Major Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Developed by Thorana S. Nelson, PhD and Students

STRUCTURAL FAMILY THERAPY
LEADERS

Salvador Minuchin

Charles Fishman

ASSUMPTIONS:
Problems reside within a family structure
(although not necessarily caused by the
structure)
Changing the structure changes the
experience the client has
Dont go from problem to solution, we
just move gradually
Childrens problems are often related to
the boundary between the parents (marital
vs. parental subsystem) and the boundary
between parents and children

CONCEPTS:
Family structure
Boundaries
o Rigid
o Clear
o Diffuse
o Disengaged
o Normal Range
o Enmeshment
o Roles
o Rules of who interacts with whom, how,
when, etc.
Hierarchy
Subsystems
Cross-Generational Coalitions
Parentified Child

GOALS OF THERAPY:
Structural Change
o Clarify, realign, mark
boundaries
Individuation of family members
Infer the boundaries from the patterns of
interaction among family members
Change the patterns to realign the
boundaries to make them more closed or
open

ROLE OF THE THERAPIST:

Perturb the system because the structure is too rigid
(chaotic or closed) or too diffuse (enmeshed)
Facilitate the restructuring of the system
Directive, expertthe therapist is the choreographer
See change in therapy session; homework solidifies
change
Directive

ASSESSMENT:
Assess the nature of the boundaries, roles
of family members
Enactment to watch family
interaction/patterns

INTERVENTIONS:
Join and accommodate
o mimesis
Structural mapping
Highlight and modify interactions
Unbalance
Challenge unproductive assumptions
Raise intensity so that system must change

CHANGE:
Raise intensity to upset the system, then
help reorganize the system
Change occurs within session and is
behavioral; insight is not necessary
Emotions change as individuals
experience of their context changes

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Structural Family Therapy, Continued

Interventions
disorganize and reorganize
Shape competence through Enactment
(therapist acts as coach)
TERMINATION:
Problem is gone and the structure
has changed (2nd order change)
Problem is gone and the structure
has NOT changed (1st order change)

SELF OF THE THERAPIST:

The therapist joins with the system to facilitate the
unbalancing of the system
Caution with inductiondont get sucked in to the content
areas, usually related to personal hot spots

EVALUATION:
Strong support for working with psychosomatic children, adult drug addicts, and anorexia nervosa.

SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS:

RESOURCES:
Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and family therapy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Minuchin, S., & Fishman, H. C. (1981). Family therapy techniques. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Minuchin, S., Rosman, B. L., & Baker, L. (1978). Psychosomatic families. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Fishman, H. C. (1988). Treating troubled adolescents: A family therapy approach. New York: Basic Books.
Fishman, H. C. (1993). Intensive structural therapy: Treating families in their social context. New York: Basic
Books.

NOTES

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Page 3

STRATEGIC THERAPY (MRI)

LEADERS:
John
Weakland
Don Jackson
Paul
Watzlawick
Richard Fisch

ASSUMPTIONS:

Family members often perpetuate problems by their own actions (attempted

solutions) --the problem is the problem maintenance (positive feedback
escalations)

Directives tailored to the specific needs of a particular family can sometimes bring
about sudden and decisive change

People resist change

You cannot not communicate--people are ALWAYS communicating

All messages have report and command functions-- working with content is not
helpful, look at the process

Symptoms are messages -- symptoms help the system survive (some would say
they have a function)

It is only a problem if the family describes it as such

Based on work of Gregory Bateson and Milton Erickson

Need to perturb system difference that makes a difference (similar enough to be

accepted by system but different enough to make a difference)

Dont need to examine psychodynamics to work on the problem

CONCEPTS:
Symptoms are messages
Family homeostasis
Family rules -- unspoken
Cybernetics
o Feedback Loops
o Positive Feedback
o Negative Feedback
First order change
Second order change
Reframing
Content & Process
Report & Command
Paradox
Paradoxical Injunction
Go Slow Messages
Positive Feedback Escalations
Double Binds
One down position
Patient position
Attempted solutions maintain problems and
become problems themselves
ROLE OF THE THERAPIST:
Expert position
Responsible for creating conditions for change
Work with resistance of clients to change
Work with the process, not the content
Directive

GOALS OF THERAPY:
Help the family define clear, reachable goals
Break the pattern; perturb the system
First and second order change- ideally second
order change (we cannot make this happen-- it is
spontaneous)

ASSESSMENT:
Define the problem clearly and find out what
people have done to try to resolve it
Elicit goals from each family member and
then reframe into one, agreed-upon goal
Assess sequence patterns

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Strategic Therapy (MRI), Continued

Interventions
Skeptical of change
Take a lot of credit and responsibility for change;
however, therapist tells clients that they are
responsible for change
Active
INTERVENTIONS:
Paradox
Directives
o Assignments (homework) that interrupt
sequences
Interrupt unhelpful sequences of interaction
Go slow messages
Prescribe the symptoms

