MFT Exam - Strategic Family Therapy

Strategic:
A technique directed at strengthening the parental hierarchy and reinforcing that parents are in charge over the children. The therapist will break neutrality and intentionally align with the parental subsystem.

Strategic:
Specific, directed behavioral tasks for the family to engage in different behaviors in-session and then carried out into the home between sessions.

Strategic:
A paradoxical directive that places a client in a situation where it creates more work for them to maintain a problem symptoms or behavior than it would to change it. - exp a couple is encouraged to have ‘argue time’ but therapist tells them to rearrange living room like a courtroom before arguing… So much an ordeal they’ll not care as much about argument.

Strategic: Occurs when children create symptoms in an attempt to change their parents.

Madanes broke off and viewed love and happiness as appropriate therapy goals, that all problems arose betwen love and violence

Strategic:
The symptom was redefined as a metaphor of a larger problem. For example, a child wetting his bed was a metaphor for keeping focus on him so his father can maintain his addiction to marijuana.

Strategic:
A form of paradoxical intervention where Madanes would instruct a child to have a symptom and instruct the parents to help the child through it.

Strategic: Presenting an alternative perspective on a family members view of another’s problematic behavior.

Strategic: An intervention where the therapist intentionally sides with one family member over the other, meant to disrupt homeostasis and encourage change at the behavioral and structural level.

~ began looking at Fam structure
~ parental hierarchy is essential… So parents first align with parents
~ family life cycle very important!
~ first session very imp 4 stages = 1. Joining, 2. Problem, Each member shares viewpoint of problem 3. Interaction stage, assessment of family interactions 4. Goal setting - what has been tried and failed and the add small changes
~ brief but not super brief no limit to 10 sessions
~ goals to obtain symptom relief and shift structure of family
~ not as much a team approach

Strategic Family Therapy, developed by Jay Haley and Chloe Madanes, is a classical family therapy model that blends ideas from MRI and structural approaches. It focuses on solving current problems by realigning family hierarchies, emphasizing that a clear parental hierarchy is essential for healthy functioning. The family life cycle is also central to understanding developmental challenges. Therapy is brief but flexible (often under 10 sessions) and aims for both symptom relief and structural change. The first session follows four stages: joining, problem definition, interaction assessment, and goal setting. Key interventions include directives (specific tasks for change), ordeal therapy (making symptoms more effortful than change), pretending the symptom, reframing, and unbalancing to shift power dynamics. The therapist aligns with the parental generation to restore leadership and uses the presenting symptom as a metaphor for underlying relational issues, promoting healthier family structure and communication.