The Assignment: Respond to at least two of your colleagues by providing feedback on each colleague’s therapeutic approach based on a narrative family therapeutic perspective. Support your feedback with evidence-based literature and/or your own experiences with clients. Support your responses with evidence-based literature with at least two references in each colleagues response. Colleagues #: 1 The family client is made up of a father, mother, and their son, a ten-year-old boy. The family is biracial and is made up of four people; father, mother, a ten-year-old son, and a seven-year-old daughter.  Initially, they had visited the clinic on a referral basis from the family’s psychiatrist. They had concerns with the behavioral issues their ten-year-old son exhibited while at home as well as at school.  The son is currently in fifth grade and attends a public school, the mother runs a local coffee shop in their neighborhood, and the father is a construction worker. The mother was talkative and soon started talking about stressors in life, including their son’s behavioral issues. She states that besides receiving services and extra help her son gets while at school, he is still lagging behind.   The exact services had not been explained. The father did not talk much. In fact, he sat away from the family and always displayed a sarcastic grin on his face every time the mother complained. The son was friendly but did not talk much. After assessments and evaluations, diagnostic evaluations established that the kid had ADHD. In addition to this, the family displayed tendencies of dysfunctional interactions. Once the family unit was mentioned, the mother was quick to state that she believes that there was an issue with the way the whole family functioned. She further suggested that they needed help as a family to understand their situation better as we as know why their son was having behavioral issues. Family therapy was suggested. Everyone but the father readily consented to the suggestion. He later on consented.            Over the past two sessions, the father seemed uncomfortable and hardly participated. He would once in a while tell his wife to shut up when confronted and criticized. The mother always brought up her dissatisfaction with the way her husband lacked warmth and concern for their son’s issues. She felt that the whole burden of raising their kids was on her. She further stated that without him interfering, the son would soon influence their younger daughter, which was already happening. The son spent much of the time stooped over the table due to attention being always on him. He was always silent and uncomfortable.            Interactions between the clients were more complicated than anticipated, and too much time was spent on the interaction between the mother and the therapist. A therapeutic relationship was easily formed between the mother and the therapist. The other members of the family hesitated, with a continual alli.

1. The Assignment:
Respond to at least two of your colleagues by providing
feedback on each colleague’s therapeutic approach based on a
narrative family therapeutic perspective. Support your feedback
with evidence-based literature and/or your own experiences
with clients.
Support your responses with evidence-based literature with at
least two references in each colleagues response.
Colleagues #: 1
The family client is made up of a father, mother, and their son,
a ten-year-old boy. The family is biracial and is made up of four
people; father, mother, a ten-year-old son, and a seven-year-old
daughter. Initially, they had visited the clinic on a referral
basis from the family’s psychiatrist. They had concerns with the
behavioral issues their ten-year-old son exhibited while at home
as well as at school. The son is currently in fifth grade and
attends a public school, the mother runs a local coffee shop in
their neighborhood, and the father is a construction worker. The
mother was talkative and soon started talking about stressors in
life, including their son’s behavioral issues. She states that
besides receiving services and extra help her son gets while at
school, he is still lagging behind. The exact services had not
been explained. The father did not talk much. In fact, he sat
away from the family and always displayed a sarcastic grin on
his face every time the mother complained. The son was
friendly but did not talk much.

2. After assessments and evaluations, diagnostic evaluations
established that the kid had ADHD. In addition to this, the
family displayed tendencies of dysfunctional interactions. Once
the family unit was mentioned, the mother was quick to state
that she believes that there was an issue with the way the whole
family functioned. She further suggested that they needed help
as a family to understand their situation better as we as know
why their son was having behavioral issues. Family therapy was
suggested. Everyone but the father readily consented to the
suggestion. He later on consented.
Over the past two sessions, the father seemed
uncomfortable and hardly participated. He would once in a
while tell his wife to shut up when confronted and criticized.
The mother always brought up her dissatisfaction with the way
her husband lacked warmth and concern for their son’s issues.
She felt that the whole burden of raising their kids was on her.
She further stated that without him interfering, the son would
soon influence their younger daughter, which was already
happening. The son spent much of the time stooped over the
table due to attention being always on him. He was always
silent and uncomfortable.
Interactions between the clients were more complicated
than anticipated, and too much time was spent on the interaction
between the mother and the therapist. A therapeutic relationship
was easily formed between the mother and the therapist. The
other members of the family hesitated, with a continual alliance
between the mother and the therapist, father’s resistance and
withdrawal increased. After the first session, improvement in
the son’s behavior was noted. He became more attentive and
stopped arguing and beating up his younger sister. However, as
the spotlight shifted to the husband and their marital problems,
the son took the husband’s seat, sat in a darkened corner, and
hardly participated. Being constantly blamed for his behavioral

