SW1021 Family Studies and Interventions Discussion Responses…

PLEASE REPSOND TO THE TWO CLASSMATES POST BELOW. MUST BE OIRIGINAL WORK. SOURCES MUST BE CITED IN APA 7TH EDITION FORMAT.

(CL;ASSMATE ONE)

Structural family clinical social workers believe that families are organized around patterns, hierarchies, and different subsystems to form a strong family structure. Their perspective is that within family structure, healthy and flexible boundaries, whether physical or psychological, can help maintain structured roles and stability (Myer et al., 2014). Structural family clinical social workers are then motivated to address these underlying structures for any dysfunction rather than focusing on the individual. By instigating challenge, change, and systems, and by highlighting the family’s strengths, they offer practical applications of therapies that comprise multiple, overarching, interconnecting layers based on how a persons experience is shaped by interactions and relationships with others (Reiter, 2014).

However, strategic family therapy places less emphasis on enduring structure while focusing more on the disrupting sequences of interaction that maintain the family problem. Hence, from a strategic perspective, symptoms arise in the family during transitions between stages of the family life cycle, and adapting to change is difficult. So these problems are more often observed as relational rather than individual, and are embedded in family interactions and hierarchies across generations, in which therapy emphasizes restructuring interaction patterns (Reiter, 2014). The strategic family therapist is focused on the present problem, the ways it is reinforced, the interrupting sequences, and how the family is adapting to the social context.

The differences in these therapies shape the invention procedure, in which a structural family clinical social worker would focus on organizing family structure through interaction, alignment, and boundary-setting within the family hierarchy. The strategic family clinical social worker, using directives as a core tool, would emphasize altering the family’s structure and patterns and examining how they connect to the family’s present problem to provide guidance and proceed with interventions for each issue (Gilbar et al., 2020). Structural therapy aims to reorganize the family system in the long term, while strategic therapy focuses on immediate symptom relief through changes in interaction patterns. For example, family from a structural therapy perspective, for any trauma within family would be viewed as a disruption of family hierarchies, their boundaries that create dysfunctional interaction patterns; however, from strategic therapy, symptoms are maintained through ongoing relational sequences, and interventions can be proceeded through addressing trauma-related stuck points to improve emotions and promoting accountability (Gilbar et al., 2020).

References:

Gilbar, O., Gnall, K. E., Cole, H. E., & Ta, C. T. (2020). Post-traumatic stress disorder, intimate partner violence, and trauma-informed intervention. Violence and Mental Disorders, 3(3): 15-134.

Myer, R. A; Williams, R. C.; Haley, M.; Brownfield, J. N; McNicols, K. B; Pribozie, N. (2014). Crisis intervention with families: Assessing changes in family characteristics. The Family Journal, 22(2), 179-185. doi.0.1177/1066480713513551

Reiter, M. D. (2014). Case conceptualization in family therapy. Pearson Publishers. ISBN: 978- 0-13-288907-0

(CLASSMATE TWO)

Structural family therapy and strategic family therapy both operate from a perspective of reviewing, assessing and analyzing the systemic nature within the family, however their differing views about family structure present distinct perspectives toward families and intervention strategies utilized to work with the family.

Structural family therapy utilizes interventions towards improving family functioning and behavioral outcomes (Dehghani & Bernards, 2022). The value of conceptualizing the family as an organized system with stable patterns that can be reshaped through therapeutic intervention (Delghandi et al., 2021).

Strategic family therapy is a problem-focused approach that aims to identify and disrupt the repetitive interaction patterns that maintain a familys presenting problem within the family structure (Wilson, 2024). One of the most widely studied strategic models is Brief Strategic Family Therapy (Szapocznik et al., 2000).

These varied perspectives influence everything from assessment to interventions utilized and would result in different outcomes for the family based on which therapy chosen to integrate into treatment. Understanding these differences helps clinical social workers tailor their interventions depending on whether the presenting issues appear rooted in systemic structure or in specific, repetitive patterns of behavior, thereby promoting more effective and context-sensitive family interventions.

Recognizing the family’s impact on attitudes is essential for creating effective intervention strategies that address the underlying causes of social problems and provide support for the family. Working with families, as a clinical social worker, utilizing either structural or strategic family therapy provide opportunities to share within the goal of accomplishing the task(s) of reducing barriers towards families working together. Dependent upon which family therapy is choosing to utilize presents challenges of how clinical social workers view the family, the interventions and their perspective associated with the working with the family unit.

References

Dehghani, M., & Bernards, J. C. (2022). Structural family therapy: Foundations and contemporary applications. Journal of Family Psychotherapy, 33(2), 85102.

Delghandi, P., Rahmani, F., & Hosseini, S. (2021). The effectiveness of structural family therapy in improving family functioning and behavioral outcomes. Family Process, 60(3), 789804.

Szapocznik, J., Hervis, O., & Schwartz, S. (2000). Brief strategic family therapy for adolescent drug abuse. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 26(2), 153168.

Wilson, R. (2024). Strategic family therapy: Disrupting interactional patterns in family systems. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 43(1), 1227.