This document provides an overview of multifamily group therapy as an ancillary treatment modality to family therapy. It highlights the benefits of multifamily group therapy, including providing a less threatening treatment option, allowing families to observe and interact with one another, and fostering a normalizing experience. The document also outlines tips for facilitating multifamily group therapy, including setting up the room, setting the tone, and moving around to engage with families. Finally, it provides several examples of curriculum ideas that incorporate art therapy, genograms, enactments, and movement therapy to address topics like communication, boundaries, and self-esteem.

1. Multifamily Group:
An Ancillary Treatment Modality to Family Therapy
Presented to you by
David P Sanchez, Psy.D., LMFT
CEU State of Nevada Approved Training for MFT/CPC Board, Clinical
Psychology Board, & Social Work Board (October 2014)

2. Objectives
1) To highlight an alternative treatment model
that promotes family problem-solving
opportunities , promotes positive
communication, and fosters new ways of
family engagement.
2) To provide a conceptual framework and
lens on how to facilitate a multifamily
group.
3) To provide “YOU” (the facilitator) with
some initial tools to facilitate a multifamily
group.

3. Why Multifamily Group?
https://vimeo.com/66176642

4. Benefits of Multifamily Group
● Multifamily group is a less threatening
treatment option for some families as the
“spotlight” is not solely on an “identified”
family system.
● Multifamily group allows for different
family systems to observe and interact
with one another which promotes
“People Watching” that may result in new
ways of interacting with one’s own family
system.

5. Benefits of Multifamily Group
● Multifamily group provides a
structured forum for families to
learn and implement newly
acquired skills in a safe
environment where it’s okay to
make mistakes or ask for
assistance.
● Multifamily group fosters a
normalizing experience illustrating
that “we are not alone.”

6. Benefits of Multifamily Group
● Multifamily group fosters
activities for families to learn how
to play and interact with their
families in positive ways.
● Multifamily group fosters a sense
of family cohesion and intimacy
by nature of learning and being
tasked to work together as an
individual family system.

7. Benefits of Multifamily Group
● Multifamily group brings together
different family systems who may
potentially share resources with
one another and broaden their
informal support network by
meeting other families.

8. Multifamily Group Format
● Open or Closed group.
● Group time may run between
50-90 minutes.
● Number of participating family
systems may vary (if facilitating
alone keep numbers
manageable).

9. Facilitator Skills
→ Organized
→ Directive
→ Genuine
→ Empathetic
→ Sense of Humor
→ Flexible
→ Spontaneous

10. Facilitation: Helpful Hints
● Set up your room by aligning
tables in a pattern where individual
family systems will be sitting
alongside other families.
● Strategically place and intentionally
limit specific supplies related to
group activity throughout the tables
to promote interaction and
engagement between the different
family systems.

11. Facilitation: Helpful Hints
● Set the tone of the group from
the beginning (group
participation may be anxiety
provoking for some families).
→ Welcome, greet, and walk families
upon arrival into the group room.
→ Prepare and provide name tags for
all participants (know your audience).
Include the role of the family member.
i.e. brother, mother, grandfather

12. Facilitation: Helpful Hints
● Introduce yourself and have
participants introduce themselves
by sharing their first name and
what role they play in their
family.
● Introduce the group activity and
the objectives to be achieved by
participating in today’s
multifamily group.

13. Facilitation: Helpful Hints
● Know your group curriculum and
activity
→ Facilitation is a skill and needs to
be practiced and reinforced.
→ Families may inadvertently derail
the process and get you off topic or
side tracked.

14. Facilitation: Helpful Hints
● Move around your
room and engage,
observe, and
assess each family
system.
● Remain CURIOUS
and ask “who”
determined how
to move forward
and “how” the
family determined
a course of action.

15. Facilitation: Helpful Hints
● Determine if a co-facilitator is
necessary dependent upon size
of group and/or experience of the
facilitator.
● In a co-facilitation role
determine beforehand which
provider will be responsible for
progress noting on which family
systems.

16. Multifamily Group Treatment:
Clinical Considerations
● Assist families to learn healthy
“helpful” ways to interact and
communicate with each family
member to promote positive
family interactions.
● Assist families in identifying
family roles and establishing
learned boundaries supporting
each role within the family
system.

17. Multifamily Group Treatment:
Clinical Considerations
● Assists families in creating a
sense of family identity and
cohesion within the family unit.
● Assists learning and practicing
new parenting strategies.
● Assists families in developing
and implementing problem-
solving strategies to overcome
challenges.