CHANGE:
Interrupting the pattern in any way
Difference that makes a difference
Change occurs outside of session; insession
change is in viewing; homework changes
doing
Change in viewing (reframe) and/or doing
(directives)
Emotions change and are important, but are
inferred and not directly available to the
therapist

TERMINATION:
Client decides when to terminate with the help of the
therapist
When pattern is broken and the client reports that the
problem no longer exists
Therapist decides

SELF OF THE THERAPIST:

Therapist needs to be VERY careful with
ethics in this model; it can be very
manipulative (paradox) and a lot of
responsibility is on the therapist as an expert

EVALUATION:
Very little research done
Do clients report change? If so, then it is effective
SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS:

RESOURCES:
Watzlawick, P., Weakland, J., &, Fisch, R. (1974). Change: Principles of problem formation and problem
resolution. New York: Norton.
Fisch, Richard, John H. Weakland, and Lynn Segal (1982).
The tactics of change: Doing therapy briefly.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Watzlawick, P., J. B. Bavelas, and D. J. Jackson. (1967). Pragmatics of human communication. New York: W.
W. Norton.
Lederer, W. J., and Don Jackson. (1968). The mirages of marriage. New York: W. W. Norton.

NOTES:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 5

STRATEGIC THERAPY (Haley & Madanes)

LEADERS:
Jay Haley
Cloe Madanes
Influenced by
Minuchin

ASSUMPTIONS:

Family members often perpetuate problems by their own actions (attempted

solutions) --the problem is the problem maintenance (positive feedback
escalations)

Directives tailored to the specific needs of a particular family can sometimes bring
about sudden and decisive change

People resist change

You cannot not communicate--people are ALWAYS communicating

All messages have report and command functions-- working with content is not
helpful, look at the process

Communication and messages are metaphorical for family functioning

Symptoms are messages -- symptoms help the system survive

It is only a problem if the family describes it as such

Based on work of Gregory Bateson, Milton Erickson, MRI, and Minuchin

Need to perturb system difference that makes a difference (similar enough to be

accepted by system but different enough to make a difference)

Problems develop in skewed hierarchies

Motivation is power (Haley) or love (Madanes)

CONCEPTS:
Symptoms are messages
Family homeostasis
Family rules unspoken
Intergenerational collusions
First and second order change
Metaphors
Reframing
Symptoms serve functions
Content & Process
Report & Command
Incongruous Hierarchies
Ordeals (prescribing ordeals)
Paradox
Paradoxical Injunction
Pretend Techniques (Madanes)
Go Slow Messages

GOALS OF THERAPY:
Help the family define clear, reachable goals
Break the pattern; perturb the system
First and second order change- ideally second order change
(we cannot make this happen-- it is spontaneous)
Realign hierarchy (Madanes)

ROLE OF THE THERAPIST:

Expert position
Responsible for creating conditions for change
Work with resistance of clients to change
Work with the process, not the content
Directive
Skeptical of change
Take a lot of credit and responsibility for change;
however, therapist tells clients that they are
responsible for change
Active

ASSESSMENT:
Define the problem clearly and find out what
people have done to try to resolve it
Hypothesize metaphorical nature of the
problem
Elicit goals from each family member and
then reframe into one, agreed-upon goal
Assess sequence patterns

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Strategic Therapy (Haley & Madanes), Continued

INTERVENTIONS:
Paradox
Directives
o Assignments (homework) that interrupt
sequences
Interrupt unhelpful sequences of interaction
Metaphors, stories
Ordeals (Haley)
Go slow messages
Prescribe the symptoms (Haley)
Pretend techniques (Madanes)

CHANGE:
Breaking the pattern in any way
Difference that makes a difference
Change occurs outside of session; insession
change is in viewing; homework changes
doing
Change in viewing (reframe) and/or doing
(directives)

TERMINATION:
Client decides when to terminate with the help of
the therapist
When pattern is broken and the client reports that
the problem no longer exists
Therapist decides

SELF OF THE THERAPIST:

Therapist needs to be VERY careful with
ethics in this model; it can be very
manipulative (paradox) and a lot of
responsibility is on the therapist as an expert

EVALUATION:
Very little research done
Do clients report change? If so, then it is effective
RESOURCES:
Madanes, Cloe. (1981). Strategic family therapy. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Madanes, Cloe. (1984). Behind the one-way mirror: Advances in the practice of strategic therapy. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Madanes, Cloe. (1990). Sex, love, and violence: Strategies for transformation. New York: W. W. Norton.
Madanes, Cloe. (1995). The violence of men: New techniques for working with abusive families. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Haley, Jay. (1980). Leaving home. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Haley, Jay. (1984). Ordeal therapy: Unusual ways to change behavior. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Haley, Jay. (1987). Problem-solving therapy (2nd Ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

NOTES:

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Page 7

MILAN FAMILY THERAPY

LEADERS:
Boscolo
Palazzoli
Prata
Cecchin

ASSUMPTIONS:

problem is maintained by familys attempts to fix it

therapy can be brief over a long period of time

clients resist change

CONCEPTS:
family games (familys patterns that maintain the
problem)
o dirty games
o psychotic games
there is a nodal point of pathology
invariant prescriptions
rituals
positive connotation
difference that makes a difference
neutrality
hypothesizing
therapy team
circularity, neutrality
incubation period for change; requires long periods of
time between sessions

