Structural Theory / Structural Family Therapy

1. STRUCTURAL
THEORY
M S . L O R E N A L . C A N T O N G
M A E D G C

2. • Born and raised in Argentina of
European immigrant parents
• Minuchin set out to practice pediatrics
following his medical training.
• Volunteered his services to Israel and
served as an army doctor for 18
months in the war with the Arab
nations.

3. • Back in the united states once again in 1954,
Minuchin began psychoanalytic training at the
William Alanson white institute
• Intake psychiatrist at the Wiltwyck School, a
residential school for delinquent adolescents outside
new York city
• Philadelphia child guidance clinic has the distinction
of being the first clinic in the United States
• Minuchin has now retired to Florida, but continues to
lecture around the world.

4. MINUCHIN’S (1974) VIEWPOINT:
• The structural approach to families is based on the
concept that a family is more than the individual bio
psychodynamics of its members.
• Family members relate according to certain
arrangements, which govern their transactions.
• The reality of the structure is of a different order from
the reality of the individual members.

5. STRUCTURALISTS ARE INTERESTED IN :
•How the components of a system interact
•How balance or homeostasis is achieved
•How family feedback mechanisms operate
•How dysfunctional communication patterns
develop

6. FAMILY
STRUCTURE

7. family’s structure is the invisible or covert set of
functional demands or codes that organizes the way
family members interact with one another (Minuchin,
1974)
FAMILY STRUCTURE

8. A family’s transactional patterns regulate the behavior of its
members, and are maintained by two sets of constraints:
 Generic Or Universal Rules
 Idiosyncratic Or Individualized Rules

9. The degree to which the needs and abilities of both
spouses dovetail and reciprocal role relations provide
satisfaction are key factors in harmonious family
functioning.
COMPLEMENTARITY

10. Here some feminists take exception to Minuchin’s insistence on family
hierarchies, claiming that they run the risk of reinforcing sex role stereotypes
 FATHER - “instrumental”role (e.g., making managerial
decisions
 MOTHER- expressive”roles (caring for the family’s
emotional needs)

11. FAMILY
SUBSYSTEMS

12. • Subsystems, then, are components of a family’s
structure; they exist to carry out various family tasks
necessary for the functioning of the overall family
system.
• Subsystems are defined by interpersonal boundaries
and rules for membership; in effect, they regulate the
amount of contact with other subsystems
• Subsystem organization within a family provides
valuable training in developing a sense of self, in the
process of honing interpersonal skills at different
levels.

13. • They may be based on temporary alliances and
may have rules concerning exclusion
• They may be more enduring with clearly defined
boundaries separating the two generations

14. Family subsystem divisions are made according to :
 gender (male/female),
 generation (parents/children)
 common interests (intellectual/social),
 function (who is responsible for what chores).

15. Important Subsystems In The Family:
 The Spousal Subsystems
 Parental Subsystems
 Sibling Subsystems

16. Family’s stability may depend upon the strength and
durability of spousal subsystem.
SPOUSAL SUBSYSTEM

17. The arrival of children forces the couple to transform their system to
parental subsystem
It is crucial at the start and throughout parenting that, whatever the
demands of child rearing and the efforts expended toward the
evolvement of an effective parental subsystem, the parents continue to
work at maintaining and strengthening their spousal subsystem, which is
fundamental to family well-being.
PARENTAL SUBSYSTEM

18. The offers the first experience of being part of a peer group and
learning to support, cooperate, and protect (along with compete,
fight with, and negotiate differences).
SIBLING SUBSYSTEM

19. BOUNDARY
PERMEABILITYdegree of accessibility helps determine the
nature and frequency of contact between family
members.

