Selected Essays And Book Reviews
COUN 601 - Marriage and Family Counseling
Lesson 25. Cognitive Behavioral Family Counseling {761 words}
1. Discuss the important definitions of cognitive behavioral counseling.
A. Circular Questioning - a method of interviewing developed by the Milan associates in which questions are asked to highlight differences among family members. This is asking people what they think.
B. Family Ritual - a technique used by the Milan group that prescribes a specific act for family members to perform. It is designed to change the family system's rules. It can be a very positive act, something that they can do regularly as a way to change the family's rules.
C. Family Rules - a descriptive term for redundant behavioral patterns (not necessarily negative).
D. First Order Change - a superficial change in a system that stays invariant.
E. Second Order Change - a basic change in the structure and functioning of the system. These therapists try to get to this point, but there may be a problem with this attempt.
F. Positive Connotation - Selvini Palazolli's technique of ascribing positive motives to family behavior to promote family cohesion and avoid resistance to therapy.
G. Pretend Techniques - Cloe Madanes playful intervention whereby family members are asked to pretend to engage in symptomatic behavior. The paradox is, if they are pretending to have symptoms, the symptoms cannot be real. If the family can see that the symptom is not real, then they may start to fight against it.
H. Restraining - a strategic technique for overcoming resistance by suggesting that the family not change. Another paradoxical technique where the therapist suggests that the member not move in order to get them to move.
2. Discuss the three groups of cognitive behavioral family counseling. These groups focus on problems in the family and try to find the techniques to solve it. They do not necessarily concern themselves with insight. The groups are the MRI Group, the Haley and Madanes Group (Strategic), and the Milan Group. The book "Process of Change" was more from the Milan Group school of thought.
3. Discuss Milton Erickson. Erickson was influencial in focusing on problems and issues. Some techniques in cognitive behavioral theory are based on his theories.
4. Discuss the MRI group. They were concerned with how problems develop. They look for positive feedback loops that support unhealthy behaviors in the family. They look for family rules that are maintaining the problem. They try to change the feedback loops (positive and negative) through reframing.
5. Discuss the Haley and Madanes Group (strategic). This group was supported by Haley and Madanes. It integrates structural family therapy and is very problem focused. Haley was involved with structural family therapy, and he was a functionalist. This group functions on feedback loops and family rules. Haley believed that therapy should progress through stages. Madanes knew that people had wants in life, and he believed that those wants created symptoms.
6. Discuss the Milan Group. This group was a paradoxical group that focused on power and games. They were interested in the development of symptoms so that they could define better games. They looked for covert alliances and covert coalitions, and they would even look for solutions from previous generations of the family.
7. Discuss normal family development. The MRI group did not believe in normal family development. The Strategic Group believed that the family life cycle was the key to normal development. The family should try to successfully handle each cycle. The Milan Group also did not believe in normal family development. They simply tried to decide what was normal for the particular family that they were working with.
8. Discuss the behavior disorders of this theory. The MRI group said that the disorders resulted from positive feedback loops or just feedback loops that are unhealthy. The Strategic Group said that family hierarchies and boundaries were the key to understanding family disorders. The Milan Group believed that disorders developed because family members tried to protect other family members, family secrets, or each other.
9. Discuss eclecticism. Eclecticism borrows from all theories, but the beginning counselor should pick a single primary theory, use that, and then, integrate into it.
Tom of Bethany
"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13)
Index to Selected Essays And Book Reviews
GLA 6. Integrating Christianity with Marriage and Family Therapy
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