Marriage and Family Therapy Significance

Marriage and Family
Therapy

Systemic therapy provides a unique
approach for evaluating issues and distress. The systemic formulation does not
begin focusing on patients and their internal states, but it considers distress
and problems as elements embedded in relationships. Systemic therapy has
evolved, for instance, in the way it explains problems. Such changes range from
explaining structural problems in the initial stages to meanings and
in the subsequent phases (Dallos &
Draper, 2015). Systemic formulation operates by integrating the understanding
of challenges and information acquired during observations and interviews with
family members. The information is combined with theory, clinical experiences,
and the therapist’s personal experience to determine the factors causing and
maintaining issues. The and guidelines for
action. It offers alternatives to psychiatric diagnosis and an understanding
based on psychological processes such as thoughts, feelings, and the influence
of environmental events.

Consequently, therapists need to
contemplate the development of patient maps as such processes reveal the
complexity of different tasks involved. The formulation includes core
conceptual, psychological, and philosophical issues attributed to therapy. This
aspect compels therapists to consider the meaning of what is regarded as a
problem or symptom. Family therapy provides interpersonal models of the factors
causing and maintaining issues. Family therapy offers a critical position that
questions the potentially-oppressive assumptions about family members and the
views they may have been conscripted to hold about themselves (Dallos &
Draper, 2015). Family and marriage therapists (MFT) must conceptualize the
three phases of systemic formulation to facilitate adequate understanding of
clients and their families. This would be crucial for providing practical
interventions and treatments for Mr. Kaskas and his family living in the
neighborhood for 15 years. Mr. Kaskas is 45 years old, and his wife is 39 years
old. The couple has two children, Havey, a boy aged 17 years, and Dovey, a girl
aged 13 years.

The first stage of systemic
formulation involves the function of a symptom. Systemic thinking advances that
signs manifesting in families serve a stabilizing function within the family
system. Over the past year, Mr. Kaskas and his wife have been attending therapy
as they believe that it would enable them to address their marriage issues.
Mrs. Kaskas complained that her husband had recently developed the problem of
heavy drinking and smoking. She also said that Mr. Kaskas often came home late
and would sleep on the couch instead of in the bedroom. Mr. Kaskas alleged that
the drinking helped overcome the exhaustion and stress from work. He also said
that drinking provided him with the opportunity of interacting and socialize
with friends, something that he no longer acquired from his marriage. Mr.
Kaskas complained that his wife had become increasingly cold and did not love
him like before. He also complained that his children had become increasingly
rude and disrespectful, making him feel unwelcome at his home. Mr. Kaskas said
that he was trying all means to give his wife the space she required. Mrs.
Kaskas is concerned that their their children
as their son has and tobacco. The daughter had also
developed inappropriate behaviors. She would sneak out at night and recently was
brought home by the sheriff, who found her drawing graffiti on local buildings.
This case reveals the complexity of issues facing the clients’ marriage.

The first step of systemic
formulation advances that symptoms manifesting in a family such as those
exhibited by children and partners could stabilize the marriage. In the case
scenario, the children exhibit problematic behaviors and symptoms that could be
functioning by distracting attention from the parents’ conflicts. Based on
systemic formulation, as the signs that children show become increasingly
intense, the definition of the situation as the child having or being the issue
becomes increasingly central (Dallos & Draper, 2015). Somehow, the family
could be acting in ways that maintain the symptomatic members in their role
despite showing that they want to change. The connection in such instances
could be perceived using psychoanalytic ideas. This approach would reveal that
the family members’ actions are based on the collective unconscious needs of
the members. Multiple issues could result from failing solutions used to
address common family issues. Solutions are an enduring and helpful idea
presented in the first stage of the formulation mode. The following figure
shows how attempted solutions are associated with or cause problems.