Week 6 forum post responses
In need of a 250 word response/discussion to each of the following forum posts. Agreement/disagreement/and/or continuing the discussion.
Original forum discussion/topic post is as follows:
Forum Assignment for the Week: Critique either Family Therapy or Contemplative Therapy with regard to the efficacy of the approach to treatment.
Forum post response #1
This week we learned about both family therapy and contemplative psychotherapies.
Family therapy was very interesting to me.If I were to use this degree to begin a career in some sort of counseling, I believe it would be either family or marriage counseling or therapy that I would seek out.
Family therapy looks at treating not just an individual, but rather the whole family.Although, therapy can take the form of client and therapist only, especially if family members do not live nearby and are unable to attend therapy with the client.Rather than focusing on one’s experience, like in the past therapy forms that we have learned, the process of family therapy focuses on the current happenings within the family, family structure, and perhaps explores what is causing the current behaviors.
Family therapy focuses on three main systems within the family: the wife and husband (or wife and wife or husband and husband) system, the parents as a system, and the siblings system.Our textbook states that the spousal system is perhaps the most important.If there is conflict between the spouses, then this affects the other subsystems as well.
Family therapy has a term called cybernetic epistemology.This means that when a comment or action is done or said, and someone responds, they each disagree on where the starting point of the argument began.The first person believes that the second person started the argument when they replied or reacted.However, the second person believes that the first person started the argument with their initial argument.Because of this, it is easy to see how families disagree on whom or what the problem is.
Family therapy focuses on many different techniques to help solve these problems.One of the techniques is to utilize role play.Another technique is to envision the problem as an outside force.For example, rather than the problem being the father drinking too much, the family would view the problem as alcohol that was trying to take their father away from them.
To be successful, it would seem that everyone in the family would need to be willing to work towards bettering the family system.If one person was not interested, or had given up on trying to be a family, then the therapy would most likely not be beneficial as they would not be invested.However, that would be an issue with any therapy.
Our textbook states that family therapy has recently grown in research studies.These studies have been able to prove the benefits and successes of family therapy.
Forum post response #2
Family therapy is a form of psychotherapy. It is a form of treatment designed to address specific issues affecting the health and functioning of a family. (Crane, 2018) The term “family” does not necessarily mean blood relatives. It can be anyone who is supportive in one’s life. As a high school counselor, I can understand the term “family”. We work with students and their families on a daily basis. I remember one instance where a student did not have good ties with his family. His support came from is basketball coach. Because his coach was his support, the student and coach worked together to get him through some rough times. This kind of therapy utilizes the family as a whole to reduce stress and conflict between family members. This type of counseling views problems as patterns or systems that need adjusting within the family. (Crane, 2018)They do not look at one family member and view them as the problem. Each family has its unique problems, and its own way of communicating, or not communicating with the other members.(Crane, 2018) Family is important in therapy because they play a long-term supportive roll in one’s life. Family therapy does not have to take a long time. The average is about 12 sessions. (Crane, 2018) How often you meet with a family therapist and how many sessions you’ll need will depend on the specific issues you focus on in therapy Some reasons for seeking family therapy would be eating disorders, substance abuse, loss of a family member, a child having problems at school, and divorce.
Family therapy has proven to be extremely effective in many cases and there is evidence to support this. Results suggest that family therapy reduces the number of health care visits, especially for high users. (Crane, 2018)These results were also replicated in a graduate student training clinic. Also, studies of two different health care systems suggest that including family therapy as a treatment option does not significantly increase health care costs. (Crane, 2018)
Crane, Russel (2018) The efficacy and effectiveness of family therapy. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236029438…
Forum response post #3
Researching Family Therapy, I discovered that it has more benefits than I originally thought. As defined, family therapy is the practice of treatment for the entire family unit. In the treatment plan, it is required that the individual who is the abuser is required to be a part of the sub-system (Utti, 2016). In theory, the application of family therapy is to alert the family unit that each person has a role in the recovery and in perpetuating the abuse. A wonderful tool allows for addressing personal and group challenges. Much different from your Interpersonal psychotherapy (IP) or your Gestalt therapy, family involves multiple participants in the group dynamics.
Involving the entire family is very productive only if the family is able to implement any of the solutions/plans created. For example, a family member has a substance abuse challenge and the family begins attending family therapy as a group. If the abuser continues using after therapy and the family condones the behavior, then obviously it was not successful. I firmly believe that family therapy can only be as effective as the facilitator and the willingness of the family as a whole to fix the problem. What sets Family therapy apart from other psychodynamic therapeutic approaches is very effective is that it can be useful with addressing communication, family functioning dynamics and other closely related issues (Utti, 2016).
It was interesting to learn that Family therapy is very useful with addressing marital problems, illness within the family and sibling rivalries (2002). In comparison to many therapeutic theories we have discussed in this course, Family Therapy is the most practical therapy in my opinion. In application, I could utilize FT as I am working with parents and students in high school. It would be very useful to have family units come and learn how to support their college bound students. Utilizing the same principles as a normal therapy session would be using FT, I would supplement with exercise to help parents and siblings learn how to support college bound students. This might different but in reality, I deal with much family who have never attended college or university. Their children are the first to attend and like most family challenges, it can cause conflict. I hope that I will get an opportunity to use this theory/ practice in real time application.
CRC (2000) Family Therapy what is it? CRC. Retrieved from https://www.crchealth.com/types-of-therapy/what-is…
Cristina Utti, (2016). The Benefits of Family Therapy. Twin Lakes Recovery Center.Retrieved
from: https://twinlakesrecoverycenter.com/benefits-famil…
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