Schools of Family Therapy

There are several schools of family therapy and no single approach is universally applicable to the great range of pathologies presented by families. Nor is any therapeutic method suited only to interventions in one type of pathology. But family therapists often find it helpful to be able to categorize both interventions and pathologies in a way that facilitates the matching of the particular set of family problems with the most appropriate, helpful therapeutic approach. There have been attempts to develop rigorous systems in which characteristics of families in particular combinations can be said to require a particular style of intervention. But such approaches are both unnecessarily limiting and far from perfect. Weltner (1985) has, however, studied the problem of matching therapy with pathology and produced a framework that characterizes family functioning in four basic levels. Weltner also offered a summary of the principal schools of family therapy, identifying those family characteristics for which each is uniquely suited. The comparison of these two sets of characteristics is designed to provide a means by which therapists can more efficiently estimate the relative value of different therapeutic approaches once they have assessed family functioning. Two of the theories included in Weltner's scheme are structural therapy and family systems therapy. These two approaches, as embodied in Murray Bowen's (family systems) and Salvador Minuchin's (structural) ideas

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rimarily as a means of informing therapists efforts to create change. The dominant father of Level III, for instance, might be asked to recount his memories of his parents. But this information would be secured in order to gauge his commitment to his ideal structure and determine whether the substitute being arranged by the therapists conformed to the father's notions of family organization. At Level IV, however, this material is addressed in its own right. Even if the family members are symptomatic in some respects the therapist is, Weltner says, interested in developing an inner "'richness'--insight, more sensitive awareness of the relational world, an understanding of legacies and heritage" that will enable "deeper awareness of the inner world" and can increase understanding of the past (p. 47). Family Systems theory and Structural theory differ in the vantage points from which they view the family. Family systems theory "conceptualizes the family as an emotional unit, a network of interlocking relationships, best understood when analyzed within a multigenerational or historical framework" (Goldberg & Goldberg, 1991, p. 145). But the major thesis of the structural approach is that "an individual's symptoms are best unde

Category: Psychology - S