How to Coach Yourself and Others Coaching Families | Page 38

Models and Schools
Family therapists and counselors use a range of methods and over the years a number of models or schools
of family therapy have developed.
A well-known classification of these approaches is described by Gurman and Kniskern (1991):
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Behavioural Family Therapy
Bowen theory
Brief Therapy: MRI
Contextual Therapy
Eriscksonian Family Therapy
Focal Family Therapy
Milan Systemic Therapy
Family Psychoeducational Therapy
Strategic Therapy
Structural Therapy
Symbolic-Experiential Therapy

Some contemporary family therapies:
Structural Family Therapy (Minuchin, 1974, Colapinto, 1991)
In this type of therapy, the structural therapist believes that change of behaviour is most important.
Therapy begins with the therapist “joining” with the family. He or she has the purpose to enhance the
feeling of worth of individual family members. The therapist must attune himself or herself to the families
value systems and existing hierarchies. After “joining”, the therapist challenges “how things are done“
and begins restructuring the family by offering alternative, more functional ways of behaving.
Conjoint Family Therapy (Satir, 1967)
Conjoint family therapy works with personal experiences and helps experiencing the value of the
individual within the family system. Therapists use all levels of communication to express the relational
qualities present in the family to achieve change in family system. This approach uses many feeling and
communication exercises and games, for example family sculpture.
Contextual Therapy (Boszormenyi-Nagy, 1991)
In the contextual approach the word “context“ indicates the dynamic connectedness of a person with her
or his significant relationships, the long-term relational involvement as well as the person’s
relatedness to his or her multigenerational roots. The therapist encourages family members to explore
their own multilaterality.
Strategic Therapy (Madanes, 1981)
In this approach, the therapist considers the therapy in terms of step-by-step change in the way from one
type of abnormal organisation to another type before a more normal organisation is finally achieved.
For a strategic therapist two questions are basic: How is the symptom “helping” the family to maintain a
balance or overcome a crisis? How can the symptom be replaced by a more effective solution of the
problem?

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