How to Coach Yourself and Others Coaching Families | Page 175

Basic Techniques in Family Therapy
The area of marriage and family counselling/therapy has exploded over the past decade. Counsellors at all
levels are expected to work effectively with couples and families experiencing a wide variety of issues and
problems. Structural, strategic, and trans-generational family therapists at times may seem to be operating
alike, using similar interventions with a family. Differences might become clear when the therapist explains
a certain technique or intervention. Most of today's practicing family therapists go far beyond the limited
number of techniques usually associated with a single theory.
Bowen therapists believe that understanding how a family system operates is far more important than using
a particular technique. They tend to use interventions such as process questions, tracking sequences,
teaching, coaching, and directives with a family. They value information about past relationships as a
significant context from which they design interventions in the present.
The following select techniques have been used in working with couples and families to stimulate change or
gain greater information about the family system. Each technique should be judiciously applied and viewed
as not a cure, but rather a method to help mobilize the family. The when, where, and how of each
intervention always rests with the therapist's professional judgment and personal skills.

OBSERVATION
Family units establish equilibriums to protect the family unit, but that equilibrium can cause an imbalance
for individual parts of the family. A clinical psychologist is trained to observed the family dynamic and
monitor both verbal and non-verbal cues. During the assessment phase and initial interviews, the family
systems psychologist will monitor how the parents interact with each other and how their children react to
them. He or she will compare his or her observations with testing data offered in both subjective and
objective forms. The subjective test data is gathered during the interview while the objective test data is
gathered via clinical tests that family members are requested to fill out and return to the psychologist.
Observation is an effective family therapy technique because it offers the psychologist the first real window
into the family dynamic. Family therapy may be recommended for any number of causes, but for the
psychologist to make a fair and accurate assessment, he or she must get a base measurement of the family's
interactions, emotional balance and initial dysfunction. During observation, for example, it may be revealed
that a mother's depression and need for anti-anxiety medication is due in part to her husband's
unemployment and the economic pressure she is overcompensating to fulfill. To create an effective
treatment plan for the family, the therapist needs as much data as possible.

IDENTIFICATION
Family therapy techniques are used with individuals and families to address the issues that effect the health
of the family system. The techniques used will depend on what issues are causing the most problems for a
family and on how well the family has learned to handle these issues.
Strategic techniques are designed for specific purposes within the treatment process. Background
information, family structuring and communication patterns are some of the areas addressed through these
methods.

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