GOALS OF THERAPY:
disrupt family games

ROLE OF THERAPIST:
therapist as expert
neutral to each family member dont get sucked into
the family game
curious

ASSESSMENT:
Family game
Dysfunctional patterns (patterns that
maintain the problem)

INTERVENTIONS:
Ritualized prescriptions
Rituals
Circular questions
Counter paradox
Odd/even day
Positive connotation
Date
Reflecting team
Letters
Prescribe the system

CHANGE:
Family develops a different game
that does not include the symptom
(system change)
Requires incubation period

TERMINATION:

Therapist decides, fewer than 10-12 sessions

EVALUATION:
Not practiced much, therefore not
researched
Follow up contraindicated

SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 8

Milan Family Therapy, continued

RESOURCES:

Campbell, D., Draper, R., & Huffington, C. (1989). Second thoughts on the theory and practice of the
Milan approach to family therapy. New York: Karnac.
Campbell, D., Draper, R., & Crutchley, E. (1991). The Milan systemic approach to family therapy. In
A. S. Gurman & D. P. Kniskern (Eds.), Handbook of Family Therapy (Vol. II) (pp. 325-362).
New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Cecchin, G. (1987). Hypothesizing, circularity, and neutrality revisited: An invitation to curiosity.
Family Process, 26(4), 405-413.
Cecchin, G. (1992). Constructing therapeutic possibilities. In S. McNamee & K. J. Gergen (Eds.),
Therapy as social construction (pp. 86-95). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Palazzoli, M. S., Boscolo, L., Cecchin, G., & Prata, G. (1978). Paradox and counterparadox: A new
model in the therapy of the family in schizophrenic transaction. New York: Jason Aaronson.
Palazzoli, M. S., Boscolo, L., Cecchin, G., & Prata, G. (1978). A ritualized prescription in family
therapy: Odd days and even days. Journal of Marriage and Family Counseling, 48, 3-9.
Palazzoli, M., & Palazzoli, C. (1989). Family games: General models of psychotic processes in the
family. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
NOTES:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 9

SOLUTION-FOCUSED BRIEF THERAPY

LEADERS:
Steve de
Shazer
Insoo Kim
Berg
Yvonne
Dolan
Eve Lipchik

ASSUMPTIONS:
Clients want to change
Theres no such thing as resistance (clients are telling us how they cooperate)
Focus on present and future except for the past in terms of exceptions; not focused on
the past in terms of cause of changing the past
Change the way people talk about their problems from problem talk to solution talk
Language creates reality
Therapist and client relationship is key
A philosophy, not a set of techniques or theory
Sense of hope, cheerleader effect
Nonpathologizing, not interested in pathology or dysfunction
Dont focus on the etiology of the problem: Solutions are not necessarily related to
problems
Assume the client has strengths, resources
Only need a small change, which can snowball into a bigger change
The problem is not occurring all the time

CONCEPTS:
Problem talk/ Solution talk
Exceptions
Smallest difference that makes a
difference
Well-formed goals (small, concrete,
measurable, important to client,
doable, beginning of something, not
end, presence not absence, hard work)
Solution not necessarily related to the
problem
Clients are experts on their lives and
their experiences
Therapeutic relationships:
customer/therapist,
complainant/sympathizer, visitor/host
ROLE OF THERAPIST:
Cheerleader/Coach
Offer hope
Nondirective, client-centered

GOALS OF THERAPY:
Help clients to think or do things differently in order to
increase their satisfaction with their lives
Reach clients goals; good enough
Shift the clients language from problem talk to solution talk
Modest goals (clear and specific)
Help translate the goal into something more specific (clarify)
Change language from problem to solution talk

ASSESSMENT:
Assess exceptionstimes when problem isnt there
Assess what has worked in the past, not necessarily related to the
problem; client strengths
Assess what will be different when the problems is gone (becomes
goal that might not be clearly related to the stated problem)

INTERVENTIONS:
Help set clear and achievable goals (clarify)
Help client think about the future and what they
want to be different
Exceptions: Amplify the times they did things that
worked when they didnt have the problem or it
was less severe

Compliments:
-How did you do that?
-Wow! That must have been difficult!
- That sounds like it was helpful; how did
you do that?
- Im impressed with ....
-You sound like a good ....

