Strategic Family Therapy is a modality of family therapy that focuses on problem-solving in relationship dynamics and utilizing behavioral solutions to facilitate change in the family. There are three prominent models of Strategic Family Therapy, through the Mental Research Institute, the teachings of Jay Haley and Cloé Madanes, and the Milan Systemic Model as posited by Mara Selvini Palazzoli, Gianfranco Cecchin, Luigi Boscolo, and Giuliana Prata.
Strategic Family Therapy emphasizes the constant communication in a system, even the withdrawing of vocal communication as a form of communicating. There is the function of a report and command, a report being the content of what is communicated, and the command referring to the relational pattern that contextualizes the report, such as how it is said or the indirect messages being implied by what is said or asked. These patterns develop into family rules, a concept that emerged from Structural Family Therapy: "family rules are defined as an invisible set of functional demands that persistently organizes the interaction of the family." [1]
Haley and Madanes focused heavily on the function of the symptoms presented on how they affect the family system. Family attempts to solve and decrease these symptoms can further perpetuate the issues if they are not successful.
There is less emphasis on insight and more emphasis on behavioral change and noticing patterns of behavior that are perpetuated in feedback loops. The Strategic therapist works with the family on not only accomplishing First-Order Change (immediate behavioral change) but also Second-Order Change (changes in the structure, family rules, the system altogether that holds the behavioral issues in place). In other words, the system created by the family must be changed, or solutions for behavioral problems may not hold.
Quoting Richard Niolon: "There are three models for problem development:
a. cybernetic (runaway positive feedback loops)
b. structural (flawed family hierarchies)
c. functional (one member develops symptoms to control others)
The MRI use only the cybernetic model, Haley and Madanes use all 3 but Haley stresses the structural and Madanes the functional, and the Milan's use both structural and functional.
Example: Tommy is 16 and has recently refused to go out of the house. 1. MRI would focus on getting Tommy out, believing the parents attempted solutions kept him home.
2. Haley and Madanes would focus on the triadic relationship between Tommy and his 2 parents. Haley would wonder about the parents unresolved conflicts and marital struggles, Madanes would wonder about how Tommy staying home helped one or both of his parents.
3. Milan would focus on the family's history and hidden power struggles, or family games, in which Tommy is embedded and has to stay home to help a family member "win." [2]
Jay Haley and Salvador Minuchin influenced one another and have similarities in their approaches. [3]
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Strategic family therapy as a short-term form of family therapy can be utilized with youths who struggle with behavioral issues such as drug addiction and delinquency. [4]
Cloé Madanes has taken her Strategic approach and, in collaboration with Tony Robbins, Mark Peysha, and Magali Peysha, developed a coaching method initially known as Strategic Intervention. [5]
Developmental disorders comprise a group of psychiatric conditions originating in childhood that involve serious impairment in different areas. There are several ways of using this term. The most narrow concept is used in the category "Specific Disorders of Psychological Development" in the ICD-10. These disorders comprise developmental language disorder, learning disorders, motor disorders, and autism spectrum disorders. In broader definitions ADHD is included, and the term used is neurodevelopmental disorders. Yet others include antisocial behavior and schizophrenia that begins in childhood and continues through life. However, these two latter conditions are not as stable as the other developmental disorders, and there is not the same evidence of a shared genetic liability.
Paul Watzlawick was an Austrian-American family therapist, psychologist, communication theorist, and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he commented in the fields of family therapy and general psychotherapy. Watzlawick believed that people create their own suffering in the very act of trying to fix their emotional problems. He was one of the most influential figures at the Mental Research Institute and lived and worked in Palo Alto, California.
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Salvador Minuchin was a family therapist born and raised in San Salvador, Entre Ríos, Argentina. He developed structural family therapy, which addresses problems within a family by charting the relationships between family members, or between subsets of family. These charts represent power dynamics as well as the boundaries between different subsystems. The therapist tries to disrupt dysfunctional relationships within the family, and cause them to settle back into a healthier pattern.
Jay Douglas Haley was one of the founding figures of Problem-solving brief therapy and family therapy in general and of the strategic model of psychotherapy, and he was one of the more accomplished teachers, clinical supervisors, and authors in these disciplines.
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The Palo Alto Mental Research Institute (MRI) is one of the founding institutions of brief and family therapy. Founded by Don D. Jackson and colleagues in 1958, MRI has been one of the leading sources of ideas in the area of interactional/systemic studies, psychotherapy, and family therapy.
Mara Selvini Palazzoli (1916–1999) was an Italian psychiatrist and founder in 1971, with Gianfranco Cecchin, Luigi Boscolo and Giuliana Prata, of the systemic and constructivist approach to family therapy which became known as the Milan family systemsapproach and more generally, the school of systemic family therapy. They were variously called the Milan Team or the Milan Associates. Mara Selvini Palazzoli and the Milan Team worked with serious psychiatric disorders in families with anorexic and schizophrenic members.
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.
Family therapy is a branch of psychotherapy focused on families and couples in intimate relationships to nurture change and development. It tends to view change in terms of the systems of interaction between family members.
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Cloé Madanes has an educational background specialising in family and grief therapy. She is currently collaborating with Tony Robbins (2002) to train strategic interventionists in finding solutions to resolve interpersonal conflict, prevent violence, and contribute to the creation of a more cohesive and civil community.
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