How to Coach Yourself and Others Coaching Families | Page 134
Salvador Minuchin’s Structural Family
Therapy
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Structural Family Therapy (SFT) is a method of psychotherapy developed by Salvador Minuchin which
addresses problems in functioning within a family. Structural Family Therapists strive to enter, or "join", the
family system in therapy in order to understand the invisible rules which govern its functioning, map the
relationships between family members or between subsets of the family, and ultimately disrupt
dysfunctional relationships within the family, causing it to stabilize into healthier patterns. Minuchin
contends that pathology rests not in the individual, but within the family system.
SFT utilizes, not only a unique systems terminology, but also a means of depicting key family parameters
diagrammatically. Its focus is on the structure of the family, including its various substructures. In this
regard, Minuchin is a follower of systems and communication theory, since his structures are defined by
transactions among interrelated systems within the family. He subscribes to the systems notions of
wholeness and equifinality, both of which are critical to his notion of change. An essential trait of SFT is
that the therapist actually enters, or "joins", with the family system as a catalyst for positive change. Joining
with a family is a goal of the therapist early on in his or her therapeutic relationship with the family.
Contents
1 Family Rules
2 Therapeutic Goals and Techniques
3 See also
4 References
Family Rules
Consider the human body’s complexity and how a change in one physiological component alters and
impacts so many other parts. The interrelation and interdependence of parts are integrally related so that the
body’s ability to function at all depends on an intricate web of connectedness.
Now consider a family, perhaps a mother, father, and child (or children), and think of them as one human
body – an organism, or a whole. One component of the family, or one individual, simply cannot be
separated or understood in isolation. One individual affects all others; everyone’s deeply embedded
emotional and behavioral processes seamlessly wired together.
Family systems professionals and therapists describe the family as a complex and interconnected system.
Maladaptive behaviors are connected, and therefore likely to affect and create “dis-ease” in other areas – if
not a