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 10

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Continued

Interventions
Formula first session task: Observe what happens in their
life/relationship that they want to continue
Miracle question:
-Used when clients are vague about complaints
-Helps client do things the problem has been obstructing
-Focus on how having problems gone will make a difference
-Relational questions
-follow up with miracle day questions and scaling questions
-pretend to have a miracle day
Scaling questions

TERMINATION:
Client decides

Midsession break (with or without

team) to summarize session,
formulate compliments and bridge,
and suggest a task (tasks used less in
recent years; clients develop own
tasks; therapist may make
suggestions or suggest
experiments), sometimes called
feedback (feeding information
back into the therapy with a
difference)
Predict the next day, then see what
happens

SELF OF THE THERAPIST:

Accept responsibility for client/therapist relationship
Expert on therapy conversation, not on clients life or experience of the
difficulty

EVALUATION:
Techniques can obscure therapists
Therapy/Research:
intuitive humanity
Simple (not necessarily easy)
Many outcome studies show effectiveness,
but no controlled studies
Can be perceived that therapist as insensitive- Solution
Forced Therapy
Progress of therapy:
Crucial that clients are allowed to fully express
Can clients see exceptions?
struggles and have their own experiences validated,
BEFORE shifting the conversation to strengths
Are they using solution talk?
SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS:

RESOURCES:
de Shazer, S. (1982). Patterns of brief family therapy: An ecosystemic approach. New York: Guilford.

de Shazer, S., Dolan, Y., Korman, H., Trepper, T., McCollum, E., & Berg, I. K. (2007). More than
miracles: The state of the art of solution-focused brief therapy. New York: Haworth.
Berg, I. K., & Miller, S. (1992). Working with the problem drinker. New York: Norton.
Berg, I. K. (1994). Family-based services: A solution-focused approach. New York: Norton.
De Jong, P., & Berg, I. K. (2007). Interviewing for solutions (3rd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Dolan, Y. (1992). Resolving sexual abuse. NY: W.W. Norton.
Lipchik, E. (2002). Beyond technique in solution focused therapy. New York: Guilford.
Miller, S. D., Hubble, M. A., & Duncan Barry L. (Eds.). (1996). Handbook of solution-focused brief therapy.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Nelson, T. S., & Thomas, F. N. (Eds.). (2007). Handbook of solution-focused brief therapy: Clinical
applications. New York: Haworth.

NOTES:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 11

NARRATIVE THERAPY
LEADERS:
Michael
White
David Epston
Jill Freedman
Gene Combs

ASSUMPTIONS:
Personal experience is ambiguous
Reality is shaped by the language used to describe it language and experience
(meaning) are recursive
Reality is socially constructed
Truth may not match historic or another persons truth, but it is true to the client
Focus on effects of the problem, not the cause (how problem impacts family; how
family affects problem)
Stories organize our experience & shape our behavior
The problem is the problem; the person is not the problem
People are the stories they tell
The stories we tell ourselves are often based on messages received from society or
our families (social construction)
People have their own unique filters by which they process messages from society

CONCEPTS:
Dominant Narrative - Beliefs, values, and practices
based on dominant social culture
Subjugated Narrative a persons own story that is
suppressed by dominant story
Alternative Story: the story thats there but not
noticed
Deconstruction: Take apart problem saturated story
in order to externalize & re-author it (Find missing
pieces; unpacking)
Problem-saturated Stories - Bogs client down,
allowing problem to persist. (Closed, rigid)
Landscape of action: How people do things
Landscape of consciousness: What meaning the
problem has (landscape of meaning)
Unique outcomes pieces of deconstructed story that
would not have been predicted by dominant story or
problem-saturated story; exceptions; sparkling
moments

GOALS OF THERAPY:
Change the way the clients view themselves
and assist them in re-authoring their story in
a positive light; find the alternative but
preferred story that is not problem-saturated
Give options to more/different stories that
dont include problems

ROLE OF THERAPIST:
Genuine curious listener
Question their assumptions
Open space to make room for possibilities

ASSESSMENT:
Getting the familys story, their experiences
with their problems, and presumptions about
those problems.
Assess alternative stories and unique outcomes
during deconstruction

INTERVENTIONS:
Ask questions
o Landscape of action & landscape of
meaning
o Meaning questions
o Opening space

CHANGE:
Occurs by opening space; cognitive
Client can see that there are numerous
possibilities
Expanded sense of self

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Page 12

Narrative Therapy, Continued

Interventions
o Preference
o Story development
o Deconstruction
o To extend the story into the future
Externalize problems
Effects of problem on family; effects of family on
problem
Restorying or reauthoring
o Self stories
Letters from the therapist
Certificates of award
TERMINATION:
Client determines

SELF OF THE THERAPIST:

Therapists ideas, values,

prejudices, etc. need to be
open to client,
transparent

Expert on conversation

EVALUATION:
No formal studies

SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS:

RESOURCES:
Freeman, Jennifer, David Epston, and Dean Lobovits. (1997). Playful approaches to serious problems:
Narrative therapy with children and their families. New York: W.W. Norton.
Freedman, Jill, and Gene Combs. (1996). Narrative therapy: The social construction of preferred realities. New
York: W. W. Norton.
White, Michael, and David Epston (Eds.). (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: W.W.
Norton.
White, Michael. (2007). Maps of narrative practice. New York: W.W. Norton.