20.  the clarity enhances the family’s overall well-
being.
 It helps the family maintain separateness and
at the same time emphasize belongingness to
the overall family system.
Clearly Defined Boundaries

21. Also known as disengagement
Lead to impermeable barriers between
subsystems.
 the worlds of parents and children—the
generational hierarchy— are separate and
distinct; the members of neither subsystem are
willing or able to enter into the other’s world.
Excessively Rigid Or Inflexible Boundaries

22. excessively blurred, indistinct and easily
intruded upon by other family members.
There is no clear generational hierarchy,
adults and children may exchange roles
easily, and a member’s sense of self or
personal identity becomes hard to
establish for later adulthood
Diffuse Boundaries (enmeshment)

23. ALIGNMENTS,
POWER, AND
COALITIONS

24.  It is defined by the way family members join
together or oppose one another in carrying out a
family activity.
 refer to how supportive or unsupportive of one
another the players are in carrying out an
 It is the emotional or psychological connections
family members make with one another.

25.  Considered Dysfunctional
 Each parent demands the child ally
with him or her against the other
parent.
Triangulation

26.  It has to do with both authority (who is the
decision maker) and responsibility (who carries
the decision).
 It speaks to the relative influence of each family
member on an operation’s outcome.
 Power is also related to the way family members
actively or passively combine forces.

27. arealliances between specific family members against a third
member
It is a fixed and
inflexible
union (such as mother
and son) that becomes
a dominant part of the
family’s everyday
functioning.
It is one in which the pair
hold a third family member
responsible for their
difficulties or conflicts with
one another, thus
decreasing
the stress on themselves or

28. FAMILY
DYSFUNCTION
A dysfunctional family by definition has failed to fulfill its purpose of
nurturing the growth of its members (Colapinto, 1991)

29. DYSFUNCTIONALFAMILY STRUCTURES:
 Enmeshed families;
 Disengaged families
 Families with noninvolvedparents
 Families with juvenileparents.

30. STRUCTURAL
FAMILY THERAPY

31. Two particularly noteworthy contributions to family
therapy practice :
(a)poor families, including those living in “chaotic
slums,”
(b) families that have become fragmented or under
organized
Aponte and DiCesare (2000)

32. WHEN IT IS USED ?
Families and children at risk, including single parents,
blended families, and extended families, can benefit
from SFT. Settings for SFT include private practice,
mental health clinics, substance abuse programs, child
welfare agencies, and schools.

33. Structuralists Therapeutic Order:
1. Joining And Accommodating
2. Assessing Family Interactions
3. Monitoring Family Dysfunctional Sets
4. Restructuring Transactional Patterns

34. Joining and Accommodating
Joining a family system and respectfully accommodating to its style

35. Mimesis (Greek for “copy”)
refers to the process of joining the family by imitating the
manner, style, affective range, or content of its communications
in order to solidify the therapeutic alliance with them.
The therapist might tell of personal experiences (“I have an uncle like that”) or
mimic a family member’s behavior (taking off his coat, sitting In a particular position, playing
with the baby).

36. Assessing Family Interactions
structural map is a simple pictorial device to formulate hypotheses about those areas where
the family functions well and other areas where dysfunction may be occurring.

37. FAMILY MAPPING
It often helps provide an
organizing schema for
understanding complex family
interactive patterns—especially
which particular subsystem is
involved in perpetuating a
problem—and as such may be
invaluable in therapeutic planning.
FIGURE 10.1 Minuchin’s symbols for family mapping

38. Monitoring Family Dysfunctional Sets
Monitoring and helping to modify troubled or problematic transaction patterns is the
crux of the structural intervention process

39.  Boundary making represents an effort to create greater psychological distance
between the enmeshed mother and daughter, and by bringing the marginalized
closer, to begin to modify the family’s customary transactional patterns.
 Unbalancing—goal is to change the hierarchical relationships of the members of a
subsystem
 Tracking, the structural therapist adopts symbols of the family’s life gathered from
members’ communication (such as life themes, values, significant family events)
and deliberately uses them in conversation with the family
 Enactment- it is where the therapist actively creates a scenario during a session in
which the players act out their dysfunctional transactions rather than simply describe
them (Colapinto, 2000)
Structural Techniques

40. Restructuring Transactional Patterns
Reframing, changes the original meaning of an event or situation, placing it in a new
context in which an equally plausible explanation Is possible

41. THANK YOU !