How to Coach Yourself and Others Coaching Families | Page 75

member to the next available family member to the next one and so on. This following, or tracking, is done
without challenging the family patterns of interaction. Rather, tracking is accomplished by gaining the
permission of one family member to reach the others.
Establishing a Therapeutic Alliance
An effective way for the counselor to establish a therapeutic alliance they want to solve their problems and
that the counselor wants the same thing. It must be recognized, however, that each family member may
view the problem differently. For example, the mother may want to get her son to quit using drugs, while
the son may want peace at home.
A therapeutic alliance is built around individual goals that family members can reach in therapy. Ideally, the
counselor and the family members agree on a goal, and therapy is offered in the framework of achieving
that goal. However, in families in which members are in conflict over their goals, it is necessary to find
something for each of them to achieve in