Family therapy (FT) - Experiential Family Therapy

Family therapy dates from the 1950s.

Indication and contraindications for family therapy

Family therapy is used mainly in the treatment of problems presented by young people living with their parents. These problems are often related to difficulties in communication between members of the family or to role problems. In the practice of adult psychiatric, family therapy is often combined with other treatment eg antidepressant medication for a depressive disorder, Family therapy is used in treating some young people with anorexia nervosa after weight has been restored by other means. Special kinds of family treatment have been developed to reduce relapses in schizophrenia.

Carl Whitaker's deviced the symbolic-experiential family therapy. Experiential Family Therapy emerged during 1960. It Emphasis on immediate, here-and-now experience. Experiential Family Therapy is a criterion for psychological health and focus of therapeutic intervention: quality of ongoing experience.

Emotional expression is thought to be the medium of shared experience and the means to fulfillment (personal and family).

Basic Premises of Experiential Family Therapy

Commitment to individual awareness, expression, and self- fulfillment.
Whitaker suggested that self-fulfillment depended on family cohesiveness.
Satir suggested that good family communication was important, but emphasized individual growth.
Goal: reduce defensiveness and unlock deeper levels of experiencing by liberating people from impulses.

What are the goals of Family Therapy?

The aim of treatment is to improve family functioning and so to help the identified patient. Since success depends on the collaboration of several people, drop-out rates are high. Whatever their method, family therapists have the following goals for the family:

improved communication
reduced conflict
growth, not stability: symptom reduction is secondary to
- greater freedom of choice,
- increased personal integrity (congruence between inner experience and outer behavior),
- less dependence,
- expanded experiencing.
emphasis on the feeling side of human nature.
improved autonomy for each member
improved agreement about roles
merger of needs for individual growth and strengthening the family unit. “Belongingness and individuation go hand in hand”
reduced distress in the member who is the patient.

Family therapy (or family systems therapy ) is a branch of psychotherapy that treats family problems. Family therapists consider the family as a system of interacting members; as such, the problems in the family are seen to arise as an emergent property of the interactions in the system, rather than be ascribed exclusively to the faults or psychological problems of individual members.

A family therapist usually sees several members of the family at the same time in therapy sessions. This setting has the advantage of making differences between the ways different family members perceive mutual relations as well as interaction patterns in the session apparent both for the therapist and the family. These patterns frequently mirror habitual interaction patterns at home, even though now the therapist himself is incorporated into the family system. Therapy interventions usually focus on these patterns of interaction rather than on analyzing subconscious impulses or early childhood traumas of individuals as a Freudian therapist would do.

Depending on circumstances, the therapist may then point out to the family these interaction patterns that the family might have not noticed; or suggest to individuals a different way of responding to other family members. These changes in the way of responding may then trigger repercussions in the whole system, leading sometimes to a more satisfactory system state.