Psychology
Group and Family Therapy
Group and family therapy involve therapeutic interventions that focus on the dynamics and interactions within a group or family unit. These approaches aim to address relational issues, improve communication, and foster understanding among members. Group therapy typically involves a small group of individuals, while family therapy involves the entire family system, with the goal of promoting healing and growth within the group.
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12 Key excerpts on "Group and Family Therapy"
- Malcolm Hill(Author)
- 1999(Publication Date)
- Jessica Kingsley Publishers(Publisher)
chapter 7 Family Therapy Arlene Vetere What is family therapy? Family therapy has been defined as ‘any psychotherapeutic endeavour that e x plicitly focuses on altering the interactions between or among family members; and seeks to improve the functioning of the family as a unit , or its subsystems , and/or the functioning of individual members of the family ’ (Gurman , Kniskern and Pinsof 1986 , p.565). This is a broad definition of psychotherapeutic work with families , which includes approaches that draw on different theoretical models as well as those that attempt to integrate more than one model. The above definition reflects the broad orientation taken to family therapy and family intervention in this chapter. There are many different schools of family therapy , most of which are informed by family systems theory , although some incorporate other theoretical approaches , such as behavioural and social learning principles or psychodynamic principles. E x amples include structural family therapy , behavioural family therapy , psychodynamic family therapy , M ilan family therapy , strategic family therapy and parent management training. All the theoretical bases for family therapy seek to describe and e x plain the organised comple x ity of family relationships in household groups and e x tended family systems. In addition , later developments look more carefully at relationships between family groups , health care systems and other social agencies , as well as the relationship between the family therapist and the family group in treatment. Family therapists are interested in patterns of interaction and communication among family members and how these patterns are reciprocally influenced by beliefs , held by individuals alone and together , which may be handed down between the generations. These affect family functioning across the domains of parenting , affectional e x change and emotional support , 144
No longer available |Learn moreRelating in Psychotherapy
The Application of a New Theory
- John Birtchnell(Author)
- 1999(Publication Date)
- Praeger(Publisher)
In a family of three, there are three separate relationships; in a family of four, there are six; in a family of five, there are ten; and in a family of six, there are fifteen; even in quite a small family, it is impossible for the therapist to be aware of, let alone be in control of, everything that is going on. While there is no specifically interpersonal form of family therapy, the interpersonal principles discussed un- der couple therapy are readily applicable to family therapy. The Family as a System A commonly adopted solution is to treat the family as though it were a single entity. For this reason many family therapists have been inclined to think in terms of systems (Gorell Barnes, 1985). The family is a system insofar as what happens to any part of the system, that is, to any individual family member, will affect all other parts of the system, that is, all other family members. The family therapist considers it necessary, at least for some of the sessions, to have the entire family present in order to observe the system functioning. Systems, over time, reach a stable state, or equilibrium, in order that all parts of the system can coexist. A therapy group is also a system, but the family system, unlike the system in a therapy group, continues to exist and function outside of the therapy session. All families attain a state of equilibrium, whether they be functional or dysfunctional, but in dysfunctional families, the equilibrium is attained at the expense of the discomfort of some of the family members. A family is often referred for therapy because of the disruptive behavior of one of its members, but the strategy of the family therapist is normally not to single out this member for special attention. The assumption is that the disrup- tive behavior of one member is a symptom of the dysfunctioning of the entire family.
