularized the structural family theory in the 1960s. It is an action-based theory that focuses on modifying the present and not dwelling in the past. Minuchin argued that since the past was responsible for the family’s present structure, it is available in the present and changed by interventions that modify the gift (McDowell et al., 2017). The therapist engages with the family system and proceeds to convert it. The concern is on the family organization since it is presumed that problematic conduct is connected to an error in the prescriptive family structure. It is believed that family member positions and experiences can be promoted by altering the configuration (McDowell et al., 2017). The therapist must reconstruct the family’s functioning to improve the individual members’ provision, regulation, nurturing, and interaction. After that, the family is expected to adapt to the changes by self-regulatory mechanisms.
The features of structural family therapy emanate from the classic systemic approach of examining family’s interactive arrangements. Once it is understood that baseline behavior is the cause of the family’s predicament, a structural approach would identify and alter them when occurring and then let them adopt them (McDowell et al., 2017). Therapists credit this therapy approach to provide families with alternative and practical methods of solving problems. This approach is similar to behavioral techniques because learning is practical; hence family members can notice changes in their behaviors.
Assessment of Henning’s Family using Structural Approach
Family Structure
The client’s family comprises a man by the name of Jeffrey, who is married to Michelle. The couple has two daughters, Julia and Sarah, and a son named David. Currently, Julia is living and working in Detroit while her rest stays in Los Angeles. The troubled relationship between Jeffrey and Michelle has made them reluctant and negligent in organizing their family, hence much of the work is left for Julia. Julia has noticed that she has been the channel of communication between her parents and siblings. Furthermore, she has to take care of her brother, who suffers from severe panic attacks and devastating anxiety. Recently, the brother has started abusing alcohol and hard drugs. These responsibilities, together with her obligations, are overwhelming to Julia.
Leadership and other Role Patterns
The leadership pattern, which the father traditionally provides, has been delegated to Julia. She is the one to promote communication among the family members. She makes decisions on her own with no other family member, not even the parents, to assist her. The lady is obligated to take care of his brother, who experiences panic attacks and anxiety and abuses drugs. While the parents have failed to take the initiative to reorganize the family, it is Julia who finds it imperative to seek the services of a therapist, much to the advantage of the family.
Communication
The communication pattern in this family is indirect. Julia explains how she has become the central communication medium among the family in that each person addresses another through her. She is frequently conveying information and gauging emotional reactions between the parents and siblings. The parents are also pretending that the family is not troubled and chooses not to address the problems they are facing until Julia contemplates seeking professional assistance.
Reinforcement
The client’s family has a long history of domestic disputes. Apart from Julia, the family members are not on speaking terms and, therefore, address each other through her. For unexplained reasons, Julia’s sister Sarah has had marital differences with her husband, Roscoe. Her brother David is also abusing drugs and facing anxiety and panic attacks. She is grieving the loss of loved ones and pets she lost during the year, as well.
Adaptive Patterns
The family has not utilized any of the notable conflict resolution approaches or mechanisms. Apart from using Julia as a mediator, the individuals choose to be silent about their problems. Lack of conflict resolution initiatives had led to several episodes of domestic disputes. Furthermore, Sarah is in a turbulent relationship with no resolutions to exhaustively deal with the cause of the problems their family faces.
Structural Family Therapy Interventions
The therapist should join as a leader and be accommodating since they are a stranger, hence the family members are likely to resist them. Furthermore, they should consider creating a union with the family members and seek to respect the hierarchy. After that, the therapist should inquire into the family’s view of the problem, noting the sequences of behaviors and tone they use to explain it. They should also map the underlying structure in ways which include the interrelationship between members. By specifying and modifying interaction enactments, which involves a conflict scenario at home, the psychotherapist can observe the family behaviors. Another therapeutic intervention is the restructuring of the family organization. It consists of reframing to focus on family structure, leveraging circular perspectives such as helping each other transform and setting boundaries, briefly taking sides with the parties involved, and shaping competency.
Sociocultural Attunement
Socioculturally attuned practice pertains to being wary and receptive to connections of societal context, culture, and power in client experience and is meant to enhance equity. In Julia’s case, a therapist conceptualizes their work with each of her family members by identifying and recognizing the context they occupy (McDowell et al., 2017). The counselor may consider how sociocultural contexts affect the attachment or support safety between each of Julia’s family members. These settings may also help recognize which solutions are deemed possible and frame questions in ways that reveal the impact of the problematic social systems.
In power analysis, such practices require Julia’s family members to name their identities to reveal the stories they have related to themselves and gender, relational roles, class, ethnicity, and privilege. At this point, the healer can assess and address individual powers. Authority is a significant issue in family therapy since it relates to the parenting role, sexuality, labor division, and income, among other aspects (McDowell et al., 2017). Treatment is necessary in order to change the existing power patterns.
A socioculturally attuned therapist must name experiences which seem unjust through questioning. For instance, they may point out that it is unfair for Julia’s parents to let David battle mental problems and substance abuse without guiding him. After allowing them this, the healer should help clients envision alternatives that do not promote inequality (McDowell et al., 2017). They should also notice and indicate some values minimized or ignored by the clients based on the dominant cultural practices. For instance, Jeffrey and Michelle choose to be silent about the problems their family is going through. This may be because they fear ridicule and external interference based on their position in society. The therapist should therefore help them realize that being open about their problems does not cost them.
Reference
McDowell, T., Knudson-Martin, C., & Bermudez, J. M. (2017). Socioculturally attuned family therapy: Guidelines for equitable theory and practice (1st ed.). Routledge.