Chapter 3: Types and Functionality of Families
Start time reading: July 1, 2021, 12:15 End time reading: July 1, 2021, 12:55
Thoughts and Questions
The chapter explored in-depth the different types of families. One question was, what are the different challenges that the different types of families face? The qualities of healthy families were also identified, raising the question of how families can work from being dysfunctional to fully functional. Different types of stressors that impact the health of families were identified.
Important Principles
The chapter identified different types of families based on the styles of living, organizational patterns, and living arrangements. The different types of families include nuclear, single parent, blended, dual career, child-free, with special-needs children, gay and lesbian, aging, multigenerational, grandparent-headed, and military. One principle identified was that understanding the type of families is critical to understanding the type of challenges they face.
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The qualities of healthy families were also identified as commitment, appreciation, effective communication, high religiosity, clear roles, and encouragement. Identifying family life stressors can play a big role in determining why a family is dysfunctional or not. Handling an unexpected or expected stressful situation can be difficult but is critical for the success of the family.
Chapter 4: Working with Single-Parent and Blended Families
Start time reading: July 1, 2021, 12:55 End time reading: July 1, 2021, 13:25
Thoughts and Questions
Single-parent families are one of the most prevalent types of families. What are some of the causes of single-parent families? How do traditional family setups different from single-parent families? Blended families also involve two adults and adoptive, foster, or stepchildren. Should the therapeutic strategies identified for blended families be different from traditional families?
Important Principles
There are unique approaches when working with both single-parent and blended families. Working on single-parent families will involve building communication procedures, linkage with outside groups, and bibliotherapy. One should understand the unique problems that single-parent families face, like identifying responsibilities, finding time together, and enjoying each other.
Blended families were identified as challenging because of the difficulty in dealing with different aspects of the parent-child relationship. The strategy for dealing with the family involves formulating new practices and traditions and establishing educational and behavioral patterns. Family therapies that work with both single-parent and blended families need to commit more energy and imagination (Gladding, 2019).
Chapter 5: Working with Culturally Diverse Families
Start time reading : July 1, 2021, 13:25 End time reading: July 1, 2021, 14:00
Thoughts and Questions
Culturally diverse families have to deal with different cultural backgrounds, views, and perspectives. The differences can be in class, gender, nationality, ethnicity, race, ability, and age. One question identified was what are the cautions therapists should observe when working with culturally diverse families?
Important Principles
The United States has become increasingly diverse, leading to more culturally diverse families. The families can encounter barriers like prejudice, dilemmas to problem resolution, and different perspectives. The therapist should be sensitive to the backgrounds of both parties. One should obtain special education and additional training if necessary.
Using extended family resources like church or club can create a sense of connectedness in the families. Using institutions like churches, clubs, or groups for gay, lesbian, transgender, or bisexual can help support culturally diverse families. The therapist needs to consider areas that are common between the two individuals and work on them. The therapist should be as sensitive as possible when working with a culturally diverse group.
Chapter 6: Ethical, Legal, and Professional Issues in Family Therapy
Start time reading: July 1, 2021, 14:10 End time reading: July 1, 2021, 14:45
Thoughts and Questions
Ethics is a discipline in philosophy concerned with human conduct. The code of ethics establishes guidelines for making ethical decisions. The internet has also opened up possibilities regarding ethical and legal issues in therapy. The chapter only analyzed addressing unethical behavior through legal issues. However, one question to ask is whether there are other conflict resolution techniques without the legal system.
Important Principles
Effective family therapy should observe the ethical and legal issues in family therapy. The useful resources for the therapist include a code of ethics, educational resources, and professional consultation. Civil law is the legal problem that most therapists have to deal with. The therapist should be aware of the legal proceedings.
Following ethical behavior is important to improve the outcomes of the interaction between the therapist and patient. Unethical behavior could be addressed by reporting it to professional services. The legal system can specifically determine the rules that could be binding in specific situations.
