How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 397

move to the second phase of the therapy, which is: Restructuring the
family.

As Minuchin puts it: “Change is seen as occurring through the process
of the therapist’s affiliation with the family and his restructuring of the
family in a carefully planned way, so as to transform dysfunctional
transactional patterns.” (Minuchin (1974). Page 91
The therapist achieves two objectives by completing the joining process
successfully: she has won their trust in her and she has learned where
their transactional patterns are dysfunctional and may need to be
changed. From this position, having gotten to know the family, she can
decide how to bring about positive change. According to Minuchin,
“Patients move for three reasons. First, they are challenged in their
perception of reality. Second, they are given alternative possibilities
that make sense to them, and third, once they have tried out the
alternative transactional patterns, new relationships appear that are
self-reinforcing.” (Minuchin (1974), p 119

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