NOTES:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 13

COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY
LEADERS:

Ivan Pavlov

Watson

Thorndike

B. F. Skinner

Bandura

Dattilio

ASSUMPTIONS:

Family relationships, cognitions, emotions, and behavior mutually influence one

another

Cognitive inferences evoke emotion and behavior

Emotion and behavior influence cognition

CONCEPTS:

Schemas- core beliefs about the world, the

acquisition and organization of knowledge

Cognitions- selective attention, perception,

memories, self-talk, beliefs, and expectations

Reinforcement - an event that increases the future

probability of a specific response

Attribution- explaining the motivation or cause of

behavior

Distorted thoughts, generalizations get in way of

clear thinking and thus action

GOALS OF THERAPY:

To modify specific patterns of thinking and/or

behavior to alleviate the presenting symptom

ROLE OF THERAPIST:

Ask a series of question about assumptions, rather

than challenge them directly

Teach the family that emotional problems are

caused by unrealistic beliefs

ASSESSMENT:

Cognitive: distorted thoughts, thought processes

Behavioral: antecedents, consequences, etc.

INTERVENTIONS:

Questions aimed at distorted assumptions (family

members interpret and evaluate one another
unrealistically)

Behavioral assignments

Parent training

Communication skill building

Training in the model

CHANGE:

Behavior will change when the contingencies of

reinforcement are altered

Changed cognitions lead to changed affect and

behaviors

TERMINATION:

When therapist and client determine

SELF OF THE THERAPIST:

Not discussed

EVALUATION:

Many studies, particularly in terms of marital therapy and parenting

SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 14

RESOURCES:
Jacobson, N. S., & Margolin, G. (1979). Marital therapy: Strategies based on social learning and behavior
exchange principles. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Jacobson, N. S., & Christensen, A. (1998). Acceptance and Change in Couple Therapy: A Therapist's Guide to
Transforming Relationships. New York: Norton.
Epstein, N. B., & Baucom, D. H. (2002). Enhanced cognitive-behavioral therapy for couples. Washington, DC:
APA Books.
Resources
Dattilio, F. M. (1998). Case studies in couple and family therapy: Systemic and cognitive perspectives. New
York: Guilford.
Dattilio, F. M., & Padesky, C. (1990). Cognitive therapy with couples. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource
Press.
Beck, A. T., Reinecke, M. A., & Clark, D. A. (2003). Cognitive therapy across the lifespan: Evidence and
practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

NOTES:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 15

CONTEXTUAL FAMILY THERAPY

LEADERS:

Ivan
Boszormenyi
-Nagy

ASSUMPTIONS:

Values and ethics are transmitted across generations

Dimensions: (All are intertwined and drive peoples behaviors and relationships)
o Facts
o Psychological
o Relational
o Ethical

Trustworthiness of a relationship (relational ethics): when relationships are not

trustworthy, debts and entitlements that must be paid back pile up; unbalanced ledger
gets balanced in ways that are destructive to individuals and relationships and
posterity (e.g., revolving slate, destructive entitlement)

CONCEPTS:

Loyalty: split, invisible

Entitlement (amount of merit a person has based on

trustworthiness)

Ledger (accounting)

Legacy (we behave in ways that we have been programmed

to behave)

Relational ethics

Destructive entitlement (you were given a bad ledger and it

wasnt fair so its ok to hand it on to the next person
acting out, neglecting important others)

Revolving slate

Posterity (thinking of future generations when working with

people) this is the only model that does

Rejunctive and disjunctive efforts

GOALS OF THERAPY:

Balanced ledger

ROLE OF THE THERAPIST:

Directive

Expert in terms of assessment

ASSESSMENT:

Debts

Entitlements

Invisible loyalties

INTERVENTIONS:

Process and relational questions

Multi-directional impartiality: Everybody and nobody feel

specialall are attended to but none are more
special

Exoneration: Help people understand how they have been

living out legacies and debts-ledgersexonerate others

Coach toward rejunctive efforts

CHANGE:

Cognitive: Awareness of legacies, debts

and entitlements

Behavioral: Very action oriented

actions must change

TERMINATION:

Never- totally up to
the client

EVALUATION:

No empirical evaluation

SELF OF THE THERAPIST:

Must understand own legacies,

entitlements, process of
balancing ledgers, exoneration

SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 16

Contextual Family Therapy, Continued

RESOURCES:
Boszormenyi-Nagy, I. (1987). Foundations of contextual therapy: Collected papers of Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy.
New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Boszormenyi-Nagy, I., & Krasner, B. (1986). Between give and take: A clinical guide to contextual therapy.
New York: Brunner/Mazel.

Hargrave, T. D., & Pfitzer, F. (2003). The new contextual therapy: Guiding the power of give and take.
New York: Brunner-Routledge.
van Heusden, A., & van den Eerenbeemt, E. (1987). Balance in motion: Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy and his vision
of individual and family. New York: Brunner/Mazel.

