in 1950various professionals of psychiatry and psychology of United States began to treat entire families in their consultations, putting into practice in this way psychotherapeutic model which was in turn a reaction and a new paradigm before schools such as psychoanalysis, behaviorism or the psychopathological or biophysical model.
Family therapy was revolutionary becauseunlike the approaches mentioned, does not considered the person only in its subjectivity, or as an individual entity, but based on their relationships with others.
Systemic family therapy: what is it
For this psychotherapeutic model the behavior of a person does not occur in isolation, but is dynamically connected to the behaviors of the people with whom it interactswhether at home, at work, in your community or in society, even if the most significant space for personal development be for this model the familysince in it the good and the bad, the joy and the suffering, the capacities and potentialities and also the symptoms and the pathology are gestated.
Systemic Family Therapy Schools
Starting from these premises, family therapy has evolved in different currents: the transactional, the communicational, the existential, the strategic, the structural, the school of Rome, the group of Milan… until it became a tool of the first order for treat from communication problems in the couple and family to serious pathological conflictssuch as schizophrenia or depression with a suicide attempt.
The therapeutic process in systemic family therapy
Although in general the people who request a therapy of this type do so referred by professionals in psychology and psychiatry from various fields (health, mental health, social services, child care, psycho-pedagogical…) there are more and more people with relationship or family problems (due to a situation of conflict or separations and divorces) who request this type of help.
Do all family members have to go to therapy?
In a first session, the therapist usually receives the visit of all the family members, but later the calls vary. depending on how things evolve, what problem it is, who is the symptomatic member…
A) Yes, There will be occasions when the couple appears at the consultation, others when only the children do so. and others in which the whole family meets again.
The role of the systemic family therapist
Apart from involving all members of the family nucleus in the treatment, another important characteristic of the therapy is that sessions are actively undertaken.
Faced with the neutrality used by schools such as psychoanalysis, in which the psychologist above all listens carefully, the family therapist is an active agent of communication; that is, he talks and encourages the family to talkguiding communication in one direction or another.
How is a systemic therapy session
Regarding the operation of a session, Juan Luis Linares, psychiatrist and psychologist, director of the Psychotherapy Unit and the School of Family Therapy of the Hospital de San Pablo in Barcelonaillustrates the follow-up of the therapy starting from a situation that occurs frequently.
let’s imagine a couple in which he feels overwhelmed and suffocated by her demands and he protects himself by withdrawing more and more.
she feels abandoned for him, think you don’t care about important issues that concern the family, the care of the children…
In the end, the situation ends up becoming a dialogue between the deaf and, moreover, may affect one of the children; that is to say, make them suffer the situation, ally themselves with one or the other parent and fight with the opposite.
In this case the work of the family therapistas Juan Luis explains, It involves helping parents change the perception they have of each other and understand their respective positions.. The two members of the couple make their demands more flexible and accept the reality of the other.
The scope of systemic family therapy: thoughts, feelings and actions
For Juan Luis Linares, the most important thing in family therapy is that each member of the family experiences changes in three fundamental spaces: the cognitive, the emotional and the pragmatic; that is, in thinking, feeling and doing or acting.
“In the cognitive space, following the example from before, the person changes the perception of the other. When this occurs, irritation or anger is replaced by tenderness. suddenly the person is discovered with an emotional change and this leads to a change in doing.”
With this new perception of the other, the therapist may initially suggest: “You are going to put an end to that irritation and go out one night a week just the two of you.”
One day a week off creates a space capable of giving rise to tenderness and a different perception of the other.
there are couples that they already do it and this could be a banality to them, but there are other who have not taken care of themselves for years. Is it so absorbed by the care of the children and by the works.
Another possibilityaccording to Linares, is to generate that tenderness reaction during the session, so that the process begins on the affective level and then continues on the cognitive and pragmatic level.
The therapist can work with the couple and ask how did they meet, how was their love story, etc, skillfully so as not to give rise to possible sabotage of the type: “actually I didn’t love her but I was in love with another”.
how many sessions are needed
In situations like thisaccording to Linares, can be experienced important changes in 6 or 7 sessionsbut if it is a severe depressive disorder or another serious problem, a longer treatment time is required.
The sessions usually last one hour and are biweekly, although they are becoming more spaced outso that in the end monthly or follow-up sessions can be done every three months.
There are professionals who work with a package of ten sessions in a rowwhile others they do it in a way more flexible.
Where to do systemic family therapy in Spain
These are some of the main centers specializing in family therapy in Spain:
Systemic family therapy: what it is, how it is done and what it is for