Family Therapy History, Theory, and Practice 6th Edition Gladding – Test Bank

Family Therapy History, Theory, and Practice 6th Edition Gladding – Test Bank

Chapter 1
The History of Family Therapy: Evolution and Revolution

Chapter Overview

Family Therapy Through the Decades

• Prior to the development of marriage and family therapy as a profession, older family members assisted younger members and adult family members cared for the very young and the very old
• Before 1940
 focus in the United States was on the individual
 society utilized clergy, lawyers, and doctors for advice and counsel
 prevailing individual theories were psychoanalysis and behaviorism
• Catalysts for the growth of family therapy
 courses in family life education became popular
 establishment of marriage and family training programs (e.g., Marriage Council of Philadelphia in 1932)
 founding of the National Council on Family Relations in 1938 and the journal Marriage and Family Living in 1939
 county home extension agents educated and promoted understanding family dynamics
• Family therapy: 1940 to 1949
 establishment of the American Association of Marriage Counselors in 1942
 first account of concurrent marital counseling published in 1948 by Bela Mittleman
 research on families with a schizophrenic member by Theodore Litz
 National Mental Health Act of 1946 funded research on prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health disorders
• Family therapy: 1950 to 1959
 individual leaders dominated the profession
 Nathan Ackerman used a psychoanalytical approach to understand and treat families
 Gregory Bateson studied communication patterns in families with a schizophrenic member and developed the double bind theory
 double bind theory – two seemingly contradictory messages may exist simultaneously and lead to confusion
 Mental Research Institute was created by Don Jackson in Palo Alto, CA
 changed problem conceptualization from a pathology oriented individual perspective to a more relationship based orientation
 brief therapy developed at MRI as one of the first new approaches to family therapy
 Carl Whitaker pushed the conventional envelope by seeing spouses and children in therapy
 set up the first family therapy conference at Sea Island, GA
 Murray Bowen studied families with schizophrenic members
 held therapy sessions with all family members present
 pioneered theoretical thinking on the influence of previous generations on the mental health of families
 Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy developed contextual therapy focusing on the healing of human relationships through trust and commitment
• Family therapy: 1960 to 1969
 An era of rapid growth in family therapy
 Increase in training centers and academic programs in family therapy
 Jay Haley, expanding on the work of Milton Erikson, developed strategic family therapy
 emphasis on the therapist gaining and maintaining power during treatment
 strategic therapy uses directives to assist clients to go beyond gaining insight
 edited Family Process from 1961 to 1969, providing a means for to keep professions linked and informed
 Haley joined with Salvador Minuchin at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic in the late 1960’s
 Salvador Minuchin developed structural family therapy, based on his work with the Wiltwyck School for Boys
 utilized minority community members as paraprofessionals to better relate to urban blacks and Hispanics
 Virginia Satir was the only woman among the family therapy pioneers
 started seeing family members as a group in the 1950’s
 utilized touch and nurtured her clients, emphasizing self-esteem, compassion, and affective congruence
 published Conjoint Family Therapy in 1964 which stressed the importance of seeing distressed couples together at the same time
 Virginia Satir was an influential, charismatic leader
 Carl Whitaker pioneered unconventional, spontaneous, sometimes outrageous appearing approaches, designed to help families achieve freedom and growth
 Family Process co-founded in 1961 by Don Jackson and Nathan Ackerman
 Nathan Ackerman published Treating the Troubled Family in 1966, advocating closer therapist involvement with families during treatment, being confrontive, and making covert issues overt
 John Bell developed a family group therapy model, advocated that children 9 years and older should participate in family therapy, and offered one of the first graduate family therapy courses in the United States
 Murray Bowen discovered that emotional reactivity in many families created undifferentiated family ego mass (i.e., family members have difficulty maintaining their individual identities and actions)
• Systems theory developed by Ludwig Von Bertalanffy in 1968
 a way of looking at all parts of an organism simultaneously
 a set of elements standing in interaction with one another
 each element of a system is affected by what happens to any other element
 the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
 became the basis for most family therapy
 less reliance on linear causality (direct cause and effect)
 increased emphasis on circular causality (events are related through a series of repeating cycles or loops)
 family therapists seen as a specialists within the field
 first license regulating family therapists granted in California in 1963
• Institutes and training centers
 Mental Research Institute continues its work in training and research
 Family Therapy Institute of New York established with Nathan Ackerman as director
 Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic developed innovative supervision techniques such as the ‘bug in the ear”
 Family Therapy Institute of Philadelphia founded in 1964, merging the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute and the Family Institute of Philadelphia
 Boston Family Institute founded by Fred Duhl and David Kantor, focusing on expressive and dramatic interventions and originating the family sculpting technique
 Institute for Family Studies in Milan, Italy formed in 1967
 an MRI based model that developed many innovative short term approaches
• Family therapy: 1970 to 1979
 rapid growth in AAMFT based partly on recognition as an accrediting body for marriage and family training programs
 The American Association of Marriage and Family Counselors (AAMFC) changed its name to the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) in 1977
 Journal of Marital and Family Therapy founded by AAMFT in 1974