18. Multifamily Group Treatment:
Curriculum Ideas
Topic 1: Identifying feelings and linking them to
appropriate behaviors by using ArtTherapy
Family’s break into their respective family dyads
and are asked to identify feelings and to create a
feelings poster. Family’s will then find in
magazines an action picture illustrating a behavior
that is an appropriate method of expression to
match w/ their specific feelings. Family’s will
discuss how the behavior is a means of
expression for their specific feelings found on
their feelings poster.

19. Multifamily Group Treatment:
Curriculum Ideas
Topic 2: Mapping Family History by using Genograms
Family’s break into their respective family dyads and are
asked to draw a family tree. Family’s should try to illustrate
in their family tree as many generations as possible. Through
words and pictures family’s will be asked to illustrate
attributes for each person and should be as descriptive as
possible. Facilitator will process with each family the
similarities and differences between their immediate family to
other family members. Facilitator will work with each family
dyad invoking discussion pertaining to “why” or “how” family
members became involved in certain activities or “why, how”
they possess certain attributes.

20. Multifamily Group Treatment:
Curriculum Ideas
Topic 3: Identifying and Fostering Healthy
Family Communication by using Enactments
Family’s break into their respective family dyads
and discuss with each other appropriate ways of
communicating that is accepted in their home.
Each family will be given a piece of paper so that
they may list all behaviors. Family’s will be asked
to choose one or two behaviors which they will
demonstrate in an enactment illustrating
appropriate, healthy, and positive exchanges of
family communication and interaction.

21. Multifamily Group Treatment:
Curriculum Ideas
Topic 4: Identifying healthy and
appropriate family boundaries and
interactions by using movie clips
The group will provide families w/ an
opportunity to view clips of movies
demonstrating healthy family interactions.
After watching a handful of clips the family’s
will break into their respective family dyads
and discuss ways in which their family
fosters positive communication and
interaction w/ one another.

22. Multifamily Group Treatment:
Curriculum Ideas
Topic 5: “Family Country” – establishing borders (boundaries),
creating infrastructure (hierarchy), and recognizing distances
between cities (roles/responsibilities) by using ArtTherapy.
Family’s work independently w/ their respective family members
designing their family country. The family country will be designed,
shaped, and named by the family. The family must label w/in their
country and along the borders of their country their appropriate
behaviors, which are allowed and encouraged to practice in their
country. Each family country will possess their borders, which are
identifying boundaries and behaviors between persons w/in their
country. Family’s will be asked to identify a position (role/job) for
each member in the family. Each position will have specific
responsibilities w/in the country supporting the development of
appropriate, healthy, and positive family communication and
interaction.

23. Multifamily Group Treatment:
Curriculum Ideas
Topic 6: Experiencing, Identifying, and Modeling
appropriate ways to express feelings to children as
parents using the Feelings Poster (Hand-Out).
Family’s are initially separated into their respective family
units. Facilitator/clinician provides the primary caregivers
with a “feelings poster” and instructs the parents to
demonstrate (act out) appropriate ways to demonstrate
each emotion found on the “feelings poster” to their
children. Facilitator/clinician directs the separate family units
to come together as one family unit and asks primary
caregivers to act out specific emotions found on the “feelings
poster.” The facilitator/clinician asks participants to identify
which emotion is the parent acting out found on the “feelings
poster.”

24. Multifamily Group Treatment:
Curriculum Ideas
Topic 7: Developing trust and increasing self-esteem through
the utilization of MovementTherapy and ArtTherapy.
The facilitator/clinician directs each family member to make a mask
that will be worn during the movement component of this exercise.
The mask is symbolic of how each family member presents
himself/herself to the outside world. The facilitator/clinician guides
the family through movement by using himself/herself as an active
participant moving spontaneously to the music being played. Each
family member is directed to move freely to the music and during
this exercise is directed to remove their mask. The removal of the
mask is indicative of the family member allowing himself/herself to
become vulnerable within their family system and within society at
large. The facilitator/clinician fosters conversation afterwards to
process the family’s experience.

25. Reference

26. Multifamily Group Treatment
Questions

27. Presenter’s Contact Information
David P. Sanchez, Psy.D., LMFT
LicensedTherapist
Healthy Minds
drdavidsanchez@healthymindslv.com