There exist various models and approaches of family therapy that therapists utilize to identify solvable problems within families and consequently solve those problems. The strategic family therapy model focuses on the finding solutions to the solvable problems at hand. In this approach, the therapists do not involve themselves with the past experiences or spend time trying to figure the possible cause of the problems in the family. The therapists in this approach draws up plan designed to provide the family with appropriate solutions to their current problems. Structural family therapist focus on the point of dysfunction within the various dimensions of family systems. This paper aims to provide descriptive research on the approaches mentioned above of family therapy and also provide a brief application of the research.
Part I: Research
a ) Strategic family Therapy Model
In strategic family therapy, therapists carefully craft up plans which they use to manage the problems present in a particular family. Strategic therapists work fast to come up with solutions for the current problems of an individual or within the individual’s family. Such therapist do not spend time listening to clients’ tales of past events, thoughts or dreams. Strategic family therapists think of themselves as problem-solvers. The point of strategic therapy is not to determine the cause of an issue but rather to find ways of addressing and solving the problem at that particular time. The therapist, in a strategic family therapy, like a referee, decides and initiates what happens. The therapists comes up with a specific design of an approach to deal with each problem ( Sexton & Lebow, 2015) .
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Jay Hailey, a pioneer of strategic family therapy, designed five steps which strategic family therapists need to implement during a family therapy program ( Gladding, 2014) . In the initial stage, the therapists work to identify the solvable problem. The therapist then sets goals and objects which he or she must fulfill by the end of the therapy. In the third stage, the therapist works to design various interventions that will be used to achieve the set goals. In the fourth stage, the therapist examines the responses, and in the fifth step, the outcome of the whole therapy is examined.
Hailey also developed a model that therapists refer to for effective family therapy in relation to strategic family therapy. According to this model, people do not develop problems by themselves but as a result of their interactions with the social environment. A family’s interaction and structure is key to solving family problems in strategic therapy. An individual’s problem is partly a result of the sequence of interactions of those in the individual’s immediate surroundings. In order to understand and solve individual’s behavior, the therapist must look at the whole social unit or family system.
Clinical application
The approach is effective in the sense that it provides solutions in the shortest time possible. In a clinical setting, the therapist does not sit and listen to the client's past experiences, but rather tries only to identify the solvable problems. The therapist would then involve the whole family and engage them by asking certain questions. Members are urged to speak out and bring out their inner feelings. This way, the therapist can identify the solvable problem which he or she must work to solve. The therapist then draws up a plan that will be used to bring change to the individual's problem. The plan must be shown to the whole family as their interactions affect the behavior and actions of the individual with the problem ( Falloon, 2015 ).
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Approach
Strategic family therapy is quite effective and takes the shortest period possible. Strategic family therapists only focus on providing solutions to problems at hand and do not waste time determining the cause of the problems. The approach is known to work with any family structure. Clients who seek this form of therapy find solutions to their problems more often than not. Strategic family therapy may be deemed as less effective as compared to the structural family therapy. The approach is more client-oriented and mainly focuses on the wellbeing of the individual in relation to the whole family. Therapists in strategic family therapy are models or task oriented in that they put all the focus on the intervention strategy and pay very little attention to understanding the symptoms or cause of the problem.
Culture, Diversity and Socioeconomic Status in Strategic Family Therapy
Just like any other family therapists, strategic family therapists must be able to understand the culture and the structure of a given family. It is quite essential to be aware of the diversity that exists among various families. Each family has its values, general ideas, and a culture. Given these factors, families tend to make decisions or agree to perform specific activities in accordance with certain norms. The strategic family therapists, while coming up with plans to help the family must put into consideration, these norms or values. The personal opinions or strong ideas of the therapist must not be overemphasized during the therapy program. The therapist has to look at the family norms and draw an appropriate strategy that will be welcomed by the family. While it is important to note the socioeconomic status of a family, the socioeconomic status of a family should not limit the provision of clinical services to patients.
b) Structural Family Therapy Model
Structural family therapy addresses the patterns or systems of interactions which create problems in families. A mental health case is viewed as a sign of dysfunction of a family. In order to treat an individual, therefore, the psychologist needs to be able to change the structure of the individual's families rather than focusing on changing the individual family members. Structural family therapy aims to improve communication among family members and to create appropriate boundaries for a more healthy family structure. The approach is suitable for a wide range of family systems including blended families, extended families, and single parents. The approach greatly relies on the cooperation and support of family members. The founder of the theory, Salvador Minuchin, maintained that most individual problems do not come from the individuals themselves but from within the family units. Therefore, changing the problem or the undesirable behavior required changing the dynamics of the family ( Barth, 2017) .
