According to the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, nearly two million people are being treated at any given time through family therapy. Out of those clients, the report of successful outcomes is high, over 90%.
Family therapy has shown great success due to the multiple techniques used by licensed therapists. There is not a one size fits all treatment method because not all families are the same. In some cases, "family" members are not even blood relatives. Today, families consist of step-parents, half-siblings, adopted, and foster relationships.
Marriage and Family Therapists will assess your family's needs and choose techniques that will support positive growth within your family's unique dynamic.
Some of the techniques used in family therapy are listed below.
Structural Therapy
Every person in your family has a role. Parents are expected to be leaders, children follow parental guidance, and as they mature, there should be some overlap in the family structure. Other roles include that of financial provider, nurturer, decision-makers, physical resources provider, and problem solver, or mediator.
These are just a few of the many functions crucial to the structure of a family.
Many times, family members are given roles that are not suitable for them, leading to failure. Not all dads are natural-born leaders. Expecting them to lead when the mom may be stronger suited better may hinder the family. A therapist can help each of your family members find the roles that highlight their strengths and natural abilities.
Narrative Therapy
Each member of your family has the positive skills and talents they possess. In narrative therapy, your marriage and family therapist will help each family member recognize their unique gifts and teach them how to use those gifts to overcome obstacles that affect them personally or as a family.
Narrative therapy helps you become an expert in your own life. You get to discover your strengths and more problematic areas. You get to make positive changes. You get to experience the rewards. By changing your narrative, you, in turn, change the story of your relationship with your family.
Transgenerational Therapy
Let us face it, younger generations think older generations are out of touch with reality, and vice versa. Belief systems change over time, creating division among generations. Our ancestors' way is not the way we live today and not the way our future generations will live.
In some cases, the beliefs, values, and attitudes handed down from one generation to the next can be destructive, even unintentionally.
Transgenerational therapy helps family members recognize dysfunctional belief systems and overcome conflicts between the generations.
This type of therapy may also be used alongside Milan Therapy, but either can be used alone too.
Milan Therapy
Therapists can assist families in making changes in how they interact and how these interactions influence individual behaviors. A dominant family member may produce fear in other family members. This fear controls how someone behaves or doesn’t behave.
If everyone in the family is scared of the grandfather, they are less likely to speak or act in a way that will anger him. Family members may not even realize this dynamic exists. That’s where a marriage and family therapist comes in. They can help everyone recognize what is happening and help you improve this type of interaction.
Strategic Therapy
How you communicate and interact with each of your family members develop into patterns over time. If harmful, interaction patterns can damage relationships.
With strategic therapy, your counselor will examine the many different ways your family interacts. He or she will then teach you how to recognize negative interactions, and change them to more positive ones.
Strategic therapy finds the problem and the solution. Therapists focus on identifying the problem, setting goals, defining steps to reach the goals, and analyzing the outcome. You will not be focusing on the past and the issues that lead you to the problem. Instead, you are focused only on moving forward. This may include resolving the challenge of learning to live successfully despite the difficulty.
For example, while you and your sibling are arguing, your therapist notices the negative body language you both exhibit. You turn your body in the opposite direction of your sibling, and they wrap their arms up close to their body. Because negative body language can hinder communication among family members, your therapist will help you recognize this behavior and replace them with positive actions, like making eye contact or moving closer together.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT or talk therapy is most often associated with individual treatment. However, it can be an excellent tool for family therapy too.
The goal of CBT is to change thoughts, so that feelings or emotions will improve, and therefore, behaviors will improve. Some families have a collective way of thinking that can be damaging and cause family members to react in a harmful way.
Some refer to this as a generational legacy, or thoughts passed down between family members that create destructive patterns.
Let's say your parents always worried about money and never allowed you to join extracurricular activities such as sports or clubs. Now that you are a parent, you find yourself constantly worrying about money. Your children want to join clubs with their friends and clubs that could enrich their lives, but you are fearful of spending the required payment.
The negative thoughts about spending money held by your parents have now become your thoughts. Before you pass these same fears down to your kids, take action to change the way you think about money.
CBT helps you restructure your thinking in this example, about money so you can feel good about spending, saving, and even giving.
In conclusion, family therapy can benefit all families, no matter how big or small, and no matter what issues exist. Because there are so many techniques from which to choose, your therapist can find the one that will improve your overall relationships.
With the right techniques, change within your family can happen.