Effective Family Therapy Techniques

Effective family therapy techniques are based in the family systems approach to clinical psychology. The family systems approach sees the individual as an extension of the family unit and that one cannot be treated to the exclusion of the other. Psychologists trained in marriage and family therapy recognize that an individual's emotional, mental and physical well-being is embedded in the myriad of relationships that make up the individual's life. A husband's depression can affect the wife and children just as a child's eating disorder can be both a result of familial expectations and a pressure on the family dynamic. Effective family therapy techniques involve the entire family in the diagnosis of problems as well as the short-term and long-term treatment options.

Observation

Family units establish equilibriums to protect the family unit, but that equilibrium can cause an imbalance for individual parts of the family. A clinical psychologist is trained to observed the family dynamic and monitor both verbal and non-verbal cues. During the assessment phase and initial interviews, the family systems psychologist will monitor how the parents interact with each other and how their children react to them. He or she will compare his or her observations with testing data offered in both subjective and objective forms. The subjective test data is gathered during the interview while the objective test data is gathered via clinical tests that family members are requested to fill out and return to the psychologist.

Observation is an effective family therapy technique because it offers the psychologist the first real window into the family dynamic. Family therapy may be recommended for any number of causes, but for the psychologist to make a fair and accurate assessment, he or she must get a base measurement of the family's interactions, emotional balance and initial dysfunction. During observation, for example, it may be revealed that a mother's depression and need for anti-anxiety medication is due in part to her husband's unemployment and the economic pressure she is overcompensating to fulfill. To create an effective treatment plan for the family, the therapist needs as much data as possible.

Lessons in Effective Communication

If each member of the family is interdependent on other members of the family it stands to reason that dysfunction with one will affect the whole. Effective communication is an important lessons that family systems psychologist incorporate into group and individual family therapy sessions. To create an effective solution to any dysfunction or problem in the group dynamic requires effective communication so that all members of the group or family are in touch with each other.

For example, the mother who commits to more and more tasks in order to compensate for her family's overextending commitments may stretch herself to the limits because she lacks the ability to communicate how stretched thin she is. Instead, she promises to do more and more, exerting increasing emotional and mental stress upon herself when she cannot meet all the commitments she is making. This leads to disappointment and disagreement in the family. When other members of the family express their disappointment, this impacts her already damaged sense of self-worth leading to a vicious cycle that may result in depression, generalized anxiety disorder, substance abuse and more. In every way, however, the family is not happy. Therapists teach effective communication skills and the importance for mom to let the family know she is overextended and that she either needs help or they need to rearrange priorities in order to break out of the circular causality of this family's problems.

Effective communication allows a family to dialogue on their problems, concerns and feelings without lashing out or feeling obligated to resolve the problems being shared. A large portion of effective communication resides in active listening, a skill that must be learned.

Problem Solving

Problem solving is an effective therapy technique not because it teaches the family how to resolve the issue that brought them to see the family systems psychologist, but it teaches them how to identify, develop plans and create resolutions for future problems. Problem solving may seem like a common sense resolution, but it requires a willingness on the parts of all parties to contribute to the solution.

Problem solving is a family therapy technique that requires effective communication and often comes later in therapy sessions as the therapist challenges family members to role-play situations previously deemed irresolvable. Family members may also be required to play the part of other family members, parents playing the part of the children or dad taking on the role of mom to a child's dad and a mom's child. By actively role playing other members of the family, each member is required to see that person's point of view. This leads to learning how to disagree in positive and respectful manner and to not allow those disagreements to impede problem solving efforts.

Family Contracts

The family contract is a therapeutic tool that allows families to negotiate terms and come to an agreement on how they want to handle future family problems and to commit to positive change. A family contract, for example, may detail that a child who copes with an eating disorder commits to talking about her feelings on weight, eating and social perception. Her parents will then commit to listening and not dismissing her feelings. All parties commit to working together to build self-esteem and a healthy lifestyle.

Family contracts are a positive tool in the arsenal of a family systems psychologist because they are facilitated agreement that a family makes to avoid future dysfunction. The family contract also helps family members recognize when problems are occurring, particularly if elements of the contract are not being upheld. Effective family therapy techniques treat the entire family as an emotional unit of which each family member is a part of and acknowledges that what affects one member of the family affects the whole family. By treating the whole family as a unit, the family also becomes a part of the solution.