A structural therapist focuses on the system of a family and its organization. The therapists must familiarize himself or herself with complex interaction within a specific family. The basic understanding of a structural therapist is that troubled families are merely stuck in their organizational development. A family is basically a system whose structure consist of three dimensions, that is, alignment, boundaries, and power. Alignment refers to how members join or oppose each other in various instances or events. Boundaries apply to the inclusion or exclusion of members from family relationships as well as the roles of each member. Power, in this case, refers to the influence that some members have on others. For the therapist to change problem within the family, all these structural dimensions must be changed. Nevertheless, this change cannot take place from outside. For this reason, the therapist must integrate into the family and work from inside the family.
Therapy is focused on the current realities of life and the social context of the family ( Sherman & Dinkmeyer, 2014) . The therapist avoids focusing or talking about past events but aims to solve the problems that families face in their daily life scenario. A structural therapist works to provide solutions to the whole family by improving their interactions and communication.
In structural family therapy, the therapist is seen as an agent of change. The goal of the therapists is to get the family unstuck from the harmful interactions that support and amplify certain problems. Interactions between family members are referred to as transactions. For instance, the transaction between a mother and her daughter could be overprotective or controlling. Problems within the family structure are, therefore, mainly due to the harmful transactions between the family members. However, the approach does ideally maintain that these interactions are the cause of individuals' problems but rather, the transactions support and encourage pathological symptoms.
Clinical Application
In structural family therapy, the therapist identifies the problem by observing the transactions or interactions of members of the family. The therapist may provide sessions to the whole family or spend time with the family members in order to come up with the possible cause of the problem in the family. The therapist would then observe the dimensions of alignment, boundaries, and power within the family. A point of change would then be discovered and communicated to the family. The therapists would suggest the possible changes that need to take place in the family for the family to fully recover ( Gurman et al. 2015) .
Strengths and Weaknesses
Structural family therapy is much more effective as compared to the strategic family therapy. Structural therapists go an extra mile by integrating into the family, learning about the possible cause of dysfunction, redesigning boundaries and bringing about change to the whole family. This approach of family therapy does not only help the individual with the problem but also helps shape the family which is seen to have had a dysfunctional problem. The therapy program involves all the family members from start to finish. At the end of the therapy, a solution through a change is guaranteed. It greatly improves communication and interactions among family members. Because this approach requires the therapist to integrate and mingle with the family, it might not be appropriate for families known to have domestic violence. There is the threat or risk of harm while working as a structural family therapist.
Culture, Diversity and Socioeconomic Status in Structural Family Therapy
Structural family therapists greatly consider the culture, diversity and socioeconomic status of a family. A structural therapist is guided by the basic concepts of the theory which include family structure, subsystems, and boundaries. These therapists believe that each family has a distinct structure which is influenced by cultural beliefs of the members. The subsystems in a family include the sibling, parental and spousal subsystems. The therapist must examine structure, boundaries and the subsystems of a family to check for a dysfunction. The culture of the family which greatly determines the type of structure can be the root of the problem. The socioeconomic status of the family may also present as the root of the dysfunction in the family.
A structural family therapist must be able to integrate into any family structure without having to discriminate on the family culture and socioeconomic status. The therapists must be aware of the diversity that exists in various families. A structural family therapist's strong positions or ideas on the certain social issue must not affect his her clinical judgment. The decision to be made must always rest with the primary client ( Liddle, 2015) .
C. legal and Ethical Issues that may arise with each Theory and Technique
Confidentiality is an important factor in family therapy. Family therapists are often faced with the challenge of confidentiality while working with families. This is because in such situations the therapist is working with more than one client. At the beginning of therapy in both approaches, the therapist must inform the family members of their right to confidentiality. In order to stay on the safe side, a strategic or a structural family therapist must avoid consultations with individual family members. The immediate responsibility of a therapist is the patients. Because both approaches of family therapy require the involvement of the whole family, a solution centered on the recovery of the primary client may not benefit every member of the family. For instance, in structural family therapy, changes in power, alignment, and boundaries within the family may affect various members of the family negatively.
