Family therapy

One common form of family therapy for alcohol dependence is behavioral couples therapy (BCT) (Epstein and McCrady 1998). This tteatment, which... 

Another way to include collaterals is to offer treatment services to them as well. Many treatment facilities offer such services, which may include family support groups or even individual therapy for family members of clients. Some treatment centers include family therapists specifically for these purposes. Sometimes counselors and therapists will refer family members to outside support groups, which may include Al-Anon or Alateen 12-step programs for family and friends. Family therapy may include assessment, sometimes using similar measures discussed earlier for assessing client needs, in order to more adequately help family members with their needs. In some cases, these assessments may be used to develop a family treatment plan or an individualized treatment plan for a family member. 

Family therapy in treatment centers occurs in a variety of ways. Some centers provide opportunities for weekly individual counseling or therapy for partners, or even couples therapy sessions (see Chapter 5 for more details). Many treatment programs offer group counseling or therapy sessions for family members that are similar to group sessions for clients. Some of the groups are therapeutic... 

A third way to conceive of a drug problem is as a family problem rather than an individual problem. This model draws from the tradition of family therapy, which sees client problems as a symptom of a system-wide problem within the... 

Empirically validated cognitive behavioral therapy for couples can be quite helpful if relationship problems are an issue. Cognitive behavioral couples therapy combines the best of cognitive behavioral and family therapy techniques in order to help couples. The research suggests that use of this type of therapy can be quite helpful in mediating and resolving problems involving couples. Counselors may want to make a referral for this therapy if clients have relationship issues that interfere with aftercare. 

Family therapy programs continue in many treatment programs throughout aftercare, and as mentioned, a family therapist may be available to family members. Children who are having adjustment problems may find therapy beneficial, for example. Including all family members can be helpful for the client and allows other members of the family to work on their own personal growth, too. 

The client likely will benefit from continued involvement of family in the therapeutic process during aftercare. Many commonly reported relapse triggers are related to relationship stress (see Chapter 7), and family therapy may help reduce relationship stress. As the client is learning how to adjust to living drug free after treatment, the family learns how to live with a drug-free loved one. 

Family involvement can be quite helpful in the relapse prevention effort. One potentially useful strategy is for families to make efforts to reduce relationship stressors. These efforts will likely require couples or family therapy, which ideally will improve communication within the family system and potentially reduce friction. In addition, family members may learn to reduce any negatively expressed emotions toward the client. Family and couples therapy would be highly recommended if those stressors represent a high-risk situation for the client in question and if the family members or partner are supportive of the client s efforts toward recovery. 

Gottman, J. M. (1991). Predicting the longitudinal course of marriages. Journal of marital and Family Therapy, 17, 3-7. 

Brown-Standridge, F. (2000) Healing bittersweet legacies revisiting contextual family therapy for grandparents raising children in crisis. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy 26, 2, 185-197. 

Huberty, D. and Huberty, C. (1986) Sabotaging siblings an overlooked aspect of family therapy with drug dependent adolescents. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 18, I, 31-41. 

Liddle, H.A., Dakof, G.A., Parker, K., Diamond, G.S., Barett, K. and Tejada, M. (2001) Multidimensional family therapy for adolescent substance abuse results of a randomised clinical trial. American Journal of Drugand Alcohol Abuse 27, 4, 651-688. 

Sprenger, D. and Josephson, A. (1998) Integration of parmacother-apy and family therapy In the treatment of children and adolescent. / Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 37 887-889. 

Wells, K. (1995) Family therapy. In March, J., ed. Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents New York Guilford Press, pp. 401-419. 

The families of children and adolescents with schizophrenic psychoses have to be included in the planning and design of therapy. Empirical research has shown, however, that ambitious family therapy designs have not reaped the benefits hoped for. Studies using the concept of expressed emotion have shown that emotional factors within the family play an important role in relapses of the disorder. Therefore, in every child and adolescent with schizophrenia, one must decide on the extent to which the family should be integrated into the therapeutic process. This depends on the patient. 

The optimal treatment of aggressive youths requires the involvement of multiple professionals and agencies. Interventions include healthy peer activities, supportive adults, removal of weapons from the home, abstinence from substances, psychoeducation, individual and cognitive behavioral therapy, group and family therapies, school-based interventions, multisys-temic therapy, anger management techniques, and psychopharmacology. 

When the social sciences picked up on this idea they stirred up a great deal of intellectual excitement. The German sociologist N. Luhmann constructed an entire field based on social autopoiesis (Luhmann, 1984), and autopoiesis was also applied to the judicial system, to literature, and in systemic family therapy - see the work by John Mingers (Mingers, 1992 1995 and 1997). 

A critical evaluation of Maturana s constmctivist family therapy. Syst Practice, 10 (2), 137-51. 

Despite these limitations, the following conclusions can be drawn from the Boston New Haven Study and two other, similarly extensive studies published at the same time one with analytically orientated group therapy (Covi et cd.t 1974) and one with family therapy (Friedman. 1975) ... 

Kavanagh DJ, White A Young R (2000). Towards an integrated and sensitive family intervention for comorbid substance abuse and schizophrenia a comment on Sheils and Rolfe. Australian Journal of Family Therapy, 21. 88-90... 

Goldstein MJ, Rodnick EH, Evans JR, et al. Drug and family therapy in the aftercare of acute schizophrenics. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1978 35 1169-1177. 

Leff J, Berkowitz R, Shavit N, et al. A trial of family therapy versus a relatives group for schizophrenia. Two-year follow-up. Br J Psychiatry 1990 157 571-577. 

Aggressive psychosociai therapies (e.g., family therapy, group therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and various rehabilitation programs)... 

What other forms of treatment may be needed (e.g., education about the condition and about better behavioral management techniques, family therapy, or individual psychotherapy) ... 

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