"Family Therapy Techniques" by Minuchin and Fishman (1981). For this book, Minuchin and Fishman discuss aspects of family therapy techniques, to include spontaneity, families, joining, planning, change, reframing, enactment, focus, intensity, restructuring, boundaries, unbalancing, complementarity, realities, constructions, paradoxes, strengths, and beyond the technique.
Spontaneity. The authors pointed out that while techniques must be learned, they must then be applied within the human context. Thus the book must be tossed aside as each individual experience shapes the use of a technique. To achieve this goal, therapeutic spontaneity must be present in the therapeutic experience. The therapist must be familiar enough with the techniques to be able to remain spontaneous while helping others.
Families. Minuchin and Fishman stated that human beings join together in a family structure, whether they recognize this structure or not. Each family consists of sub-systems which make up the whole. Examples of these sub-systems include the individual, and dyads such as the parental or sibling. The family faces continual development and change with internal and external demands. Families begin with the development of a couple, and proceed to the emergence of young children, and the growth of school-age and adolescent children. Families then face the changes that come with grown children. The family system must be flexible enough to handle these changes.
Joining. To assist the family, the therapist must take a leadership position. While early theorists believed that the therapist must remain in the leader position only, more current views allow for the understanding that the therapist must join the family in a therapeutic system. By joining, the therapist remains one of supportive maneuvers, a process which allows for changing the family.
Planning. The authors pointed out that while it is a mistake to theorize befor...