Download Retelling the Story: Couple and Family Counseling in the

Retelling the Story: Couple
and Family Counseling in the
Early Years (Chapter 2)
Objectives for This Chapter
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Understand the multiple contexts that have shaped
couple and family counseling.
Distinguish between a story and the way it’s been
told.
Analyze family approaches in terms of their goals
and assumptions.
Appreciate the variety of early family counseling
efforts.
Recognize names, places, and ideas that dominated
marriage and family therapy during its growth years.
Introduction
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Family counselors are storytellers
Stories have powerful meanings
The story of couple and family counseling
has been told in many ways
Rather than looking back for a sense of
direction, this book attempts to tell the story
looking forward
The context of this telling
The social and
intellectual contexts that
have shaped this story
Postmodernism
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For the moment, we’re applying the
Intellectual vs the Historical sense
Contrast with modernism
Rejecting assumptions that increased
knowledge will solve all human problems
Rejecting ideals of objectivism and certainty
Cultural and political awareness
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Foucault -- the hidden control element in
professional discourses
Negative views of differences (the Other)
Professionals must challenge hegemony and
privilege on behalf of those who are
oppressed
Social constructionism and
narrative
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People construct (create) their experiences
through their narratives
This process is social and interactive
Frequently repeated stories tend to shape
behavior and perception
The dominant MFT story
The popular story of
family therapy seems to
include three narrative
themes
The healer
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Healers are selfless, caring, and powerful
As healers, family therapists take pride in
their successful “cures”
Early family therapists gained credibility by
working with challenging populations
Delinquency, schizophrenia, and anorexia
nervosa were early targets for family
intervention
The hero
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Heroes struggle against more powerful
enemies, refusing to accept defeat
Well-known family therapists such as Haley
and Minuchin succeeded despite
unconventional backgrounds
Family therapists struggled against the
traditional mental health system
The discoverer
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Discoverers chart new territories, driven by
vision and courage
Family therapists pioneered radically different
methods of helping and reported new
discoveries about human life
The thrill of discovery began to fade as family
intervention became more mainstream
An alternative story, Phase I:
The discovery years
A more complex, subtle
story describes a deep
history and many
contributors
Gradual, incremental change
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Industrialization in the 19th Century disrupted
social networks
Nuclear families moved to urban areas and
experienced new kinds of problems
Attempts to alleviate suffering focused on:
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Social reform
Individual emotions and behavior
By mid-20th Century, new ideas were
welcome
Professional groups and
collaboration
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Social workers
Home economists and family sociologists
Mental hospitals
Child guidance clinics
Marriage counselors
The new family therapy
movement
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Organizations and journals
Theoretical underpinnings: Diverse fields
with unique perspectives, e.g.
Communications, Developmental
Psychology, Anthropology
Early models—the leading citizens in a
frontier town
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Ackerman—lighthearted, playful but
challenging
Satir—linguistically sophisticated, honest and
direct
Bell—indirect, educational
An alternative story, Phase II:
The growth years (1970-1979),
A search for consensus
From a scattered group
with diverse ideas,
power was consolidated
in a few centers
Social change
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U.S. society was divided between the World
War II generation and youth who seemed
dedicated to tearing down social structures
Oral contraceptives, sexual revolution
Mental health systems flourished
Systems fervor
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General system theory (GST)
Cybernetics
Quinn and Davidson survey
Advanced Models: Captains of
Industry in the 1970s
Table 2.4, Dominant Perspectives:
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Strategic variations
Structural
Experiential
Behavioral
Intergenerational
Strategic variations--sites
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Mental Research Institute (MRI)
Haley-Madanes Institute
Institute for Family Studies (Milan)
Ackerman Institute
Houston-Galveston Institute
Strategic variations--assumptions
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Systems resist change
Communication includes multiple levels,
which leads to confusion
Problems result from attempts to solve other
problems
Every symptom is part of some kind of
triangle
Strategic variations--triadic model
Structural--key location
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Philadelphia Child Guidance Center
(Minuchin, Aponte, many others)
Structural--assumptions
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Systems need to change over time
Structural imbalances and coalitions create
problems
Internal and external system boundaries are
important
Experiential--locations
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Big Sur (Satir)
University of Wisconsin (Whitaker)
Accademia di Psicotherapia della Familiglia
(Andolfi)
Experiential--assumptions
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Interactions are shaped by symbolic traces of
other experiences
People need validation
Problems result from a failure to connect with
self and others
Experiential--Satir’s roles
Behavioral--locations
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University of Oregon (research team)
University of Washington (research team)
Behavioral--assumptions
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Problems result from learning
Negative behavior that is reinforced is likely
to continue
Punishment leads to a coercive cycle in
families
Intergenerational--locations
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Georgetown Family Center (Bowen)
Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute
(Boszormenyi-Nagy)
Intergenerational--assumptions
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Problems are passed on from one generation
to the next
Families are emotional systems
Symptoms result from emotional imbalances
in families
Freud’s Genogram (one version)