How to Coach Yourself and Others Coaching Families

Therapeutic Goals and Techniques Minuchin’s goal is to promote a restructuring of the family system along more healthy lines, which he does by entering the various family subsystems, "continually causing upheavals by intervening in ways that will produce unstable situations which require change and the restructuring of family organization... Therapeutic change cannot occur unless some pre-existing frames of reference are modified, flexibility introduced and new ways of functioning developed." To accelerate such change, Minuchin manipulates the format of the therapy sessions, structuring desired subsystems by isolating them from the remainder of the family, either by the use of space and positioning (seating) within the room, or by having non-members of the desired substructure leave the room (but stay involved by viewing from behind a one-way mirror). The aim of such interventions is often to cause the unbalancing of the family system, in order to help them to see the dysfunctional patterns and remain open to restructuring. He believes that change must be gradual and taken in digestible steps for it to be useful and lasting. Because structures tend to self-perpetuate, especially when there is positive feedback, Minuchin asserts that therapeutic change is likely to be maintained beyond the limits of the therapy session. One variant or extension of his methodology can be said to move from manipulation of experience toward fostering understanding. When working with families who are not introspective and are oriented toward concrete thinking, Minuchin will use the subsystem isolation—one-way mirror technique to teach those family members on the viewing side of the mirror to move from being an enmeshed participant to being an evaluation observer. He does this by joining them in the viewing room and pointing out the patterns of transaction occurring on the other side of the mirror. While Minuchin doesn’t formally integrate this extension into his view of therapeutic change, it seems that he is requiring a minimal level of insight or understanding for his subsystem restructuring efforts to "take" and to allow for the resultant positive feedback among the subsystems to induce stability and resistance to change. Change, then, occurs in the subsystem level and is the result of manipulations by the therapist of the existing subsystems, and is maintained by its greater functionality and resulting changed frames of reference and positive feedback. See also    Family systems therapy Salvador Minuchin Systems theory References 1. Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and Family Therapy. Harvard University Press. 2. Seligman, Linda (2004). Diagnosis and Treatment Planning in Counseling. New York: Kluwer Academic. ISBN 0306485141., p. 246    Minuchin, S. & Fishman, H. C. (2004). Family Therapy Techniques. Harvard University Press. Piercy, Fred (1986). Family Therapy Sourcebook. New York: Guilford Press. ISBN 0898629136. Will, David (1985). Integrated Family Therapy. London: Tavistock. ISBN 042279760X. 139

How to Coach Yourself and Others Coaching Families | Page 139