Chapter 7: The Process of Family Therapy
Start time reading: July 1, 2021, 14:45 End time reading: July 1, 2021, 15:25
Thoughts and Questions
The chapter addressed the general process of therapy by considering common factors to consider during the therapy session. The impression of family therapy changed learning of the common factors. Starting therapy can be challenging as one could overemphasize or under-emphasize the client’s needs. One question to be considered was how someone could be comfortable working with individuals, groups, or families one does not know.
Important Principles
The appropriate therapy session should involve a well-planned procedure divided into stages that include the start of the therapy, the middle stages, and termination. The start involves making the family comfortable and establishing rapport with the family. The middle phase involves a further connection with family members and analyzing family goals. The termination stage involves agreeing on some goals, new behaviors emphasized, and family strengths reinforced.
Chapter 8: Couples and Marriage Therapy and Enrichment
Start time reading: July 1, 2021, 16:00 End time reading: July 1, 2021, 16:45
Thoughts and Questions
The chapter identified that there are different approaches to couple and marriage therapy. Infidelity was previously identified as bad, and the chapter emphasized its consideration and negative side effects. One question was how therapists could realize family counseling before an actual crisis.
Important Principles
There are several major theories for marriage therapy to improve preparation and enrichment. The theory by David Mace and Vera Mace emphasized that working with couples that were not in crisis could strengthen marriages. The theories focused on preventive approaches by focusing on preventing the development of problems in the general population to promote family togetherness. One strategy of prevention involves psychoeducation involving the education of families using visual aids and lectures.
The therapeutic approach to couple therapy was identified as behavioral couples’ therapy (BCT) that involves a negotiation model for adult intimacy focusing on social learning, communication theory, and operant conditioning. Emotionally focused therapy is another approach based on the attachment theory, and it focused on fostering secure attachment styles among couples.
Chapter 17: Research and Assessment in Family Therapy
Start time reading: July 1, 2021, 16:45 End time reading: July 1, 2021, 16:25
Thoughts and Questions
Research can be applied to therapy to gain knowledge, confirmation, accountability, practicality, and uniqueness about the effectiveness of family therapy. Family therapies were identified to be more effective compared to other psychotherapies. One question that was raised was how could family therapies be further enhanced?
Important Principles
Several challenges were identified that could possibly impact family research. The most prevalent challenges were where to focus the research, the environment to use, and the research design to use some challenges. Other challenges were in the nature of the research, like the sampling procedure, instrumentation, validity, and reliability of the methods.
Assessment of families was identified to be critical in the diagnosis and the treatment plans and outcomes. Assessment can be conducted on a systematic level by examining pressures on the family, family structure, family history, and process. The assessment could involve analyzing both the formal and informal methods in therapy (Gladding, 2019).
Chapter 18: Working with Substance-Related Disorders, Domestic Violence, and Child Abuse
Start time reading: July 1, 2021, 16:25 End time reading: July 1, 2021, 17:05
Thoughts and Questions
Substance-related disorders were defined as disorders relating to taking drugs of abuse, including alcohol leading to side effects and toxin exposure. One question raised was how families could play a role in enabling or discouraging substance abuse. Family groups and cultures were identified that could be enablers of substance abuse. Such a scenario could become more apparent in cultures like the Hispanics/Latinos, where family is of primary importance.
Important Principles
Effective therapy can only be possible once the substance abuse behavior stops as the family will enter into a new phase of treatment. Bowen family therapy is an effective therapy for alcohol abuse families. The therapy focuses on codependency and responsibility differentiation among family members. Other effective family therapies include behavioral family therapy that incorporates behavioral results like modeling, rehearsal, and extinction and multifamily therapy that focuses on treating the family members at the same time.
Other challenges that should be addressed in family therapies include issues of domestic violence and child abuse and neglect. The treatment should first focus on a proper assessment of the issue and implementing treatment strategies. Domestic violence treatment could involve conjoint family therapy and educational methods like cognitive-behavioral therapy. Treating child abuse and neglect could be rather challenging as one should further consider the legal, psychological, and developmental issues (Gladding, 2019).
Reference
Gladding, S. T. (2019). Family therapy: History, theory, and practice . Pearson Higher Ed.
(Gladding, 2019)