Informed consent is another serious issue in family therapy. Structural family therapists may experience problems while working with a specific family. In most instances, it is one concerned person in the family who acquires the services of a therapist. Other family members may be caught unaware of the process and may restrain from the therapy sessions. The therapist would always make appointments by commutating with the initial family members. Other members may feel neglected by such actions. The therapist, at some point, may be blamed by the other members for the problems in the family. This particular issue is more common with structural family therapy than strategic family therapy. Personal values of a therapist may also affect how they design solutions or strategies to the family. Sometimes, the personal values or strong ideas of patients may impair their clinical judgment. For instance, a strong stand on child-rearing methods may not sound appealing to the family members. A strategic therapist who focuses on creating plans that they believe would best solve family problems may find themselves disagreeing with the clients on major issues. It is important for family therapists to maintain neutrality on any issues and assure clients that the decision is theirs to make.
Part II: Application of the Research
The Jerry family is a family of five; two boys and one girl, who live New Jersey. Jerry’s, wife, Emily, is a doctor while Jerry is a high school teacher. John the eldest is a seventeen-year high school student. Elizabeth is fourteen while young Jason in only seven years old. Jerry has noticed John's recent behavior. He has not been available for most of the family get together occasions. He often arrives home late from school and oversleeps. But John is not the only one who seems to have problems in the family. Jason has seeming been sad the past few months. A few months ago, Jerry had been fighting over infidelity issues with his wife. The couple resolved their differences but has since then minimized their communication. Jerry does not feel comfortable with the current situation of things in the family. Jerry has sought for my help to assist his family; specifically, John, whom he suspects might be involved in drugs.
As a family therapist, I must find the best possible method and solutions to help the family. Being well informed on the aspects of strategic and structural family therapy approaches, I would combine the appropriate techniques of both approaches to come up with the most appropriate way of dealing with the situation. The primary client, in this case, is John, and the person most concerned by the family problems is Jerry. The other family members must be made aware of the program and asked to cooperate and support the program for the whole family to recover. An appointment must be made to inform the entire family of the program, the issue at hand and the importance of the cooperation and support. I would first of all schedule a meeting with both parents before meeting the whole family. A proper session would then be convened, one in which, every member of the family will be asked certain questions. For instance, John might be asked about his recent behavior or where he goes after school. Jason, on the other hand, may be asked about what has recently made him so sad.
As structural family therapy concepts suggest, a dysfunction in the family may occur in the structure, boundaries or the subsystems. Given the information provided by Jerry about their recent marital problems, it is clear that these issues have caused the other problems in the family. Integrating into the family and spending time with the family members would be a good way to learn and check for the organizational dysfunction in the family. Interactions and communication among family members would direct me to the existing solvable problem.
There are three problems at hand. The one that the family is most concerned about is John current behavior. After a proper observation of the transactions of the family keeping in mind the information provided by the family members, the dysfunction has been identified to have occurred in the parental and the spousal subsystems. The recent situation of the couples has had adverse effects on the children. The parents have consequently neglected the children as they are both struggling with their own problems. No one is there to help Jason with his homework as John as also been behaving weirdly and coming home late. John apparently heard the parent fighting and uttering words upon each other a few months ago. It turns out that John had been a victim of an unplanned pregnancy. John has kept this to himself for a while. He has lost interest in a lot of things and currently hangs around with Jack, who buys him alcohol.
The first step solving the family problem to this situation involves getting the couple to be more open to the kids especially John. John must be made aware that he is not the cause of his parents' problems. The parents must then solve their differences or put these differences aside while in the presence of the family. Jerry and Emily must pay attention to all their kids and support them whenever they are required to. Jason and Elizabeth must never feel neglected by all the members of the family. John may be advised to seek further counseling programs in order to refrain from his current behaviors ( Darwiche & Roten, 2015) .
Conclusion
The models of strategic and structural family therapies appear to be quite similar due to the fact that both approaches involve the whole family while dealing with clients. The two approaches also display a lot of differences in their models and applications as well. While strategic family therapy focuses mainly on designing solutions to the problem at hand, structural family therapy focuses on identifying the point of dysfunction within the family. According to the discussions above, while the strategic family therapy approach is just as good and appropriate for various family systems, the structural family therapy approach is more effective. Family therapists, as described above must have information on the family culture, socioeconomic status and most importantly, they must understand the structure or system of the family.
References
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