How Chaotic Families Can Be Restructured

Family Systems Theory; Application of Family Therapy Theories

The concept of family therapy has over the years has been developed into different approaches that have definite characteristics. These theories have been used to bring forth solutions to different family issues that are experienced on regular basis. It is not easy to understand the structure of a family since there are no universal structures that the family problems or challenges take, this means that even in the application of the family systems theories in bringing solutions to families, the application purely depend on individual unique family challenges and not on a universal template. These unique characteristics that each family challenge takes makes it hard to apply one system theory and have full confidence that it will work, hence the frequent overlapping of the theories, and in this case the strategic family therapy and the structural family therapy will be applied to help solve the case presented herein.

Findings from the family

In the provided case study, a couple, Joe and Arlene present their problem to a family therapist with the hope of having their feud solved. The main point of conflict here is that the two are not in agreement about the approach that needs to be used in bringing up their children, particularly involving them in solutions to problems in the house. Joe feels that Arlene needs to encourage the children to do what he says as the father and not to give them the room to negotiate alternative approaches since they are children, despite the fact that one of them is already 14 years of age. The father seems to be the assertive one here and even during the therapy session, in the first session, he was the first to speak out and went straight to pointing out that the family problem sprouts from the habit of the wife. He seems to be dominating the conversation with the wife only giving brief interjections.

The dark glasses that Arlene is wearing would not be of any concern had she not refused to remove them when the therapist requested her to do so. The refusal, though may be silent, still is a communication to the therapist, there is an always communication and all behavior is communicative hence the refusal to remove the dark glasses tells the therapist that she is not using these dark glasses for beauty or fashion, but they are a barrier between her and the husband, she uses them to conceal her reactions from her husband and now from the therapist as well. She physically hides the internal turmoil within her. In line with the theoretical formulation under the strategic family therapy, there is the report and the command functions. In the first session, the man seems to indicate that he does not approve of the fact that the wife asks or consults the children about their challenges and wants them as parents to instruct the children on how to go about their problems. This is the report as given by the man and the wife, but the command function is that Joe wants to have an absolute authority and control over the entire family, he wants to be listened to and not questioned by any family member, indeed he wants to be looked at as the highest authority in the family. There is need hence to bring back the family homeostasis, the family balance that enables each member to feel as part of the family. Indeed, of greater need here is the restoration of the confidence in Arlene to feel as part of the leadership of the house that the children, some of whom are now becoming teenagers can copy as an example and look up to for advice.

In this first session of the family therapy, we also come to learn that Arlene has a lot that she wants to say and needs to express but holds them back for fear of being like her mother. She opens up to the therapists that even though she is strongly opposed to the sentiments expressed by the husband and that she does not approve of the approach to family problems among the children that the husband uses, she would rather be silent, lest she be branded to be behaving like her mother. In the theoretical formulation of the structural family therapy, there seems to be a predetermined family structure here which is reinforced by the expectations which establish the rules. As a therapist, it is incumbent upon you to see the struggle here is largely due to the wish to offset the existing structure by the wife and the unrelenting spirit of sticking to the family structure as it is by the husband. The other pertinent issue to note in this part of the therapy session is that the couples come from different cultural and social backgrounds, the man is Hispanic and the wife is of Asian origin. There is high potential of this determining the family member's roles and positions in line with their cultural backgrounds, which may conflict with the perspective of the other person.

The second session of the family therapy brings in the four children and this further helps reveal some details about the family and the relationship among them. The children are presented as being tensed at the presence of the father, a fact that does not change even with the presence of the therapist. The youngest of the family who is a son seems to have been affected the most at the young age of 4 years old; he finds no purpose and direction in being together in the therapy. He is depicted as detached and distracted since he has not been shown the value of security in the parents and the importance of being together if indeed even the parents do not show unity in their approach in bringing them up.