eBook - PDF- Aparna Raghvan(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Society Publishing(Publisher)
Group and Family Spiritual and Psychotherapy CHAPTER 8 “An unresolved issue will be like a cancer with the potential to spread into other areas of your relationship, eroding the joy, lightness, love, and beauty.” – Joyce Vissell CONTENTS 8.1. Definition ....................................................................................... 172 8.2. Family Therapy ................................................................................ 172 8.3. Dealing With Angry Teenagers ........................................................ 175 8.4. Group Therapy ................................................................................ 181 8.5. Techniques ...................................................................................... 183 8.6. Goals And Benefits Of Family Therapy And Counseling .................. 190 Psychotherapy & Spirituality 172 A family is a very important aspect in an individual’s life, and making sure that it is running smoothly can be a hurdle sometimes. This chapter looks at ways that the family that is in shambles can come back together again as a unit. 8.1. DEFINITION This chapter views the analytical group as a community that has spiritual implications through group transference. Using psychodynamic therapy, the group of people is encouraged to include the spiritual dimensions to go back to the real origin of the family units. There the group members can have a clear memory and be able to integrate their God’s representation and thus be able to work through a process allowing transformation of yourself. 8.2. FAMILY THERAPY Sometimes you may come across a situation within a family context of where everyone complains about one of its own behavior and general attitude. This person may have become the (black sheep) as popularly known but if asked they will tell you that they are just responding according to how the other members are behaving.
eBook - ePubTwenty-First Century Psychotherapies
Contemporary Approaches to Theory and Practice
- Jay L. Lebow(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Chapter 11
GROUP THERAPY
Gary M. Burlingame Debra Theobald McClendonA comprehensive definition of group psychotherapy includes groups that are used for the purpose of prevention, guidance, counseling, and training (Dagley, Gazda, Eppinger, & Stewart, 1994). However, group psychotherapy encompasses far more than simply a group functioning for a particular purpose. Fuhriman and Burlingame (2000a) defined group psychotherapy as “the treatment of emotional or psychological disorders or problems of adjustment through the medium of a group setting, the focal point being the interpersonal (social), intrapersonal (psychological), or behavioral change of the participating clients or group members” (p. 31). Group therapy does not spontaneously occur when several clients meet together with a therapist. Rather, a group therapist is conscious of group processes and dynamics and fosters member interactions that allow the group to function as the medium facilitating therapeutic change.Group psychotherapy provides several benefits. Perhaps the most obvious benefit is its resource efficiency. Clients receive treatment for a fraction of the cost devoted to individual sessions because group therapists typically treat 6 to 8 clients in a typical 90-minute session. Group psychotherapy’s resource efficiency, when compared to other treatment modalities, may be the reason its use has been predicted to continue on an upward trajectory for the foreseeable future. For instance, among clients using nationwide managed-care systems, group treatment was predicted to constitute nearly 40% of all patient visits over the next 10 years (Roller, 1997). Furthermore, Fuhriman and Burlingame (2001) found in their survey of directors of accredited mental health training programs (clinical, counseling and school psychology, psychiatry, and social work) that most believe the use of individual psychotherapy as a treatment modality will decrease, whereas that of group psychotherapy will increase.
eBook - ePubFamily Solutions for Substance Abuse
Clinical and Counseling Approaches
- Eric E. Mccollum, Terry S Trepper(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Feminist thought cuts across the schools of family therapy and can be applied within different theoretical and practical frameworks and in different settings. It has changed how many therapists look at their clients and the options they conceive for them.GOALSAND TECHNIQUES: WHAT AND HOW FAMILY THERAPISTS HELP PEOPLE CHANGE
The schools of family therapy vary somewhat in their definitions of therapeutic goals, although they generally focus on the resolution of problems, as opposed to the restructuring of personality. By virtue of its focus on problem resolution, much family therapy is relatively short-term work. Indeed, some models of family therapy are designed to be conducted in very few sessions. For example, in a survey of selected American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) clinical members, it was learned that 42 percent of family therapy cases are terminated within ten sessions, 68 percent within twenty sessions, and 88 percent within fifty sessions. Families are often told that it is not unusual to hit a “snag,” resolve the issues with a little help, and then move on, to return later if they again need help. Of course, the duration of treatment varies with the nature, severity, and chronicity of the presenting problem and the characteristics of the family.Family therapy is an approach that can be applied to a wide variety of problems. When indicated, family therapists work in conjunction with other professionals, including psychiatrists, to set appropriate goals and manage cases of great complexity.One of the ways family therapy differs most clearly from other approaches is its understanding of how people change and the therapeutic techniques derived from this understanding. Family systems theory leads to the assumption that people can change in response to changes in their here-and-now interactions with others.Other differences from traditional treatment approaches are often more ones of emphasis, rather than absolute differences. For example, family therapy is less reliant on insight than psychodynamic models of therapy, although awareness of self is valued. And although family therapy does not focus heavily on the past, the importance of history is recognized. Family history is explored to establish patterns of experience or behavior and elucidate family rules or legacies. Otherwise, the therapy tends to focus on the here and now and is not concerned with what caused a problem, but with what seems to maintain it. Many family therapy interventions are designed to create the experience of different behavior for family members, who can then support one another's efforts to change.
