Social Work Practice with the Maxson Family in Fences

Introduction: The Maxson Family's Communication Struggles

The Maxson family has been struggling with their emotions. The family members do not know how to communicate their feelings effectively, and the ways they express those feelings often end up hurting one another. Troy has Cory's best interests at heart when he denies Cory the opportunity to play football; however, he fails to express his reservations to Cory directly. Instead, he goes to Cory's school and tells the coach to remove Cory from the team. Cory is left wondering why his father would do this and assumes his father wants to hurt him. If Troy could only communicate with Cory and share what he feels about Cory playing football, they could arrive at a solution that would be mutually beneficial. Cory could have informed Troy how things are different now and how the racial injustices of the past are no longer in play in the same way.

Troy believes he was a victim of racial bias and that he was denied the opportunity to play baseball based on his skin color. Troy refuses to accept the reality that his age was the primary reason he was rejected. Allowing his emotions to cloud his judgment and going to the school to inform the coach that Cory would not be playing football was not the correct course of action. When Cory finds out what Troy has done, he becomes enraged and directs his verbal aggression toward his father. Cory believes Troy is holding him back from pursuing his dreams — and that he would ultimately be better than his father. August Wilson's Fences uses this father-son conflict to expose how unprocessed trauma and racial history shape family relationships across generations.

If both father and son understood how to communicate their emotions, this would have been an opportunity to sit down and talk things through. Troy would explain his reservations, and Cory would come to understand where his father was coming from. Troy's conflict with others throughout the play stems from his lack of cultural literacy and his preference for seeing things in black-and-white terms. Troy makes decisions based on this rigid framework, in which he is always right and everyone else is wrong.

Applying Narrative Family Therapy to Troy and Cory

The therapeutic technique most applicable to the Maxson family is narrative family therapy (NFT). NFT assists in reducing parent-child conflicts (Suddeath, Kerwin, & Dugger, 2017), as is precisely the case between Troy and Cory. Using NFT, Troy would be encouraged to tell stories about his days playing baseball while Cory listened. Troy would narrate how much he loved baseball and what transpired when he was denied the chance to advance to the major league. The therapist would then uncover information that Troy conceals — or is trying to conceal — and bring it to the fore. Details such as his age at the time of rejection and the requirements for playing in the majors could be surfaced. Cory would then begin to understand how his father feels about being denied that chance and how he kept it all bottled inside.

Cory would also be encouraged to narrate how he feels when playing football and to describe his performance on the field. The strategy is to help Troy see how stopping Cory from playing football affected Cory. Both Troy and Cory would shift their focus away from emotional problems and failures and toward periods when they were happy and the conflicts were absent.

The cultural discourse affecting the family is also uncovered through NFT (Eppler, Cobb, Bien, & Wright, 2021). Troy grew up in an era filled with racial injustices and cannot see how the world has changed. He wants to shield Cory from the world's injustices and, in doing so, denies Cory the chance to play college football. While Troy's intentions are noble, his actions damage his relationship with Cory. Cory cannot understand why his father would deny him this opportunity, and Troy is not willing to disclose the reason behind his actions. The tensions between the two can be resolved through NFT by allowing each to narrate his story from his own perspective. Once they can see how each feels, Troy and Cory can work toward correcting their behaviors.

Therapist Affective Responses and Self-Awareness

When Bono asked Troy about Alberta, a strong affective response arose, because Troy's evasive reply made it clear he was having an affair. Troy had chosen to disrespect Rose by engaging in an extramarital relationship, and he was working hard to hide it — though the truth eventually comes to the surface when he announces that Alberta is expecting his child. Holding a deep respect for the institution of marriage, the affair would be difficult to overlook when working with this family. Affairs devastate families, and the one Troy had resulted in exactly the kind of family breakdown seen all too commonly. The personal aversion to extramarital affairs creates an affective response that would make it genuinely challenging to function as a neutral therapist.

As a clinician, one would find it difficult to set aside the fact that Troy made a conscious decision to seek comfort in another relationship, and no explanation would feel entirely sufficient. This reaction risks clouding professional judgment. However, the responsibility as a social worker is to assist the family — not to judge them based on personal beliefs. The affair could easily overshadow the family assessment, since there is always an underlying reason that drives a partner toward another person. More time might inadvertently be spent trying to uncover the deep meaning behind the affair rather than addressing the family's broader therapeutic goals.

Conclusion

The Maxson family's struggles reflect the lasting impact of generational trauma, racial injustice, and suppressed emotion. Narrative family therapy and trauma-focused tools such as genograms and trauma lists offer structured pathways for healing. By allowing each family member to tell their own story, surface their pain, and understand the experiences of others, the therapeutic process can begin to repair the deep fractures within the family. The social worker's role is not to judge but to guide — holding space for complexity while working steadily toward the family's collective well-being.

References

Eppler, C., Cobb, R. A., Bien, S., & Wright, P. T. (2021). Epistemological intersections of Buddhism and narrative family therapy. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 40(2), 80–92.

James, K., & MacKinnon, L. (2012). Integrating a trauma lens into a family therapy framework: Ten principles for family therapists. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 33(3), 189–209.

Reid, L. (2021). Use of self: Follow-up and re-engagement in treatment. In Constructing authentic relationships in clinical practice: Working at the intersection of therapist and client identities.

Suddeath, E. G., Kerwin, A. K., & Dugger, S. M. (2017). Narrative family therapy: Practical techniques for more effective work with couples and families. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 39(2), 116–131.