Spring 2008
SYLLABUS
FAMILY THERAPY
Instructor: Dr. Ray Bergner
Office: DeGarmo 440
Phone: 438-8190
Office hours: MWF, 1-2, or by appointment.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
This a course for clinicians in training who will be called upon to do therapy with couples, families, and individuals whose problems are interpersonal in nature. Accordingly, its emphasis is highly practical and includes the following three goals:
(1) The first goal is to help students acquire diagnostic concepts. On the premise that you cannot even observe what you have no concepts for, students will become familiar with the broad array of interpersonal patterns (vicious cycles, interpersonal balances, etc.) that are the stock in trade of the family therapist. Diagnostic concepts such as triangulation, parentification, differentiation, and overfunction-underfunction, which are quite different than those employed by the individual therapist, will provide "lenses" through which students will learn to view interactional patterns.
(2) Secondly, techniques of family therapy will be studied, relying heavily on videotaped family therapy sessions done by such notables as Salvador Minuchin, Murray Bowen, John Weakland, Insoo Berg, and others. In-class study of these tapes will focus on observing what these therapists do, what the rationales for their actions might be in the contexts in which they occur, what alternative interventions might have been implemented, and critical analysis of the approaches taken.
(3) Finally, numerous in-class therapy simulations will be done to initiate the student into active practice at family therapy thinking and intervening.
TOPICS, TEXTS, AND READINGS:
1. The Family Systems Perspective.
No specific reading; this perspective will be expressed in the initial lecture
and in all readings for this course.
2. Structural Family Therapy.
Colapinto, J. (2000). Structural family therapy. In A. Horne (Ed.), Family
counseling and therapy (3d Ed.). Itasca, IL: Peacock.
3. Bowen Family Therapy.
Lerner, H. (1989). The Dance of Intimacy. New York: Harper and Row.
4. The Mental Research Institute's Brief Family Therapy.
Fisch, R., Weakland, J., & Segal, L. (1982). The Tactics of Change. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bergner, R. (1993). Victims into perpetrators. Psychotherapy, 30, 452-462.
5. Solution-focussed Therapy.
O'Hanlon, W., & Weiner-Davis, M. (2003). In Search of Solutions (2d ed.)
New York: Norton.
EVALUATIONS:
1. QUIZZES. There will be 4 quizzes, each worth 25 points.You are expected and required to read about each approach before we discuss it in class. Prior to each approach discussed, there will be a 10 item multiple choice quiz on the reading.
2. EXAMS: There will be 4 exams, each of which will be worth 100 points. These are take-home in nature, and the dates for their submission will be announced in class.
They are to be typewritten and organized clearly with the use of headings. The following are all strongly recommended considerations in writing your tests.
A. Observe the "Uncle Harry" criterion: All answers should be stated in clear, non-jargonny English. Write your answers for your "Uncle Harry," who's a smart guy but who knows absolutely nothing about family systems so you have to spell it out to him with no assumptions made. For example, if you say, "The central aim of Structural Family Therapy is to alter familial structural patterns," Uncle Harry would have no idea what those were, so you would need to provide a brief clear definition in ordinary English. The best evidence that you understand something is that you can state it correctly and clearly in plain English.
B. Be sure to define terms well and clearly. Related to the Uncle Harrry criterion, failure to define terms has been a very common problem on tests in the past. Asked to define X, students discuss the causes of X, the effects of X, give examples of X, etc., but fail to say what X IS. Consider the following answer to the test item, “Define and discuss the family systems concept of “spiegeling”: Answer: "Spiegeling is caused by inadequate communication between parents. Spiegeling is often found in lower class families who are in poverty. Spiegeling results in developmental arrest on the part of childen, and sometimes in actual psychiatric symptoms. It is important to modify spiegeling patterns because they are so destructive to the entire family system, and in particular to developing children." The failure here to define the term "spiegeling" leaves Uncle Harry (a) not knowing what spiegeling is--and (b) leaves the reader not knowing whether the writer knows the meaning of the term or not.
C. Put first things first--be sure to focus on the question asked first. If you want to go into broad background material, greater detail about the theory, fine, but it's a good idea to answer the question first before moving to such less essential matters.
D. The following will be basic questions posed for each approach:
For each approach, please answer the following question, clearly separating each part of your answer with new paragraphs and headings that indicate which part of the question you are addressing:
a. What is the primary thing(s) overall that this school of family therapy
is trying to change?
b. What is the rationale for why they target this thing as the focus of change?
c. List 3 specific diagnostic categories they focus on and define each carefully.
c. What is the basic position of this school on how the therapist should conduct
himself or herself in the therapeutic relationship (e.g., active or
passive? neutral or side-taking? etc.)? Why?
d. List three favored types of interventions (change techniques) and their
rationales.
e. Critically evaluate this approach for better and/or for worse.
Before each approach, I will modify this in any way that is needed to fit the school in question (e.g., solution focussed does not have diagnostic concepts).
3. ATTENDANCE. This is especially important since the type of learning stressed in this class is critical to your performance as a therapist operating with real people, and it cannot be acquired solely through books. A 10 point deduction will be taken for each class missed.
4. CLASS PARTICIPATION. At least some minimal level of class participation is expected. For most students, this will not have an effect on their grade. However, students who participate heavily, if they are on the borderline with respect to grade at the end, will receive favorable consideration for the higher grade. At the other extreme, any student who completely "drops out" of the class in the sense of saying nothing or virtually nothing over the course of a semester will receive a deduction of 20 points from his or her final grade.
5. GRADING SCALE:
90 - 100 % (450-500 points) A
80 - 89% (400-449 points) B
70 - 79 % (350-399 points) C
60 - 69% (300-349 points) D
0 - 59% (< 300 points) F