NOTES:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 17

BOWEN FAMILY THERAPY

LEADERS:

Murray
Bowen

Michael Kerr
(works with
natural
systems)

Edwin
Friedman

ASSUMPTIONS:

The past is currently influencing the present

Change can happenindividuals can move along in the process of differentiation

Differentiation: ability to maintain self in the face of high anxiety (remain autonomous
in a highly emotional situation)
o Change in experience of self in the family system
o Change in relationship between thinking and emotional systems

Differentiation is internal and relationalthey are isomorphic and recursive

Anxiety inhibits change and needs to be reduced to facilitate change

High intimacy and high autonomy are ideal

Emotions are a physiological processfeelings are the thoughts that name and
mediate emotions, that give them meaning

Symptoms are indicators of stress, anxiety, lower differentiation

Anyone can become symptomatic with enough stress; more differentiated people will
be able to withstand more stress and, when they do become symptomatic, recover
more quickly

CONCEPTS:

Intimacy

Autonomy

Differentiation of Self

Cutoff

Triangulation

Sibling position

Fusion (within individual and within relationships)

Family projection process

Multigenerational transmission process

Nuclear family

Emotional process

4 sub-concepts (ways people manage anxiety; none of

these is bad by itself its when one is used to
exclusion of others or excessively that it can become
problematic for a system):
o Conflict
o Dysfunction in person
o Triangulation
o Distance

Societal emotional process

Undifferentiated family ego mass

GOALS OF THERAPY:

Ultimateincrease differentiation of self

(thoughts/emotions; self/others)

Intermediatedetriangulation, lowering
anxiety to respond instead of react

Decrease emotional reactivityincrease

thoughtful responses

Increased intimacy one-on-one with

important others

ROLE OF THERAPIST:

Coach (objective)

Educator

Therapist is part of the system (non-anxious and

differentiated)

Expertnot a collaborator

ASSESSMENT:

Emotional reactivity

Degree of differentiation of self

Ways that people manage anxiety/ family

themes

Triangles

Repeating intergenerational patterns

Genogram (assessment tool)

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 18

Bowen Family Therapy, Continued

INTERVENTIONS:

Genogram (both assessment and change tool)

Plan for intense situations (when things get hot, what

are we going to do thinking; process questions)

Process questions-- thinking questions: What do you

think about this? How does that work?

Detriangulating one-on-one relationships, one person

with the other two in the triangle

Educating clients about the concepts of the model

Decrease emotional reactivityincrease thoughtful

responses

Therapist as a calm self and calm part of a triangle

with the clients

Coaching for changing own patterns in family of

origin
TERMINATION:
SELF OF THE THERAPIST:

Ongoingwe are

Important with this

never fully
model; differentiated,
differentiated
calm therapist is main
tool

We dont need to join the

system

We must be highly
differentiated so we can
recognize and reduce
reactivity

Our clients can only

become as differentiated
as we are; we need
coaching to increase our
own differentiation of
self

CHANGE:

Reduced anxiety through separation of

thoughts and emotions cognitive

Reduced anxiety leads to responsive

thoughts and actions, changed affect,
changed relationships

When we think (respond), change occurs

(planning thinking) -- when you know
how you would like to behave in a certain
emotional situation, you plan it, it makes it
easier to carry through with different
consequences

EVALUATION:

Research suggesting validity: not much,

not a lot of outcome

Did not specify symptom reduction

Client report of different thoughts, actions,

responses from others, affect is evidence
of change

SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS:

RESOURCES:
Bowen, M. (1978). Family therapy in clinical practice. New York: Jason Aaronson.

Friedman, E. (1987). Generation to generation: Family process in church and synagogue. New York:
Guilford.
Kerr, M. E., & Bowen, M. (1988). Family evaluation: An approach based on Bowen theory. New York: W. W.
Norton and Company.

NOTES:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 19

PSYCHODYNAMIC FAMILY THERAPY (OBJECT RELATIONS)

LEADERS:

Freud

Erik Erikson

Nathan Ackerman

Several others who were

trained, but their models
were not primarily
psychodynamic: Bowen,
Whitaker, etc.

Object relations: Scharff

& Scharff

Attachment theory:
Bowlby

ASSUMPTIONS:

Sexual and aggressive drives are at the heart of human nature

Every human being wants to be appreciated

Symptoms are attempts to cope with unconscious conflicts over sex and
aggression

Internalized objects become projected onto important others; we then

evoke responses from them that fit that object, they comply, and we
react to the projection rather than the real person
Early experiences affect later relationships
Internalized objects affect inner experience and outer relationships

CONCEPTS:

Internal objects- mental images of self and others built from

experience and expectation

Attachment- connection with important others

Separation-individuation- the gradual process of a child

separating from the mother

Mirroring- When parents show understanding and

acceptance

Transference-Attributing qualities of someone else to

another person

Countertransference Therapists attributing qualities of

self onto others

Family Myths- unspoken rules and beliefs that drive

behavior, based on beliefs, not full images of others

Fixation and regression-When families become stuck they

revert back to lower levels of functioning

Invisible loyalties- unconscious commitments to the family

that are detrimental to the individual

GOALS OF THERAPY:

