Strategic Family Therapy
• Jay Haley – Worked with Milton Erickson,
Gregory Bateson & Salvador Minuchin
• Started the Family Therapy Institute in DC
• Helped Minuchin start the Philadelphia
Child Guidance Center in 1967
• Retired in 1995 to La Jolla, CA
• Died in 2007
Strategic Family Therapy
• Family rules – the overt & covert rules that
families use to govern themselves
• Family homeostasis – the tendency of a
family to remain in the same pattern of
functioning unless challenged to change
• Quid pro quo – the tendency of family
members to treat others in the way that
they are treated
Strategic Family Therapy
• Redundancy principle – the family’s repetition of
limited behavioral sequences
• Punctuation – the belief that what individuals say
is caused by what others say
• Symmetrical/complementary – relationships
among equals & unequals
• Circular causality – events are interconnected &
that behaviors are caused by multiple factors
Strategic Family Therapy
The use of short-term strategic
interventions designed to change the
family structure:
- these interventions magnify the
problem or
- these interventions rid the family of
the presenting problem(s)
Strategic Family Therapy
By targeting the entire family constellation,
the counselor attempts to expand the
family’s resources . This expansion bring
about change so that the family no longer
considers the child as a problem but rather
concentrates on becoming more equipped
to handle family crises.
Strategic Family Therapy
9 NEEDS FOR SUCCESS
• The family must ask for help. They must
HIRE the counselor. The counselor is not
thrust upon the family
• The family must be in agreement with the
counselor about what is to change
• The problem needs to be changeable –
not incurable
Strategic Family Therapy
• There must be agreement that the family
problem will be solved without expelling
someone
• Change must occur in the same
environment in which it started
• The family must have confidence in the
counselor
• Each family member must feel connected
to the counselor
Strategic Family Therapy
• The referring party comes to the first
session to assure the family that the
counselor is “in charge” of their treatment
• The counselor must spearhead the
treatment. All decisions must pass
through the counselor
Strategic Family Therapy
SINGLE-PARENT HOMES:
• PROBLEM- parentified child is given
responsibility without authority (deputy
strategy)
• PROBLEM – overwhelmed mom (support
strategy)
• PROBLEM – enmeshment or neglect
(roommate strategy)
Strategic Family Therapy
• PROBLEM – three generation home –
grandparents in charge (spoiler strategy)
• PROBLEM – revolving boyfriends
(powerful person strategy)
• PROBLEM – noncustodial parent tries to
dictate life in custodial home (contract
strategy)
Strategic Family Therapy
OPPOSITIONAL CHILD:
• HIERARCHY IS NOT INTACT – often distant
Dad. How can Dad make his presence and
authority known without ignoring or becoming
abusive?
• AT LEAST TWO ADULTS IN CONFLICT – Is
there a grownup or agency on the kid’s side?
Has the parent or have the parents given
authority to outside forces? Are the parents
distracted by another problem?
Strategic Family Therapy
• The parent must control: timing, topic & temper
• The child is more concerned about the
PROCESS rather than the outcome. The
reward is to get the adult involved in a ridiculous,
heated argument.
• The counselor must stay joined with the parents
and connected to the child.
• What keeps the parents from working as a
team? The kid need to face two adults when
confronted.
Strategic Family Therapy
Three parenting strategies:
1)Mystery
2)Nuclear bomb punishment
3)absurdity
Strategic Family Therapy
Peer knowledge
1) Parents must know parents
2) Parents must know license numbers
3) Emphasize behavior rather than who
4) Reinforce time with good peers
Strategic Family Therapy
Divorce is a transition, not pathology
Divorce affects children in three ways:
1. Loss of a parent (conflict causes 75% of
the noncustodial parent to withdraw)
2. Custodial parent is often chronically
angry, bitter or depressed
3. Parents fight over children like they are
property
Strategic Family Therapy
• Parents need to learn to focus on their
children’s problems not their own
• Encourage parents to follow the legal
decree for one to two years to give time for
anger to subside
Strategic Family Therapy
NORMAL DIVORCE:
• 1. Mom & kids. Assess situation.
Privately persuade mom to let counselor
talk to dad.
• 2. Dad alone. “What kind of relationship
do you want with your kids?”
• 3. Parents alone after they both feel
connected to the counselor. Focus on the
negotiation and then move on.
Strategic Family Therapy
DAD STILL LOVES MOM DIVORCE
• Kids are usually stuck in the middle
• Bring entire family together and let the
parents talk about how the kids are
doing.
• Are the kids carrying on dad’s fantasy?
• The family is told that there is nothing the
kids can do to get the parents back
together.
Strategic Family Therapy
Stepparents need to:
1. Avoid loyalty binds for the kids
2. Earn the right to parent
3. Be a kind, loyal, adult role model
Strategic Family Therapy
Three stepparenting problems:
1. Stepparent does not have enough power
2. Stepparent has too much power
3. The parents dump the kids on the
stepparent
Strategic Family Therapy
Solutions:
- Emphasize the marital dyad first
- Emphasize dyads, not family activities
- Privately ask parent, “what do you see the
stepparent’s role with the children?”
- Counselor needs to align with the weaker of the
couple to encourage assertiveness
- Work on collaboration between step & parent
when there are just a few problems instead of
when there are crises