
Who is the father of Family Therapy?
The initial work of authors such as John Weakland and Jay Haley had a strong influence on Erickson. Erickson was a psychiatrist from the United States who was very successful in the middle of the 20th century. They first called family therapy “strategic therapy”.
Who is the author of Strategic Family Therapy?
Brief Strategic Family Therapy Author By José Szapocznik and Olga Hervis Created Date 11/20/2019 1:15:02 PM
What are the goals of Strategic Family Therapy?
The goals of strategic family therapy are to solve problems, achieve the family’s goals, and ultimately, change an individual’s dysfunctional or problematic behaviors. How do You Become a Strategic Family Therapist?
What is Haley’s model of Family Therapy?
Haley’s model for effective family therapy can be summarized as follows: Individuals don’t develop problems in isolation, but as a response to their social environment. In strategic family therapy, the therapist develops techniques for solving problems specific to the family’s interactions and structure.

When was strategic family therapy developed?
During the 1950s and 1960s, Haley along with a number of others began developing alternative models for working with families employing more solution-focused techniques, and Haley's model became known as strategic family therapy.
Who is the founder of strategic family therapy?
Jay HaleyJay Haley was a 20th century psychotherapist who helped develop brief therapy, family therapy, and strategic psychotherapy.
What is Haley and madanes strategic family therapy?
Haley focused more on restoring power to the parents, while Madanes focused more on creating new and pleasurable interactions for the parent and child. Madanes developed a classification system for families, as well as guidelines for when to use hers, Haley's, or MRI techniques.
What is the strategic approach to family therapy?
The basic premise of strategic family therapy is that how the family functions and interacts plays a pivotal role in a child's symptoms. By changing how the family functions, this treatment reduces the risk factors that contribute to behavior problems and helps protect kids from future issues that may arise.
What is the main goal of strategic family therapy?
During strategic family therapy, the goal is to empower a family to solve their problems on their own. Each member of the family might have different things they need to work on, such as: Communication Styles.
Is strategic family therapy evidence based?
Austin and his colleagues found that Brief Strategic Family Therapy® (BSFT®) and Multidimensional FamilyTherapy are the most effective among the family-based interventions, meeting the criteria for probably efficacious according to the criteria developed by Chambless and Hollon (1998).
What are the three central constructs of Brief strategic family therapy Bsft?
Joining - forming a therapeutic alliance with all family members. Diagnosis - identifying interactional patterns that give rise to/encourage/enable problematic youth behavior. Restructuring - the process of changing the family interactions that are directly related to problem behaviors.
What are the characteristics of strategic family therapy?
Core Concepts of Strategic Family Therapy There are three principles that guide SFT: all family members are connected, a family's habits impact the behavior of its members, and intervention needs to be targeted to the problem and meet the needs of the family.
What is the Bowen family systems theory?
Bowen family systems theory is a theory of human behavior that views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the unit's complex interactions. It is the nature of a family that its members are intensely connected emotionally.
What is the difference between structural and strategic family therapy?
Structural therapists focus on resolving structural problems in the family, whereas strategic therapists focus on the presenting symptom.
What is MRI strategic family therapy?
Mental Research Institute (MRI) Systemic Therapy for families and couples. small, innocuous, yet highly meaningful alterations to the family's interactions, allowing the family to naturally reorganize in response to the new information.
What are the five approaches of family therapy?
There are five widely recognized family therapy modalities: Structural Therapy, Milan therapy, Strategic Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Transgenerational Therapy. These forms of therapy seek to improve familial relationships and create a more stable, healthy life at home.
What is the focus of strategic therapy?
Strategic therapy is a form of interactional therapy because it does not focus on the root causes of the client's problems but instead tries to increase competency and develop problem-solving skills that will help the client in her interactions with others.
What are the characteristics of strategic family therapy?
Core Concepts of Strategic Family Therapy There are three principles that guide SFT: all family members are connected, a family's habits impact the behavior of its members, and intervention needs to be targeted to the problem and meet the needs of the family.
What is the difference between strategic and structural family therapy?
The strategic approach focuses on repeating sequences of behavior, particularly those that break hierarchical rules through cross-generational coalitions. Structural therapists focus on resolving structural problems in the family, whereas strategic therapists focus on the presenting symptom.
What is the Bowen family systems theory?
Bowen family systems theory is a theory of human behavior that views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the unit's complex interactions. It is the nature of a family that its members are intensely connected emotionally.
What is Strategic Therapy?
According to a website devoted to strategic therapy pioneer Jay Haley, “strategic therapy is any type of therapy where the therapist initiates what...
What is Family Therapy?
Family therapy, also called family systems therapy, considers families as systems, systems that organically develop rules and interactions, and sys...