To free family members of

unconscious constraints so that they
can interact as healthy individuals

Separation-Individuation

Differentiation

ROLE OF THERAPIST:

Listener

Expert position

Interpret

ASSESSMENT:

Attachment bonds

Projections (unrealistic attributions)

INTERVENTIONS:

Listening

Showing empathy

Interpretations
(especially projections)
Family of origin
sessions (Framo)

Make a safe holding

environment

CHANGE:

Change occurs when family members expand their insight to realize that
psychological lives are larger than conscious experience and coming to
accept repressed parts of their personalities

Change also occurs when more, full, real aspects of others are revealed
in therapy so that projections fade

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 20

Psychodynamic Family Therapy (Object Relations), Continued

TERMINATION:
Not sure how therapy is terminated
EVALUATION:
SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS:

RESOURCES:
Sander, F. (2004) Psychoanalytic Couples Therapy: Classical Style in Psychoanalytic Inquiry Issue on
Psychoanalytic Treatment of Couples ed. By Feld, B and Livingston, M. Vol 24:373-386.
Scharff, J. (ed.) (1989) Foundations of Object Relations Family Therapy . Jason Aronson, Northvale N.J.
Slipp, S. (1984). Object relations: A dynamic bridge between individual and family treatment. Northvale, NJ:
Jason Aronson.

NOTES:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 21

EXPERIENTIAL FAMILY THERAPY

LEADERS:
Carl Whitaker
Virginia Satir

ASSUMPTIONS:
Family problems are rooted in suppression of feelings, rigidity, denial of impulses,
lack of awareness, emotional deadness, and overuse of defense mechanisms
Families must get in touch with their REAL feelings
Therapy works from the Inside (emotion) Out (behavior)
Expanding the individuals experience opens them up to their experiences and helps
to improve the functioning of the family group
Commitment to emotional well being
GOALS OF THERAPY:
Promote growth, change, creativity, flexibility, spontaneity,
and playfulness
Make the covert overt
Increase the emotional closeness of spouses and disrupt
rigidity
Unlock defenses, enhance self-esteem, and recover potential
for experiencing
Enhance individuation

CONCEPTS:
Honest emotion
Suppress repression
Family myths
Mystification
Blaming
Placating
Being irrelevant/irreverent
Being super reasonable
Battle for structure
Battle for initiative
ROLE OF THE THERAPIST:
Uses their own personality
Must be open and spontaneous,
empathic, sensitive, and demonstrate
caring and acceptance
Be willing to share and risk, be
genuine, and increase stress within
the family
Teach family effective
communication skills in order to
convey their feelings
Active and directive

ASSESSMENT:
Assess individual self-expression and levels of defensiveness
Assess family interactions that promote or stifle individuation
and healthy interaction

INTERVENTIONS:
Sculpting
Choreography
Conjoint family drawing
Role playing
Use of humor
Puppet interviews
Reconstruction
Sharing feelings and creating an
emotionally intense atmosphere
Modeling and teaching clear
communication skills (Use of I messages)
Challenge stances (Satir)
Use of self

CHANGE:
Increasing stress among the family members leads to
increased emotional expression and honest, open
communication
Changing experience changes affect; need to get out of
head into emotions; active interventions change
experience, emotions

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

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Experiential Family Therapy, Continued

TERMINATION:
Defenses of family members are broken
down
Family communicating openly
Family members more in touch with their
feelings
Members relate to each other in a more
honest way
Openness for individuation of family
members

SELF OF THE THERAPIST:

Through the use of humor, spontaneity, and personality,
the therapist is able to unbalance the family and bring
about change
The personality of the therapist is key to bringing about
change

EVALUATION:
This model fell out of favor in the 80s and 90s due to its focus on the emotional experience of the individual
while ignoring the role of family structure and communication in the regulation of emotion
Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (Sue Johnson) and Internal Family Systems Therapy (Richard
Schwartz) are the current trend
Need to assess in-therapy outcomes as a measure of success due the fact that they often result in deeper
emotional experiences (and successful sessions) that have the potential to generalize outside of therapy
SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS:

RESOURCES:
Satir, V. (1967). Conjoint family therapy. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books.
Satir, V. (1972). Peoplemaking. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books.
Napier, A. Y., & Whitaker, C. A. (1978). The family crucible. New York: Harper & Row.

NOTES:

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 23

EMOTIONALLY FOCUSED THERAPY

LEADERS:
Susan
Johnson
Les
Greenburg

ASSUMPTIONS:
The inner construction of experience evokes interactional responses that
organize the world in a particular way. These patterns of interaction then reflect,
and in turn, shape inner experience (Johnson, 2008, p. 109)
Individual identity can be formed and transformed by relationships and
interactions with others
New experiences in therapy can help clients expand their view and make sense of
the world in a new way
Nonpathologizing, not interested in pathology or dysfunction
Past is relevant only in how it affects the present.
Emotion is a target and agent of change.
Primary emotions generally draw partners closer. Secondary emotions push
partners away.
Distressed couples get caught in negative repetitive sequences of interaction
where partners express secondary emotions rather than primary emotions.

