HHC Centre Family Therapy: Forget The Blame Game And Solve Co | Page 6

Strategic Therapy
In contrast to structural therapy, strategic therapy is much more planned and borrows from a wide range of psychotherapy practices. The
strategic plan is to step the counselling through a number of set stages or milestones such as an initial brief social session where the therapist
gets to know each of the family members. Once a level of trust and familiarity has been established the therapist will move the sessions to the
problem stage. This is where the therapist will discuss with members individually and as a group to establish the points of view of each
member individually and as the family unit collectively. The next stage is the interaction stage where the therapist identifies the inter-
relationship bonds between family members and how they interact with one another. This is an important stage as the therapist is trying to
establish the internal family relationships and how weaker bonds can be strengthened or potential conflicts can be avoided. Once the therapist
has established how the family group works – its dynamics – they can set goals and tasks to accomplish the objectives and these are the final
two stages in the strategic plan approach.