Family Counseling- How It’s Done Family counseling, that is also called couple and family therapy, or marriage and family therapy sometimes, is a psychotherapy branch that deals with couples and families in close relationships to enhance and nurture their relationship. Its emphasis on family relationship is an important factor in psychological health. The branch views ‘change’ in the way or the system family members interact with each other. As contrasted with the early years of the field during which ‘family’ was traditionally and narrowly defined as including parents and children, the recent developments in the field talk about the concept of family in a broader context; as those members who are supportive, and have a long-term role to play in the relationship with an individual, whether they are related by marriage and blood or not. Family therapy employs a range of counseling and several other techniques, which are: - Structural therapy- the organization of the family system is organized and re-ordered - Strategic therapy- studies the patterns of interaction in a family - Milan/Systematic therapy- concentrated on belief systems - Narrative therapy- restores dominant problem-saturated narrative, emphasizes on context, and separates the problem from the person - Transgenerational therapy- transmits unhelpful patterns of behavior or beliefs, transgenerationally - Communication theory - Psychoeducation and many more A health psychologist would recommend taking an average of 5-20 sessions, although each situation is different and demands a different number of sessions. In a session the family therapist generally sees several family members at the same time. An advantage of doing so is to be able to tell the difference between how they perceive their mutual relationships, and interaction patterns as well. The patterns reflect habitual interaction patterns at home. Unlike a Freudian therapist, a health psychologist focuses on relationship patterns instead of analyzing impulses of the subconscious mind of an individual, even though some schools of family counseling consider such historical and individual factors. Something unique to family counseling is its perspective and analytical framework instead of the number of family members present for a session. The psychologists are generally more concerned with what is going on between two individuals rather than within them, although again, some are just as interested in an individual as in a system of interaction. On the basis of conflicts at issue www.tanuchoksi.in
and how much progress has been made since the starting of the therapy, the therapist focuses on the analysis of specific previous conflicts. This is done by an overview of a past situation and how the family members responded to it, and then suggesting alternative ways of handling it. The aim is to maintain or solve problems rather than trying to identify a single cause. A cause effect analysis may be perceived by some families, in an attempt to blame other family member(s) for a given situation. It is important to take a note of the fact that a circular way of problem evaluation is used as contrasted with a linear route. Families can be provided help using this method by finding behavior patterns, the causes, and what could be done in order to alleviate their situation.
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