CONCEPTS:
Attachment needs exist
throughout the life span.
Negative interactional
patterns
Primary and secondary
emotions
Empathic attunement
Cycle de-escalation
Blamer softening
Withdrawer re-engagement

GOALS OF THERAPY:
Identify and break negative interactional patterns
Increase emotional engagement between couple
Identify primary and secondary emotions in the context of
negative interactional pattern
Access, expand, and reorganize key emotional responses
Create a shift in partners interactional positions.
Foster the creation of a secure bond between partners
through the creation of new interactional events that redefine
the relationship

ROLE OF THERAPIST:
Client-centered, collaborative
Process consultant
Choreographer of relationship
dance

ASSESSMENT:
Assess relationship factors such as:
o Their cycle
o Action tendencies (behaviors)
o Perceptions
o Secondary emotions
o Primary emotions
o Attachment needs
Relationship history, key events
Brief personal attachment history
Interaction style
Violence/abuse/drug usage
Sexual relationship
Prognostic indicators:
o Degree of reactivity and escalation- intensity of
negative cycle
o Strength of attachment/commitment
o Openness response to therapist engagement
o Trust/faith of the female partner (does she believe he
cares about her).

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 24

Emotionally Focused Therapy, Continued

INTERVENTIONS
Reflection
Validation
Evocative questions and empathic conjecture
Self-disclosure

TERMINATION:
Therapy ends when the therapist and clients
collaboratively decide that the following changes
have occurred:
Negative affect has lessened and is regulated
differently
Partners are more accessible and responsive
to each other
Partners perceive each other as people who
want to be close, not as enemies
Negative cycles are contained and positive
cycles are enacted
EVALUATION:
Therapy/Research:
Difficult model to learn
When using the EFT model, it is
important to move slowly down the
process of therapy. This can be difficult
to do.
Learning to stay with deepened emotions
can sometimes be overwhelming, but the
therapist must continue to reflect and
validate.
Empirically validated, 20 years of
research to back up.

Tracking, reflecting, and replaying interactions

Reframe in an attachment frame
Enactments
Softening
Heightening and expanding emotional
experiences

SELF OF THE THERAPIST:

Accept responsibility for client/therapist
relationship
Expert on process of therapy, not on clients
life or experience of the difficulty
Collaborator who must sometimes lead and
sometimes follow

CHANGE:
Change happens as couples have a new corrective
emotional experience with one another.
When couples are able to experience their own
emotions, needs, and fears and express them to
one another and experience the other partner
responding to those emotions, needs, and fears in
an accessible, responsive way.

SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS:

RESOURCES:
Johnson, S. M. (2004). The practice of emotionally focused couple therapy (2nd ed.). New York: Brunner-Routledge.
Johnson, S. M., Bradely, B., Furrow, J., Lee, A., Palmer, G., Tilley, D., & Wolley, S. (2005). Becoming an
emotionally focused couple therapist: The workbook. New York: Routledge.
Johnson, S. M. (2008). Emotionally focused couple therapy. In A. S. Gurman (Ed.), Clinical handbook of couple
therapy (4th ed., pp. 107-137). New York: Guilford.
Johnson, S. M., & Greenburg, L. S. (1994). The heart of the matter: Perspectives on emotion in marital therapy.
New York: Brunner/Mazel.

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Emotionally Focused Therapy, Continued

Notes:

Page 25

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Page 26

Gottman Method Couple Therapy

LEADERS:
John Gottman
Julie Gottman

ASSUMPTIONS:
Therapy is primarily dyadic
Couples need to be in emotional states to learn how to cope with and

change them
Therapy should be primarily a positive affective experience
Positive sentiment override and friendship base are needed for

communication and affect change

CONCEPTS:

Negative interactions (four horsemen)

decrease acceptance of repair attempts

Most couples present in therapy with low
positive affect
Sound marital house
Softened startup
Love maps

ROLE OF THE THERAPIST:

Coach
Provide the tools that the couple can use with

one another and make their own

GOALS OF THERAPY:
Empower the couple
Problem solving skills
Positive affect
Creating shared meaning

ASSESSMENT:
Four horsemen are present and repair

is ineffective
Absence of positive affect
Sound marital house

INTERVENTIONS:

Sound Marital House

Dreams-within-conflict

Label destructive patterns

Enhancing the Marital friendship

Sentiment override

CHANGE:
Accepting influence
Decrease negative interactions
Increase positive affect

TERMINATION:
When couples can consistently develop their

SELF OF THE THERAPIST:

Not discussed

own interventions that work reasonably well

EVALUATION:
Theory is based on Gottmans research

SUPERVISION INTERVENTIONS

RESOURCES:

Gottman, J. (1994). Why marriages succeed or fail. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Gottman, J. M. (1999). The marriage clinic. New York: Norton.

Marriage and Family Therapy Models

Gottman Method Couple Therapy, continued

NOTES

Page 27