- Holly Crisp, Glen O. Gabbard, Holly Crisp, Glen O. Gabbard(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- American Psychiatric Association Publishing(Publisher)
McRae and Short 2009 ).Social Context for Understanding and Change
“We can help each other to understand and change ourselves.”Some therapy groups make use of the social context and balance focusing on the individual member and focusing on the group as a whole. An example of this approach is called group analysis (Foulkes and Anthony 1957/2014 ), which combines psychoanalytic insights with an understanding of social and interpersonal functioning. Group analysis is the most commonly used psychodynamic approach to group psychotherapy outside the United States and Canada.In this approach, the group-as-a-whole (see section “Core Concepts in Group Psychology”) is viewed as an entity worthy of explicit focus alongside each member. The group therapist, called the conductor , contributes fewer explicit verbal interpretations and aims to address individual concerns through exploration of the dynamics of the group as a whole and each member’s relationship to it, embedded in the larger social milieu and shaped by both conscious and unconscious forces. Many other theoretical and practice considerations have been developed in this rich method (Schlapobersky 2016 ).Giving and Receiving Peer Interpersonal Feedback
“I can understand others. I can understand myself.”Some therapy groups focus on the content and dynamics of interpersonal exchange (Leszcz 1992
eBook - PDFGroup-Analytic Psychotherapy
A Meeting of Minds
- Harold Behr, Liesel Hearst(Authors)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Families have to be introduced to each other, and each of the children present has to find a voice. To start with, the therapist might collect, using a turn-taking tech- nique, ‘safe’ information, such as a list of proposed topics for discussion and wishes for change. Writing these up on a flip-chart or board helps everyone to focus on their own and others’ points of view. The group discussion generally takes off from this platform, and leads quickly into parent-child relationship issues, with mem- bers of different families comparing notes and offering support, ideas and suggestions, after the fashion of a beginning stranger group. Separate parents’ and children’s groups complement the material worked on in the plenary groups. Multiple family therapy can be staged as a ‘one off event, constructed, for example around a specific parenting theme, or it can be offered as a short-term pro- gramme staged over several weeks or months. It is a model which can be applied equally to inpatient, day-patient and outpatient set- tings, and to adult and child patient populations alike. CHAPTER NINETEEN The application of group analysis to non-clinical settings The advent of systemic thinking and practice raised a fundamental question that had been taken for granted in the individualistic out- look of the first half of the twentieth century: who exactly is ‘the patient’ or ‘client’ when the therapist addresses a system such as a family, or an articulating entity such as an organization? The nature of the contract between the professional and the client came under scrutiny. In clinical practice this first came to the fore in the field of family therapy, where the conventional notion that an individual har- bours the problem and therefore deserves the treatment was challenged. A related issue arises in non-clinical settings. Group analysis has made its own distinctive contribution to this field, and there is now a specialized training in organizational group analysis 231
eBook - PDFTextbook of Family and Couples Therapy
Clinical Applications
- G. Pirooz Sholevar(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- American Psychiatric Association Publishing(Publisher)
What Is a Family? Most family therapies address the needs of the typical, Western middle- class family of Mom, Dad, and two children, preferably one boy and one girl. However, households consisting of such stereotyped family arrange- ments are found less and less frequently. There are numerous other com- binations of families, such as multigenerational, single parent, multiparent, multifamily, adopted parental, sibling, or avuncular households. There are in addition many people who live in family-style households who are not legally related. These include young adults sharing households and gay couples. Family-style households with unrelated members can also be found in residential schools and training centers, hostels, boarding homes, and lodgings. Furthermore, family care extends well beyond the confines of the fam- ily home, with continued and extensive support being provided for family members when they are residing in households other than the family home. Vast improvements in telecommunications and modern transportation en- able people to remain in close contact while at different ends of the earth. 154 Textbook of Family and Couples Therapy The concept of the intimate social network that provides both emotional and physical support for an individual on an everyday basis probably encompasses the notion of a “family” much better than that tied solely to people sharing a living space, or those related by birth. Even the homeless person sleeping on the streets may have a close support network of fellow itinerants who are deeply concerned for his or her day-to-day welfare. It is a sad reflection that sometimes people in such situations may receive greater supportive human contact than those living in mansions with relatives or those in the splendid social isolation of modern housing estates. The definition of family as used in BFT is a broad one that requires one of two features to be present.
