Personal Theoretical Orientation

Halbur and Halbur suggested that there are ten strategies to finding your personal theoretical orientation. They are as follows find yourself, articulate your values, survey your preferences, use your personality, capture yourself, let others inspire your learning, read original works, get real, study with a master, broaden your experiences.

In The Family Crucible, Augustus Napier and Carl Whitaker’s form of therapy was strongly influenced by family systems theory, a burgeoning theory of the time. General systems theory examines relationships between elements that constitute a whole (Andreae, 2011, p. 243). When applied to families, this theory views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the complex interactions in the unit (The

My educational goal is focused on becoming a school counselor and developing a theoretical orientation that will provide a framework for me to choose and direct therapeutic interventions with students. My theoretical orientation will guide me as I provide resources and services to students, staff and parents. Also, I want to be able to work with students so they are able to identify, understand and appropriately display the feeling they experience.

Within the early practices of family therapy, it began during the 1950’s and focused upon an individual-therapist relationship (www.abacon.com). Early therapist such as Freud and Rodgers focused upon the individual behavior which was internal, even though they understood that family interactions shapes a person’s

My first assumption of family therapy was to involve the parents and the individual that had the problem. This book explored further what it

The family is made up of five people: Claudia, the IP; Carolyn, mother; Laura, the sister; Don, the brother; and David, the father. The family is coming into therapy because there have been mounting concerns about Claudia and her behavior—acting out, staying out late, some fairly typical teenage stuff. For the purpose of this paper, I will be starting at the beginning where the family is first coming into therapy. I will first school that I will apply is Structural Family Therapy and the second school is Bowen Family Therapy.

A difficulty with Family Systems therapy is the lack of dealing with individual issues. The problem is addressed from the perspective of developing and resolving interpersonal issues among family members. This approach has the possibility to overlook issues that are unique to one individual. A sense of personal perspective may be lost as the therapist looks to understand the systems, and subsystems within the family constellation.

Family therapy is needed in so many aspects whether its trauma, substance, abuse or marital counseling. It doesn’t matter if it’s for adolescents in the family or adults. It’s important that a clinician is knowledgeable about family therapy and the best approaches to assist the family in becoming functional.

People develop problems for a variety of reasons and those problems serve various purposes according to the integrated family systems approach. A person can acquire emotional, behavioral or psychological problems due to family and social environment, abuse or genetics. In addition to that, being influenced by family systems a client’s presenting problem can be contributed to by their family. A person’s problem may serve a specific role in the family’s dynamics, the problem may also be inadvertently encouraged by the family, a family’s incompetence to be constructive especially during “developmental transitions” or be attributed to the family’s dysfunction (Corey, 2013, p.435) .This way of viewing problems is broad and allows to a person to be viewed as part of a family system. It is also beneficial to view problems outside of the individual because it allows the therapist to see the client for than just a medical issue to be solved. A person and their problems do not exist in a vacuum but in a world that who people especially within a family influence and impact each other.

In this type of counseling the focus is on helping the family understand what they see as solutions and how to better understand them. According to Gladding (2009)

Family Systems Therapy practices under the idea that all clients are connected to a larger living system—their family, and that they can best be understood by assessing the interactions they have with their family. Therefore, they believe that actions of one family member will affect all other members of the family. Also, because the family plays such an important role in human behavior family therapists see symptoms as the client’s way of expressing a set of habits or patterns that they experience within their family (Corey, 2013).

Over the past two decades family therapy has been a primary innovator in assisting professionals specifically in the way that clients are viewed by counselors and in the methods of intervention used. (Schafter, Briesmeiste, & Fitton, 1984, as cited by Anderson, 1998) Several models are suggested which are the models of:

Therapists use theories in assisting their clients with different approaches and techniques. These theories are designed to help the client to receive the best treatment possible. Theories enable us to see things from new angles and perspectives, as well as allow us to fully understand relationships in life. Hagan (2011) research has proven that “One cannot begin teaching the specifics of theoretical influences and practice methods without providing the underpinning foundation of the values and socio-political framework of practices” (p. 1222). Our theories may be incomplete, poorly developed, based on limited information, and biased to fit our needs, but we still use them to guide our behaviors. Coakley (2011) mentions “When our theories are accurate, our predictions help us relate more effectively with others and control more directly what happens in our lives. The best theories are those in which we understand clearly and that helps us to make sense of our experiences within the world (Coakley, 2011). With that being said, because of the components involved in regards to Cognitive Behavior Theory and Family Systems Theory, these two theories will be explored and insightful information will be discussed. Applying these theories to real life situations (similar to those presented in the case studies), the theory will exemplify reasons as to why the theory is chosen to work.

The behavior of one person in the family can affect the entire family and family system. Most often family therapy begins when an adolescent who is the primary patient and has problems entwined with the family. This form of therapy is better used if there are not deep-rooted emotional issues rather a need for knowledge and help with

Family Systems theory does not place much emphasis on techniques used. A counselors' interpersonal qualities is more important to the therapeutic process. However, the multilayered approach is often used as a guide to counseling and has four integrated techniques to help assist a counselor. The multilayer approach identifies multiple layers in a family system that consist of roles and patterns. Assessing these layers help identify what areas to focus on in therapy. Carr states that interpersonal thechniques can be determined by focusing on family behavior, family beliefs, or adressing a broader context such as extended or nuclear families (Carr, 2016). Understanding where the most problems are surfaced will help guide sessions. When treating