The second session affirms the findings of the firs session of the urge to dominate the family and maintain full say over everything. This comes out with the suppressed nature of the children and the constant seeking of the father's approval to talk. The children have been conditioned to observe boundaries within the family such that in the presence of the father, they can only speak with the approval of the father. The children here express individuals without free will and cannot handle challenges on their own but will need to wait for the directions from the highest symbol of authority in the house. The implicit message that the therapist picks from the relationship among these family members is that the father has deprived the mother the due authority in the house to an extent that even the children realize the same. The children know that they need special permission to talk before the parents, a permission that they can only get from the father, not the mother, which is why they keep looking at the father for approval to talk.

Overall feeling from the case is that there is a heavy sense of father-centered control in the family and the authority is asserted by all means possible on the rest of the family members. The father has no room for compromise and sticks to his ways and approaches despite the displeasure of the rest of the family with his control. The bigger challenge however is that there is no one else who has the confidence to communicate the displeasure any more since each person is suppressed to submission hence the family members have developed coping tactics like the wife keeps quiet and avoid confronting Joe and the children withdraw and whenever they want to talk they tend to look for approval from the father.

Treatment plan

Having seen what really ails Joe's family, it is prudent to have an intervention plan as a family therapist which will help them come together as a family in terms of their communication and interaction as parents to children and between the husband and wife.

The approach that will be used to help the family recover from their non-communication situation towards cohesion and effective communication with each member of the family will be the structural family therapy. The rationale for choosing this approach is because this family is more of a collection of people who relate with each other and affect each other in ways that are not predictable. The structural family therapy (SFT) hence aims at providing the four children and their two parents the framework that will see order and meaning restored in the family. As a therapist, I will look beyond the face value of the problems that are presented before me by the family in order for me to help the family solve the problems presented by them.

The SFT depends mostly on the fact that in a family or a community, there are structures that are developed within the family through the repeated transactions within the family. Once these patterns are established, the members of the family have just a given percentage of behavior that they are expected to go by, they become a part of the system that is reinforced and perpetuated by the expectations. This is exactly what happens in the Joe's family, where the wife is expected to comply with the directions of the husband to the children and the children are also expected to consult on the actions they need to take on every challenge.

This family heads, who are the man and the wife need to have a complementary pattern between themselves first in order to have their directions influencing the children. There is need to realize that the strength of one partner is meant to complement the weakness of the other. The willingness to cede ground by the wife needs to be realized as a way of complementing the husband's tough stand and not be abused. As noted above, in this approach the family is a subsystem, and the spouses in this case need to have clearly demarcated boundaries that separate them from the children and other outside forces. This boundary will allow the spouses to help each other in terms of support on communication and other factors rather than have external interference. This is significant since it is factual that most spouses stop supporting each other once the children start coming into the family, this is incidentally the case with this family since the children are the point of contention now. Absolute lack of this boundary is also evident in the manner in which the wife seems to borrow character modification from her mother, instead of modeling one between her and the husband. By drawing their boundaries that will give them privacy, the couple will have the chance to discuss even the cultural differences that there may be bearing their differences in family origins and come up with effective compromises for their cross-cultural marriage. I will also insist that Elsie keeps away the dark glasses whenever she is discussing serious issues with the husband for two major reasons; one is that she uses them to hide her true feelings and response to propositions by Joe and secondly, Joe also use the same dark glasses to form some artificial numbness and boundary between him and Elsie and here not taking the blame since it is an initiative of Elsie. The lack of privacy and spouse boundary that will give the spouses a chance to build each other is a significant cause of the friction in the family and would mark a significant starting point that will enable the couple to adjust towards each other and achieve a functional family structure.

Joe's family also needs to have the children modelled into taking up responsibilities and in this manner they will be communicating often with the parents. This can be attained by the parents having an assistant parent in the eldest daughter who is now 14 years old. This will allow the teenager to communicate frequently with the parents and also ventilate the needs of the other children hence opening up the communication channel with the father. It is important to note that as the teenager is given the roles to play, her needs are also not neglected or forgotten. However, of greater importance here while creating a functional family structure is finding a mutual point of reference in Joes family, which for the beginning can be the first born, once the communication channels between her and the father are open, and on the other end the mother and younger children are free to talk to her as is the case, then the mutuality found in her will by and large develop into enabling direct and frequent interaction of the other family members with the father.