Structural family therapy, which is based on the works of Salvador Minuchin, has become a dominant form of therapy for treating the fault lines in the family (Jiménez et al., 2019). There is a reason for that. The goals of structural family therapy align with the aim of treating the family as a whole unit and how their interconnectedness leads to behavioral changes and unique personality patterns (APA Dictionary of Psychology, n.d.-b). Let’s see what it’s all about in the words below:
The Components That Make Up Structural Family Therapy
The foundation behind structural family therapy concepts suggests dysfunctional family relationships frequently lead to fault lines that ultimately destroy them. These fault lines can range from something like stress or anxiety to mental health issues such as clinical depression. Therefore, it aims to address how one family member can relate to another. This can be done via structural family therapy interventions like improving communication and relationships to induce positive resolutions for both individual family members and the family unit as a whole.
One of the most prominent structural family therapy techniques is “family mapping”, which seeks to uncover and understand patterns of behavior and family interactions (Colapinto, 2019). In this technique, a mental health expert such as a therapist might try to make a map via a diagram of sorts, say a genogram, to visually represent the interconnections between you and your family and how these relationships that are part of these interconnections can sometimes create problems for the individual family problems.
Read More: The Benefits of Family Therapy: Strengthening Bonds and Improving Well-being
This map includes the basic structure, which in turn includes the members of the family unit, their ages and genders, and their relationships to one another. The interconnections themselves are laid out via mapping out:
- Family rules and traditions
- Behavioral patterns
- Family hierarchies/structure
Salvador Minuchin and his colleagues aptly put the real definition of structural family therapy in their seminal work, Working With Families of the Poor, “Inviting family members to place the people and write their names inside a circle promotes a recognition of their mutual belongingness, an awareness that ‘these are us,'” (Minuchin et al., 2007).
The definition becomes evident in the family mapping technique, which also asks for participation from individual family members, individuals who have come for structural family therapy. This not only benefits the participants in enjoying a therapeutic process but also allows the mental health expert responsible for them to see their place in the family structure.
Afterwards, the experts will monitor the interactions when the therapies are in session and even at times, in the home environment too. Based on this collected information, the experts tend to form a hypothesis about the patterns of issues, the relationships and interactions between them (Colapinto, 2019).
Additionally, these structural family therapy activities also act as techniques and complement “family mapping”:
“Joining” the family:
A mental health expert such as a therapist makes an effort to “join” the structures of a family in order to analyze the family from the inside. A structural family therapy example of this would be a therapist forming empathetic and caring relationships with members of the family, which is part of the structural family therapy.
Read More: Exploring Dysfunctional Family Therapy: Comprehending, Recovering, and Fortifying Resilience
Identifying and aligning boundaries:
The expert can help the participants identify clear boundaries and help them align their boundaries with others in the family while keeping in view the hierarchies.
Narration and role-playing:
This involves all the participants acting out the same situations that led to the fault lines in the family, where a therapist may also ask to enact alternative scenarios to the same situations in an effort to find resolutions.
Cognitive reframing:
Here, a mental health expert will help members think about situations in different ways or see things from a different perspective, due to which participants can see things in a more positive light, which they saw through negatively. This makes it one of the best structural therapy techniques.
When It’s Used?
Structural family therapy works best when conflicts in a family are on the rise, especially when these conflicts involve distress or tension, particularly with teenage children. A structural family therapy can also help:
- Adolescent behavioral disorders such as ADHD or oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)
- Mood disorders such as bipolar disorder
- Eating disorders
- Bereavement, which often causes PTSD
- Sudden big changes in life like coming out of the closet, losing a job, or finding out your girlfriend is pregnant
- Substance abuse disorder
- Disorders of sleep patterns such as insomnia
It is important to note that these issues can be resolved if the family is involved. If the onset of these problems is not family, then something like psychotherapy might be a better fit!
Read More: Can Strategic Family Therapy Help With The Fault Lines In Your Home?
What to Look for in a Structural Family Therapist?
The foremost trait of a structural family therapy expert should be empathy and after that, a family looking to get this kind of treatment should be looking for comfortability. Both of these traits will allow them to practice structural family therapy interventions and sensitive subjects in front of their family easily. This is because it is different from therapies such as marriage therapy or couples therapy, both of which ask for objectivity rather than subjectivity. Additionally, as a member of the family, you should be asking these questions when finding an expert to ensure that their aims in their therapy align with the goals of structural family therapy and the structural family therapy theory:
- How will they monitor and measure progress?
- What will happen when members of the family start to miss the session, deliberately or not?
- How much experience do they have with structural family therapy?
You should also note that there are some limitations of structural family therapy before you go into it such as it does not involve the extended family members, which tend to be frequent contributors of the family conflicts. It also does not take into account other social settings, friends, and neighbors.
Read More: What is Systemic Family Therapy? Is It Capable Of Helping You?
Rounding Off!
Here’s everything about structural family therapy, from theory to actual actions and examples. If you wish to get it promptly, you can get it from Solid Foundation Psychiatry. Additionally, if you have any other problem such as schizophrenia or psychosis, and if you need a flexible option like telepsychiatry, then Solid can still help! Looking forward to your appointment with us!