Family Therapy

Front 1

Accomidation

Back 1

elements of a system tend to adjust to coordinate their functioning; people may have to work at it.

Front 2

Boundary

Back 2

emotional barriers that protect and enhance the integrity of individuals, subsystems, and families.

Front 3

Cross-generational coalition

Back 3

an inappropriate alliance between a parent and child who side together against a third member of the family.

Front 4

disengagement

Back 4

psychological isolation that results from overly rigid boundaries around individuals or subsystems in a family.

Front 5

enactment

Back 5

an interaction stimulated in structural family therapy in order to observe and then change transactions that make up family structure.

Front 6

enmeshment

Back 6

loss of autonomy due to a blurring of psychological boundaries.

Front 7

family structure

Back 7

the functional organization of families that determines how family members interact.

Front 8

hierachy

Back 8

structural organization in which there is a clear executive subsystem, in families usually (but not always) the parents.

Front 9

intensity

Back 9

Minuchin's term for challenging maladaptive interactions using strong affect, repeated intervention, or prolonged pressure.

Front 10

joining

Back 10

accepting and accommodating to families in order to gain their trust and circumvent resistance.

Front 11

reframing

Back 11

relabeling a family's description of behavior to make it more amenable to therapeutic change; for example, describing someone as "having a strong voice" rather than "domineering."

Front 12

shaping competence

Back 12

reinforcing positives rather than confronting deficiencies.

Front 13

structure

Back 13

recurrent patterns of interaction that define and stabilize the shape of relationships.

Front 14

subsystem

Back 14

smaller units in families, determined by generation, gender, or function.

Front 15

complaintants

Back 15

a client who complains about a problem, but thinks that someone else has to solve it.

Front 16

compliments

Back 16

often phrased as questions – “Wow, how did you do that?” – to call attention to what clients have already managed to accomplish.

Front 17

coping questions

Back 17

questions like “How did you manage that” designed to draw attention to resilience.

Front 18

customer

Back 18

a client who not only complains about a problem but is motivated to resolve it.

Front 19

exception

Back 19

De Shazer’s term for times when clients are temporarily free from their problems; focusing on exceptions helps clients build on successful problem-solving skills.

Front 20

formula first session task

Back 20

asking clients at the end of the first session to think about what they do not want to change about their lives as a result of therapy; this focuses them on existing strengths.

Front 21

miracle question

Back 21

asking clients to imagine how things would be if they woke up tomorrow and their problems were solved; used to help clients identify goals and potential solutions.

Front 22

problem talk

Back 22

focusing on problems and trying to discover their causes, which solution-focused therapists see as counterproductive.

Front 23

reframing

Back 23

relabeling a family's description of behavior to make it more amenable to therapeutic change; for example, describing a child as "disobedient" rather than "hyperactive."

Front 24

scaling questions

Back 24

clients are asked to rate how much they want to resolve their problems, how bad the problem is, how much better it is, and so on; used to break change into small steps.

Front 25

solution talk

Back 25

conversations about dealing effectively with problems.

Front 26

visitor

Back 26

someone who’s not really interested in therapy, doesn’t see that they have a problem or that they need to change; such people usually only come to therapy, reluctantly, at someone else’s insistence.

Front 27

deconstruction

Back 27

exploring meaning by unpacking taken-for-granted categories and assumptions, making possible new and sounder constructions of meaning.

Front 28

dominant story

Back 28

a term used to describe one’s principal (helpful or hindering) view of the world.

Front 29

externalization

Back 29

a technique used to separate clients from their symptoms, and thought to enable them and those around them to discover times when they have overcome their problems.

Front 30

hermeneutics

Back 30

the activity of understanding achieved through the interpretation of narrative.

Front 31

mapping the influence of the problem

Back 31

getting the story of the toll the problem has taken on the clients.

Front 32

mapping the family members influence of on problem

Back 32

tracking the ways the clients have been able to deal with the problem.

Front 33

relative influence questions

Back 33

questions designed to explore the extent to which the problem has dominated the client versus how much he or she has been able to control it.

Front 34

social constructionalism

Back 34

a perspective that knowing and knowledge are socially constructed through language and discourse and are context dependent.

Front 35

reflecting team

Back 35

Tom Andersen’s technique of having the observing team share their reactions with the family following a session.

Front 36

unique outcome

Back 36

Michael White’s term for times when clients acted free of their problems, even if they were unaware of doing so; identified to help clients challenge negative views of themselves.