Family System Therapy Notes:

● The basic premise of family therapy is that people’s behavior is rooted in important
interactions within the family.
● Our families shape us, influence our development, and model appropriate or
inappropriate behavior. Only within the context of our larger family system can we be
fully understood.
● Family therapists contend that the ways people interact with members of their family
repeats, and if repeated enough, these interactions and ways of being within the family
become a predictable pattern and are difficult to change.
● Family systems therapy is a branch of psychotherapy that involves working with families
and couples to encourage change and development.
● Family therapists look at interactions between family members and family dynamics
● Family therapists contend that people’s problems originate and are maintained within the
context of a family system
● In family therapy, all members of the family unit reflect upon themselves and make
changes that support the well-being of all other members of the family.
● view that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
➔ the family is in the forefront and individuals are seen as subunits, or parts of the
whole.
● Family therapists look at the functions behaviors serve

General systems theory: Ludwig von Bertalanffy

➔ he found that general system laws apply to any type of system, that each organism is an
open system that experiences continuous input and output, and that a system can be
defined by the interrelationships among the subunits
➔ Each participating unit not only contributes to the whole but also has an effect on the
other participating units.

Conjoint family therapy: therapy in which two or more people are counseled together

Cybernetics: the study of processes that occur in systems

First order cybernetics: principles, or looking at the communication patterns and feedback
loops within the family system from an outside perspective
➔ was believed that observers of a system were immune to the system’s influence and
therapists were considered to be experts.

Second order cybernetics: therapists influence the family system and are non-experts
➔ their role is to co-construct meanings and solutions with the family.
Terms:
● Identified patient: person perceived to have the problem
➔ Regardless of the problem, therapists believe the root of it is found in the family
dynamic
● Subsystems: smaller groupings of individuals who have unique ways of relating and
interacting with one another
● Boundary marking: meant to alter interactions among individual family members
● Boundary permeability: Boundaries can be flexible or “permeable” among individual
family members, allowing connections and adaptation to be made
● Reciprocal influence: process by which one person or aspect of a family affects all other
parts of the family, and vice versa.
● Linear causality: the action of one individual leads another individual to respond
➔ Effect pattern is in a one way straight line
● Circular causality: a long-standing, complex spiral of interactions that includes all family
dynamics and can become problematic across time.
➔ Better explains most family dynamics
➔ circular causality is a subtle, long-term process in which one person says or does
(or fails to do) something, and another family member interprets this behavior
(correctly or incorrectly), then acts upon it

Bowenian (multigenerational) family therapy: conceptualized the family as a network of

interlocking, emotional relationships that is best understood when considered within a
multigenerational or historical framework
● Therapist remains objective with neutral stance
➔ Does not join with family and remains differentiated
Terms:
● Dyad & triad
● Differentiation of self
● Triangulation
● Family projection process
● Emotional cutoff
● Sibling position
● Societal regression

Techniques:
● Genograms
● Detriangulation

Ways it differs from individual therapy:

1. Involves meeting with all members of the family together
 2. Focuses not just on the child (who is generally the person identified as having a problem;
i.e., the “identified patient”) but also on all family members who relate to or influence the
client’s problem
3. Focuses on the needs of all members of the family
4. Focuses on how the family members’ ways of interacting affect all members of the
family and on how these ways impact the rest of the family’s behavior.

Approach to family and couples therapy:

● Brief
● Solution focused
● Action oriented
● Focused on here-and-now interactions among family members
● Focused on how the family creates, contributes to, and maintains the problem.

Goals:
● Enhance communication
● Improve parent-child relationships
● Increase understanding of expectations in the home
● Enhance relationships between family members
● Enhance a natural support system for the family