How do You Become a Strategic Family Therapist?
If you have a passion for working with families, and are interested in using solution-focused interventions such as strategic family therapy, consi...
Who developed the family therapy model?
However, a significant part of the strategic therapy model incorporated the work of another family therapy pioneer, Salvador Minuchin. For more information read about Minuchin’s structural family therapy model. Minuchin’s model also stressed a solution-focused approach over psychoanalysis, or other types of intrapsychic exploration.
How do You Become a Strategic Family Therapist?
If you have a passion for working with families, and are interested in using solution-focused interventions such as strategic family therapy, consider a master’s degree or Ph.D. in a counseling field like marriage and family therapy (MFT). To practice as a therapist or counselor, states require licensing, and each state has specific requirements in meeting its licensing requirements.
What is Strategic Therapy?
According to a website devoted to strategic therapy pioneer Jay Haley, “strategic therapy is any type of therapy where the therapist initiates what happens during therapy and designs a particular approach for each problem.”
What is Family Therapy?
Family therapy, also called family systems therapy, considers families as systems, systems that organically develop rules and interactions, and systems that affect the psychological health of all those involved. Just as a governmental or organizational system affects individuals, so does the family system. Psychologists consider the family system, however, to have the greatest influence on individuals’ lives.
What is required to practice as a therapist?
To practice as a therapist or counselor, states require licensing, and each state has specific requirements in meeting its licensing requirements. Additional coursework or certification in strategic family therapy is also required to utilize this specialized therapeutic model.
What is Haley's model of family therapy?
Haley’s model for effective family therapy can be summarized as follows: Individuals don’t develop problems in isolation, but as a response to their social environment. In strategic family therapy, the therapist develops techniques for solving problems specific to the family’s interactions and structure. The therapist sees the problem as part of ...
What is the emphasis of a therapist?
The therapist sees the problem as part of a sequence of interactions of those in the individual’s immediate social environment. Symptoms of a particular pathology or behavior must be studied in relation to the social unit or family system. The emphasis of the therapy is not on the individual but on the social situation or structure.
What is BSFT family therapy?
The BSFT intervention was therefore formulated as an integrative model that combines structural and strategic family therapy techniques to address systemic/relational (primarily family) interactions that are associated with adolescent problem behaviors. The structural components of the BSFT treatment draw on the work of Minuchin (Minuchin, 1974; Minuchin & Fishman, 1981). The strategic aspect of the BSFT approach was influenced by Haley (1976)and Madanes (1981). The integration of structural and strategic approaches to family therapy led us to develop a treatment that is problem-focused, planful, and practical—focusing primarily on identifying and enacting the changes necessary to ameliorate the adolescent’s presenting problems. Other family issues, such as problems between the parent figures, are not addressed unless they are directly related to the adolescent’s problem behaviors, such as drug use or risky sexual behaviors.
How are BSFT interventions organized?
BSFT interventionsare organized into four theoretically and empirically supported domains (Robbins et al., 2011a; Szapocznik & Kurtines, 1989). Each of these domains of intervention is used throughout the treatment process, although some are used more often than others in specific phases of treatment. Early sessions are characterized by joininginterventions intended to establish a therapeutic alliance with each family member and with the family as a whole. Joining requires that the therapist demonstrate acceptance of and respect toward each individual family member, as well as acceptance of and respect toward the way in which the family as a whole is organized. Early sessions also emphasize tracking and diagnostic enactmentinterventions that are designed to systematically identify adaptive and maladaptive family patterns of interactions, and to use these patterns of interactions to build a treatment plan. A core feature of tracking and diagnostic enactment techniques is that the therapist encourages family members to behave as they would if the counselor were not present. This means encouraging family members to speak with each other about the concerns they raise in therapy, rather than directing comments to the therapist. Indeed, when family members do address the therapist, the therapist asks the family member to redirect the statement or question to the person referenced in the statement. For example, if a father says to therapist, “You know, my wife is all wrapped up in our son and has no time for me,” the therapist will ask the father to direct this concern to his wife. Once this happens and the wife responds, an overlearned family pattern of interaction is likely to be enacted in the present in front of the therapist. As noted, although therapists are most likely to encourage family interactions and diagnose interactional patterns in early sessions, these techniques are used throughout the course of therapy.
What is BSFT intervention?
