How to Coach Yourself and Others Coaching Families | Page 51

The Principle of Complementarity
The idea that family members are interdependent, influencing and being influenced by each other, is not
unique to BSFT. Using different terminology, the theoretical approach underlying behaviorally oriented
family treatments might explain these mutual influences as family members both serving as stimuli for and
eliciting responses from one another (Hayes et al. 1999). The theoretical approach underlying existential
family treatments might describe this influence as family members either supporting or constraining the
growth of other family members (Lantz and Gregoire 2000). What distinguishes BSFT from behaviorally
oriented and existential family treatments is its focus on the family system rather than on individual
functioning.
BSFT assumes that a drug-abusing adolescent will improve his or her behavior when the family learns how
to behave adaptively. This will happen because family members, who are "linked" emotionally, are
behaviorally responsive to each other's actions and reactions. In BSFT, the Principle of Complementarity
holds that for every action by a family member there is a corresponding reaction from the rest of the family.
For instance, often children may have learned to coerce parents into reinforcing their negative behavior--for
example, by throwing a temper tantrum and stopping only when the parents give in (Patterson 1982;
Patterson and Dishion 1985; Patterson et al. 1992). Only when the parents change their behavior and stop
reinforcing or "complementing" negative behavior will the child change.
Structure: Patterns of Family Interaction
An exchange among family members, either through actions or conversations, is called an interaction. In
time, interactions become habitual and repetitive, and thus are referred to as patterns of interaction
(Minuchin 1974). Patterns of family interaction are the habitual and repeated behaviors family members
engage in with each other. More specifically, the patterns of family interaction are comprised of linked
chains of behavior that occur among family members. A simple example can be illustrated by observing that
family members choose to sit at the same place at the dinner table every day. Where people sit may make it
easier for them to speak with each other and not with others. Consequently, a repetitive pattern of
interaction reflected in a "sitting" pattern is likely to predict the "talking" pattern. A large number of these
patterns of interaction will develop in any system. In families, this constellation of repetitive patterns of
interaction is called the family "structure."
The repetitive patterns of interaction that make up a family's structure function like a script for a play that
the actors have read, memorized, and re-enact constantly. When one actor says a certain line from the script
or performs a certain action, that is the cue for other actors to recite their particular lines or perform their
particular actions. The family's structure is the script for the family play.
Families of drug-abusing adolescents tend to have problems precisely because they continue to interact in
ways that allow the youths to misbehave. BSFT counselors see the interactions between family members as
maintaining or failing to correct problems, and so they make these interactions the targets of change in
therapy. The adaptiveness of an interaction is defined in terms of the degree to which it permits the family
to respond effectively to changing circumstances.

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