There are different types of family therapy in existence and each of these types have a specific goal at hand but inherently all of these focus on the relationships of and interconnectedness that connect family as a unit. This, in its entirety, becomes our subject matter in the words below. Let’s discuss these family therapy strategies and approaches in much more detail:
Origins of Family Therapy
Its origins can be traced back to the mid 20th Century with significant developments coming in the 1950s and 1960s. Different schools of thought and contributors laid their foundation starting with the work of Gregory Bateson and his school of thought through his colleagues at Palo Alto Research Institute by formulating the systemic theory approach. Afterward, contributors such as Murray Bowen (who on the intergenerational transmission of emotional patterns), Carl Whitaker (experiential and solution-focused approach to family therapy), and Nathan Ackerman (known for pioneering the importance of family dynamics in individual psychological issues), all contributed to the idea of family therapy individually but significantly while simultaneously laying the foundation for variable types of family therapy.
Family therapy is a form of psychotherapy (talk therapy) that focuses on interfamilial connections that make a family a unit, contributing to its creation, sustenance, and fault lines even sometimes.
A family unit consists of people who care about each other and are tied with blood connections but that is not always the case in different types of family units. People in families can consist of many different combinations of loved ones, such as parents/guardians and their children, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, kinship caregivers, etc and all of these connections can also be half or step-in nature, and not necessarily blood relations.
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Variable types of family therapy come in need when one or two family members need help with situations such as:
- Adjusting to a new life change (like moving to a new city) or a physical medical condition.
- Changes and challenges that come with aging for both parents and children.
- Mental illnesses of the family members involved such as one of them having PTSD.
- There is a family history of a prevalent and debilitating history of a hereditary mental disorder such as schizophrenia or bipolar
- Bereavement
- Relationship conflicts, with common ones being parent-child conflict or sibling conflict.
All types of family therapy take place in a controlled environment and under the direct supervision of a licensed mental health professional such as a psychologist, therapist, or behavioral counselor who is adept at and experienced in treating family issues and faults and can provide the support, education, and guidance needed for you and your loved ones to help you function better and increase your well-being.
As we have said, there are different types of family therapy in existence, and all of them vary in length, treatment procedures, and end goals. For more information on these, proceed to the next section.
What Are The Different Types of Family Therapy?
Different family therapy types and family therapy techniques can be used to treat different problems that can arise in a family, often endangering it or bringing it to the brink of breakage. Different family therapy strategies and approaches have a unique way of looking at the faultlines in a family, so let’s have a look at them:
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Functional family therapy (FFT)
Experts use this for families who are having behavioral issues with their children or adolescents FFT essentially focuses on the family dynamics that may or may have not contributed to a child’s problematic behavior, improves family communication and parenting skills, and supports positive reinforcement.
Structural Family Therapy
This one looks at how individuals within a family interact with spouses, parents, children, and other family members. Structural family therapy’s aim is to recognize the structure of the unit, the hierarchies, sub-relationships, and boundaries, that can help strengthen the bonds of family.
Read More about Structural Family Therapy: Everything About Structural Family Therapy
Systemic Family Therapy
Systemic family therapy is based on the belief system and how family members’ perceptions about different beliefs and socio-cultural beliefs play an important role in the changing family dynamics. This type of family therapy puts family issues in the context of different situations in all of the members’ lives. The purveyors of this type of family therapy ensure that they educate the family members on how the wider sociological contexts of society impact a family’s behavioral pattern. They also have to promote family-level resolutions instead of looking at a family’s issue as an individual’s problem. Systemic therapy can be broken down into five parts:
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- Problem identification
- Identifying patterns and feedback loops
- Laying down beliefs and explanations
- Recognizing emotions and attachments
- Formulating contextual factors
Narrative Family Therapy
This is the kind of family therapy where all family members reenact the same situation that they think or perceive is causing a fault line in the family. But instead of taking the same actions as they previously did, they take different decisions and initiate alternative actions to see how the situation goes. The aim is to land on actual resolutions when enacting alternative scenarios.
Read More: Narrative Therapy for Family Counseling and Trauma
Strategic Family Therapy
This one essentially looks at the patterns of interactions between family members. What makes this one interesting out of all the other types of family counseling and approaches is how it is able to focus on making positive structural and behavioral changes in the family environment itself in the shape of short-term family therapy.
Read More: Can Strategic Family Therapy Help With The Fault Lines In Your Home?
Marriage Therapy or Couples Therapy
It is the kind of family therapy that specifically focuses on marriage being the underlying originator of the good and bad in the family. Experts then provide resolutions accordingly. Similar to marriage therapy, couples therapy is especially for partners who are not married but have been together for a long time (ala Branglina when they were together) and those who have forged a new relationship, the range is never-ending in this one.
Psychotherapy or Psychoeducation
Counseling services such as psychotherapy or psychoeducation for individual family members can also be beneficial. Both of these can act as complementing techniques to all of the family therapy interventions described above as psychotherapy and psychoeducation are not only adept at teaching individuals about something like anxiety disorders or depression it can is also perfect for looking at family issues from an individual’s point of view
Read More: The Benefits of Family Therapy: Strengthening Bonds and Improving Well-being
Conclusion
This is the end of the line here for the subject matter. We have discussed the origins of family therapy and the variable types of family therapy. But if you need any of these for anything or something else like telepsychiatry even for treating an illness such as insomnia or psychosis and not just family issues, then refer to Solid Foundation Psychiatry for these services.