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Structural Family Therapy: A Case Presentation Elaine Shpungin, Ph.D. Director, Psychological Services Center shpungin@u

Structural Family Therapy: A Case Presentation Elaine Shpungin, Ph.D. Director, Psychological Services Center shpungin@uiuc.edu. The Family Systems Perspective. Individuals understood in context of family

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Structural Family Therapy: A Case Presentation Elaine Shpungin, Ph.D. Director, Psychological Services Center shpungin@u

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  1. Structural Family Therapy: A Case PresentationElaine Shpungin, Ph.D.Director, Psychological Services Centershpungin@uiuc.edu

  2. The Family Systems Perspective • Individuals understood in context of family • Family seen as living organism; individuals play roles in overall functioning of organism • Individual symptoms seen as manifestation of difficulty/dysfunction within family • Individual symptoms may serve “useful” function within family Example?

  3. Structural Family Therapy Salvador Minuchin

  4. Step 1: Structural Assessment • Boundaries – how close are family members? how flexible are the rules? • Subsystems – what are the dynamics between family “clusters”? who aligns with whom? who gets left out? • Roles – what repetitive patterns do family members play out with each other? who has what “job” in family? are roles appropriate among members and/or clusters?

  5. Step 2: Intervention Goal: Re-alignfamily boundaries and roles to be more adaptive for all family members

  6. Step 2: Intervention Goal: To re-align family boundaries and roles to be more adaptable for whole family Sample Techniques: • Enacting patterns within session (exercises; seating arrangements; organically) • Creating new communication channels (“Tell her, not me.”) (“Interpreting” for family members) • Creating disequilibrium; escalating stress • Assigning new roles • Establishing new boundaries • Providing support, education, guidance, hope

  7. Garcia Family: A Case Example Mrs. Garcia (European -American) Mr. Garcia (1st gen Latino) Spousal discord Spousal discord Emotional adjust. Sylvia (12) (Latina) Adopted at birth Jeremy (16) (American-born) Disobedience Physical aggression Disrespect “Bad attitude” (towards mom) Alex (6) (Russian) Adopted 1 yr ago Sergei (5) (Russian) Adopted 1 yr ago Behavior probs Emotional adjustment Katya (15) (Russian) Adopted 1 mo ago Olga (7) (Russian) Adopted 1 mo ago Emotional adjustment Language difficulty

  8. Thank You Elaine Shpungin Shpungin@uiuc.edu

  9. Structural Family Therapy(Salvador Minuchin) • Family Structure = invisible set of rules governing family transactions (family members’ behaviors towards each other) • Family Subsystems (e.g., parents) have appropriate functions and tasks • Family transactions and subsystems are governed by boundaries (e.g., closeness of members, flexibility of rules) • Therapist’s role: Re-align structure of family – i.e., change interaction patterns between family members and family subsytems to be more functional

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