eBook - PDFCounselling Children
A Practical Introduction
- Kathryn Geldard, David Geldard, Rebecca Yin Foo(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
Sometimes as a result of the awareness-raising process it will be clear that one or more members of the family could benefit from individual counselling where they would have an opportunity to resolve personal issues, explore interpersonal relation- ship issues in a private setting, and experience personal growth and development. A model for integrating individual and sub-group counselling with family therapy Whenever children are referred to us for counselling we prefer to meet with the whole family first, provided that the family are prepared to attend and to be involved in a counselling process. Consequently, when a child is referred to us we will fre- quently start the counselling process by engaging the family in a family therapy session. This is the start of a process that may involve some family therapy sessions and some individual counselling sessions for the child and any other individuals in the family who need help to address personal issues privately. Additionally, we may have some counselling sessions for sub-groups. For example, we may work with the paren- tal dyad, or with one parent and child, or with two or more siblings in a group. The way in which we integrate individual and sub-group counselling with family therapy is illustrated Figure 9.2. 96 P R A C T I C E F R A M E W O R K S As can be seen from Figure 9.2, we generally start the counselling process by working with the whole family in a family therapy session. During that session we will make decisions about the most sensible way to continue working. Frequently we will offer individual counselling for the child who has been identified as trou- bled, and may also offer individual or sub-group counselling to one or more other family members.
eBook - ePub- Naomi Moller, Andreas Vossler, David W Jones, David Kaposi, Naomi Moller, Andreas Vossler, David W Jones, David Kaposi(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
et al., 2018).All CBT group programmes use similar methods (e.g. psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring and graded exposure – see Chapter 10 for a reminder of the definition of the latter) and usually follow a preset manual. CBT group therapists typically play a more active role in guiding the group through each session. Recently, there has been more focus on the importance of group processes and structure, and how practitioners can manage these aspects of group practice more effectively to improve outcomes. Mental health service providers have recognised the benefits and often greater efficiency (Morrison, 2001) of therapeutic groups, which are now an indispensable and essential part of, for example, the UK’s NHS services for mental health problems.Pause for reflection Imagine, as a practitioner, you want to invite a client to attend group therapy instead of individual therapy. What would you say to motivate them to choose this intervention?Conclusion
This chapter has covered the evolution of systemic therapy and group therapy and the ways they have widened the traditional therapeutic focus on the individual. Systemic principles and techniques have been introduced that can help practitioners to look beyond the individual to understand clients and their problems within the various contextual layers in which they are embedded (from family relationships to wider society). The chapter has argued that clients can benefit from a range of universal processes specific to therapeutic group work, and from the specific therapeutic factors offered in this setting (e.g. positive peer modelling and peer support). Group interventions range from psychodynamic group therapy to therapeutic programmes offered to people with similar problems (e.g. mindfulness and psychoeducational groups) and self-help groups that follow a set of principles in supporting each other (e.g. Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12-step programme). Research has provided evidence for the benefits of both therapeutic group work and systemic family therapy, although more attention needs to be given to the specific processes and factors at work in group and family settings.
