DB Forum 3: Working with Individuals
Clinton & Ohlschlager, 2002 identify five concepts/approaches in working with individuals. They are as follows: (1) Circular over Linear Causality; (2) Family Homeostasis and the Identified Problem; (3) Family Roles; (4) Family Secrets, Myths, and Lies; (5) Family Triangles
According to Clinton & Ohlschlager, 2002, the importance of a system approach began in the 1930’ and 1940’s when “mathematicians and engineers developed systems concepts to apply to the increasing complexity and demand of their work. Then in the 1950’s and 1960’s, general systems theory became the basis for computer development and caused that technological field to mushroom. Interdisciplinary thinkers and scientists in the 1960’s and 1970’s began to transfer these concepts to the living world. In 1968, a biologist named von Bertalanffy and in 1972 an anthropologist-ethnologist named Bateson took systems concepts and applied them for the first time to human interaction process. Now instead of looking only at the historical facts and inner dynamics related to a person’s problems, we look at the pattern of transactions going on among family members and the world around them” (p.522-523).
Clinton & Ohlschlager, 2002 identify six schools of thought regarding family therapy (p.529-533). The school of thought that I closely align myself with regarding family therapy is the Behavioral approach. It “is among the more recent approaches to family therapy, due to the fact that most behaviorists or cognitive-behaviorists usually work with individuals to deal with current issues. Faulty belief systems are learned from families of origin and must be identified; knowing the source can help neutralize them. This type of family therapy is unique because it operates on linear casualty approach as opposed to circular casualty approach” (p.532-533).
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