3. issues was replaced by total exclusion, which triggered
behavioral issues. At the moment, as reported by the mother, he
hardly listens to anyone, always argues, and beats up his sister;
he talks back at everyone, including adults, and is always
withdrawn. More so, now that he is confined at home, he gets
angry quickly, and it is tough to calm him down. He is more
irritable and will not listen to anyone. The mother is concerned
that the therapy sessions are not helping.
Technique used
Structural family therapy focuses on family as a whole rather
than individuals within a family. It focuses on subsystems,
family interaction patterns, as well as how they respond. I have
had two sessions with this family so far. A structural family
therapeutic technique was used. This is because there was a
need to present a united front when it came to parenting and
interaction with the child. The main problem existed within the
parental subsystem. Therefore, the focus of the therapeutic
activities mostly lied on strengthening the parental subsystem.
Some of the therapeutic activities employed included; role-
playing, paradoxical tasks, interpretations, boundary-making,
restructuring, joining and reframing. The goal was to ensure the
family’s interactions and communications were more flexible. It
has been proven that the use of this technique results in good or
rather positive behavior among children, especially adolescents.
In addition to this, parental authority is reinforced (Jiménez et
al., 2019)
With structural family therapy techniques, patterns of
interactions that create issues within the family unit were to be
assessed. The purpose of using this technique was to change the
whole family unit rather than focusing on individual family
members. From the family’s interactions, it was obvious that the
son, who was the dysfunctional element in the family, enabled
the couple to avoid conflicts which led to a surge in unresolved

4. issues in the parental subsystem. Additionally, it was
established that there were boundaries between the father and
the son, which were characterized by infrequent interactions
between the two, harsh criticism by the father, and the son
always provoking criticism.
With the technique, I expected that the communication and
interactions between this family unit would improve. At the
initiation of the therapy sessions, the mother would bring up
family complaints, mostly her problems and the problems she
perceived in others. She further would try to engage the
therapist as a judge at times sympathizer and sometimes a
supporter. Efforts to pull away from this pattern proved futile.
However, through observations and charts following the
progress of the family, interactions between the family members
are still dysfunctional. The son, who was the primary cause of
the therapy, is not benefiting from the session. Blaming has
been replaced by virtual exclusion resulting in his behavioral
issues remaining unresolved.
Colleagues #: 2
This discussion presents a case of a family client who is not
progressing well with therapy. It identifies the pertinent issues,
the areas of concern, and discusses the additional information
that may help change the potential outcomes of therapy with
this family.
The client's family described in this discussion comprises S, a
12-year-old female, who is torn in between her mother and
father who are separated. S lives with her mother and
grandmother but often visits her father. When she visits her
father, he criticizes her mom. The situation has worsened after
S’s father discovered that her mother has a boyfriend. S’s

5. grandmother reported that the mother’s boyfriend is ‘nothing
like’ S’s father who makes everyone feel bad all the time. Since
initializing therapy, S’s mother and grandmother have
continually depicted S’s father as a bad person. On the other
hand, S’s father has been defending the need to remain with his
daughter. At the moment, therapy with this family client is not
progressing as expected because there is mistrust, alliances
against one party, and S is further torn in between. The two
sides appear to be competing to win a point. As a result, S
continues to be distressed and her wellbeing is further
deteriorating.
The therapeutic approach used with this client family is
structural family therapy. This approach aims at understanding
the communication patterns and behaviors of the family to
highlight the dysfunctional family interactions (Jiménez,
Hidalgo, Baena, León, & Lorence, 2019). This intervention has
been beneficial in terms of helping the family members
understand how the behavior of each individual is affecting S’s
wellbeing who is being asked to choose sides. At the same time,
this therapy has been beneficial in uncovering the alliances
within the family that are contributing to the problem. However,
there are still issues regarding the best way forward for all the
family members to coexist together.
Additional information that can help to change the therapy
outcomes regards the understanding that the behavior of each
person in the family is contributing to the problem. While S’s
father needs to stop the criticisms against S’s mother, the
others, including S’s mother and grandmother, need to reflect
on their behaviors to understand how it is affecting the child’s
wellbeing. Because it is the child who is suffering when the
adults fight, making each member understand this fact may help
change the outcomes of therapy (Jiménez, Hidalgo, Baena,
León, & Lorence, 2019). Additionally, making the family
understand that the father and her daughter as well as the

6. mother and father will be linked together is an important step
towards a successful therapy.