BSFT is a manualized intervention (Szapocznik, Hervis, & Schwartz, 2003) that targets structural, interactional patterns in the adolescent’s family environment, and that creates changes in these patterns by strategically intervening to disrupt or alter these interactional patterns. There are three core principleson which BSFT is built. The first is that BSFT is a family-systems approach. “Family systems” means that family members are interdependent. The experiences and behavior of each family member affect the experiences and behavior of other family members. According to family-systems theory, for example, the troubled adolescent is a family member who displays risk-taking behaviors such as drug use and unsafe sexual activity that reflect, at least in part, what else is going on in the family system (Szapocznik & Kurtines, 1989). As such, the adolescent’s behavior can be said to reflect maladaptive family interactions. We define maladaptive interactions as those exchanges in which the family repeatedly engages in the intent to achieve a certain outcome (e.g., eliminate adolescent drug use), but that continue to be used, despite clear evidence that these interactions do not work.
What is BSFT in a family?
BSFT is a short-term (approximately 12 sessions), family-treatment model developed for youth with behavior problems such as drug use, sexual risk behaviors, and delinquent behaviors. Developed over nearly 40 years of research at the University of Miami’s Center for Family Studies, the BSFT approach operates based on the premise that families are the strongest and most enduring force in the development of children and adolescents (Gorman-Smith, Tolan, & Henry, 2000; Steinberg, 2001; Szapocznik & Coatsworth, 1999). BSFT targets families in which youth engage in clusters of risk-taking or problematic behaviors, including drug and alcohol use, delinquency, affiliation with antisocial peers, and unsafe sexual activity (Jessor & Jessor, 1977; Willoughby, Chalmers, & Busseri, 2004). Families of behavior-problem youth tend to interact in ways that permit or promote these problems (Véronneau & Dishion, 2010). The goal of BSFT, therefore, is to change the patterns of family interactions that allow or encourage problematic adolescent behavior. By working with families, BSFT not only decreases youth problems, but also creates better functioning families (Santisteban et al., 2003). Because changes are brought about in family patterns of interactions, these changes in family functioning are more likely to last after treatment has ended, because multiple family members have changed the way they behave with each other.
What is BSFT in mental health?
BSFT is a flexible approach that can be utilized with a broad range of family situations (e.g., two-parent families, single-parent families, stepfamilies, multigenerational families), in a variety of service settings (e.g., mental health clinics, drug-abuse treatment programs, and other social-service settings), and in a variety of treatment modalities (e.g., as a primary outpatient intervention, in combination with residential or day treatment, as an aftercare/ continuing-care service to residential treatment, and for family preservation or reunification). Moreover, the BSFT approach is applicable across a range of ethnic/cultural groups.
How long does BSFT therapy last?
Therapy took much longer to administer than expected. The usual expectation is that BSFT therapy should last approximately four months, which is consistent with our implementation experience. However, the median length of treatment for those participants who were retained in treatment across both conditions was approximately 8 months for both conditions. As discussed later, this difference between prior and current experiences in delivering BSFT may have occurred because BSFT was implemented by therapists who had additional caseloads, often involving other treatment approaches, in addition to their BSFT caseload for the study.
How effective is BSFT?
The two treatment conditions, implemented by highly experienced therapists, were found to be equally efficacious, and more efficacious than recreational control, in reducing children’s behavioral and emotional problems and in maintaining these reductions at 1-year posttermination. However, at 1-year follow-up, the BSFT condition was associated with a significant improvement in independently rated family functioning, whereas individual psychodynamic child therapy was associated with a significant deterioration in family functioning.
What is BSFT in family therapy?
The Brief Strategic Family Therapy® (BSFT®) approach is a short-term family treatment model developed for youth with behavior problems. Developed by a team of clinicians and clinician-scientists over nearly 40 years of research at the University of Miami’s Center for Family Studies, the BSFT approach is based on the premise that families are the strongest and most enduring force in the development of children and adolescents (Gorman-Smith, Tolan, & Henry, 2000; Steinberg, 2001; Szapocznik & Coatsworth, 1999). Families of youth with behavior problems such as drug and alcohol use, delinquency, affiliation with antisocial peers, and unsafe sexual activity tend to interact in ways that permit or promote these problems (Vérroneau & Dishion, 2010). The goal of the BSFT approach, therefore, is to change the patterns of family interactions that allow or encourage problematic adolescent behavior. By working with families, the BSFT intervention not only decreases youth problems, but also creates better functioning families (Santisteban et al., 2003). Because therapists bring about changes in family patterns of interactions, these changes in family functioning are more likely to last after treatment has ended because multiple family members have changed the way they behave with each other.
What is BSFT research?
BSFT research has occurred in four primary domains: ( a) studies evaluating BSFT efficacy in reducing adolescent behavior problems and drug use and in improving family functioning; (b) studies evaluating the efficacy of BSFT Engagement procedures in bringing and retaining families in treatment; (c) studies evaluating the effectiveness of the BSFT intervention in community settings; and (d) studies examining the effects of BSFT therapist prescribed behaviors on adolescent and family outcomes. These studies have led the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to label the BSFT approach as one of its “model programs” and to be included in the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP; http://nrepp.samhsa.gov/ViewIntervention.aspx?id=151). We discuss research in each of these four areas in this section.