- Jeffrey R. Bedell(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Taylor & Francis(Publisher)
Part Three Group and Family Therapy inRehabilitation
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Chapter 10
Behavioral Group Therapy in Rehabilitation Settings
Dennis Upper and John V. FlowersAn important development in psychiatric rehabilitation has been the increasing use of behavioral group therapy techniques, which combine psychological and educational methods to change behavior and to teach a variety of adaptive skills. The term “behavioral group therapy” has had three primary definitions during the course of development of this field. In its first (and most common) meaning, behavioral group therapy refers to the application in a group setting of behavior change techniques that initially were developed in individual therapy, such as systematic desensitization. When defined in this way, behavioral group therapy usually is directive, interpretive, and focused on the behaviors of individual group members. Goldstein, Heller, and Sechrest (1966) have referred to this as the process of doing behavior therapy in groups, as opposed to doing it through groups.A second meaning of behavioral group therapy has been the use of specific behavioral interventions within an existing therapy group, regardless of the therapeutic orientation being used. Usually, one behavioral intervention (such as conditioning against silence or reinforcing the use of “I” statements) is used, and all of the other interventions are not specifically behavioral. Although this therapy is done through groups, it is not really behavioral group therapy. Instead, it is some form of traditional group therapy that is made potentially more effective by the limited use of behavioral principles.A third type of behavioral group therapy, which does not fully exist at present but is still emerging and developing, involves both applying behavioral techniques in a group setting in the most effective and cost-efficient manner and attempting to enhance therapeutic outcome by manipulating group-process variables in some planned ways. In this case, the patients, problems may be homogeneous or heterogeneous, but the interventions are specific and systematic, matched to the problems of the individual patients, executed by the entire group, and based on learning principles (Flowers, 1979).
eBook - PDFChild Sexual Abuse
An Interdisciplinary Manual for Diagnosis, Case Management, and Treatment
- Kathleen Coulborn Faller(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Columbia University Press(Publisher)
Not only can victims assist one another, and perpetrators and mothers confront one another, but whole families can help whole families or individuals within a family. A mother from one family might confront a father from another, saying, You're reacting just like my husband did; or parents from one family can nurture or set limits for children from another. A variety of therapeutic possibilities can also be structured by including families who are at different treatment stages and by composing groups of families with differing strengths and problems or various adaptations and reactions to the sexual abuse. A multiple family group might meet on a monthly basis and would be used in com-bination with other treatment modalities requiring more frequent client participation. Usually these groups are open-ended with changing memberships. Families might attend five to ten sessions. Three issues that lend themselves quite well to multiple family FAMILY AND GROUP TREATMENT 3 7 9 therapy are full disclosure of the sexual abuse, the perpetrator taking responsibility for the victimization thereby relieving the victim of that burden, and strategies to prevent recurrence. Although having to talk about the abuse in such a large group would seem daunting for the vic-tim, the presence of and encouragement from other victims can over-come the victim's fears. Likewise, pressure and support from other of-fenders can assist the target parent in taking responsibility for the sexual abuse. Finally, since all families are in the process of or have already developed a plan to prevent recurrence, they can share ideas for con-structing such a plan. Another kind of family group work is called family outings or family activities (Lilliston 1985). These family groups are larger than the therapy groups and might involve fifty or more people. An agency pro-viding sexual abuse treatment sponsors monthly family projects such as trips to the zoo, visits to museums, picnics, and parties.
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