Structural family therapy. Structural family therapists identify a wide range of family dysfunctional transactions. Structural family therapy sft is a treatment that addresses patterns of interaction that create problems within families. This workshop presents and illustrates the main concepts and change strategies of the model and its application in mental health and child welfare settings. There are a number of different methods of family therapy among which structural family therapy or sft created by salvador minuchin is the most distinguished.
The two main types at each end of a behavioral spectrum are. Three important concepts in sft are family structure family subsystem and boundaries. Areas of intervention include the family structure rules and family patterns. This dysfunction identifies a family structure that is smothering and overly close.
Structural family therapy family therapy gives importance to the structure and organization of a family in order to address its psychological and emotional needs. This dysfunction identifies a family structure that is extremely distant. Structural therapy deploys family mapping to accommodate andor join family settings. 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.
Structural family therapy is the one major systemic model that developed within settings where the primary client is a child. Family structure is dependent on the repeated interactions in the family and its. Overviews theoretical concepts and clinical interventions in structural family therapy and illustrates both through an analysis of a 1st interview with an anorexic 16 yr old and her parents. Summary of important concepts about structural family therapy salvador minuchin developed structural family therapy sft.
Mental health issues are viewed as signs of a dysfunctional family. 181 by using their own resources.