What is BSFT implementation?
The BSFT Implementation model now extends the concept of systems to apply to therapists, the agencies with which they work, and these agencies’ social ecology. Similar to our work in BSFT intervention, our experience in BSFT Implementation has taught us that a participatory approachto organizational work – at all levels of the agency – is essential to establish the context for adoption, fidelity, and sustainability.
How effective is BSFT?
The two treatment conditions, implemented by highly experienced therapists, were found to be equally efficacious, and more efficacious than recreational control, in reducing children’s behavioral and emotional problems and in maintaining these reductions at 1-year post-termination. However, at 1-year follow-up, the BSFT condition was associated with a significant improvement in independently rated family functioning, whereas individual psychodynamic child therapy was associated with a significant deterioration in family functioning. To reflect the participation of the therapists in the design and conduct of the study, all four therapists were authors on the major outcome paper (Szapocznik et al., 1989).
What is the impact of restructuring and reframing on families?
Engagement: Higher levels of restructuring and reframing ( creating a motivational context for change) significantly increased the likelihood of families being engaged into treatment. Because joining, and tracking and diagnosis were high across most cases, what distinguished cases that came to a second session from those that did not were reframing and restructuring, the technique domains that therapists found most challenging.
Is BSFT more effective than treatment as usual?
Family functioning in this study differed between adolescent and parent reports, with the BSFT condition producing significantly greater improvements in parent-reported family functioning compared to the treatment as usual condition. Adolescents in both conditions, however, reported significant improvements in family functioning, with no statistically significant differences by treatment condition. Post-hoc analyses also demonstrated that the BSFT intervention was more effective than Treatment as Usual in improving parental functioning, and that this effect was mediated by parental reports of family functioning.
Is BSFT effective for Hispanics?
However, BSFT treatment was significantly more efficacious in reducing association with antisocial peers among African Americans than among Hispanics, whereas it was significantly more efficacious in improving family functioning among Hispanics than among African Americans.
Who was the first person to use family therapy?
The initial work of authors such as John Weakland and Jay Haley had a strong influence on Erickson. Erickson was a psychiatrist from the United States who was very successful in the middle of the 20th century. They first called family therapy “strategic therapy”. They modeled this after the type of therapy that Haley developed.
Why did Jay Haley postulate strategic therapy?
Jay Haley’s postulates for strategic therapy. Jay Haley wanted to offer a perspective where the clients’ problems don’t just lie within themselves. That’s because humans are social beings. As such, all of your environment is involved whenever you experience problems. That’s why he believed the patient isn’t the appropriate unit of intervention.
Why did Jay Haley believe it was better to analyze people's interactions when subjecting them to psychotherapy?
Jay Haley believed that it was better to analyze people's interactions when subjecting them to psychotherapy because people are social beings. The strategic therapy of Jay Haley is characterized by the therapist having a lot more initiative than in other types of therapies. They also have to identify a series of key points.
What did Jay Haley want to do?
Jay Haley wanted to go beyond just what a therapist could dictate during the session. He didn’t want to focus on symptoms or mental or mood states. Thus, what he really wanted to do was work with social situations, not focus the work on the individual.
What did Haley believe about the structure of families?
Haley analyzed the structures that families established within themselves. He was also interested in the rules, statuses, or power roles within them. Certain roles and rules are more important than others. He believed that analyzing them would help him understand his patient’s life better.
What is the difference between strategic therapy and MRI?
Another difference between strategic therapy and MRI is that MRI argues that failed attempts at solutions maintain problems. As such, problems are a part of the result of failed problem resolution attempts.
Which theorists understood the behavior of people as a product of their interactional context?
Systems theorists such as Jay Haley understood the behavior of people as a product of their interactional context. This, he argued, was the most relevant point. That’s because it had more power to explain psychological aspects than any personality variables. The general systems theory and human communication theory are foundational models that allow you to understand and analyze human groups. They also explain how interaction is, above all, communicational.
What is the Center for Family Studies?
The Center for Family Studies is the nation’s oldest and most prominent center for development and testing of minority family therapy interventions for prevention and treatment of adolescent substance abuse and related behavior problems . Dr. Szapocznik is an internationally known expert on families and family-based interventions.
What was the first award for Szapocznik?
Szapocznik received the 2000 Presidential Award for “Contributions to the Development of Family-Based Interventions” from the Society for Prevention Research, and, in 1999, received the first ever Research Award from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
