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ChiefTurtle3211
CHAPTER 11 Strategic Models The Communications Outlook 212….
CHAPTER 11
Strategic Models
The Communications Outlook
212. Describe the sorts of relationship definitions (symmetrical or complementary) you tend to get involved in with two of the following groups:
a. your male friends
b. your female friends
c. your parents
d. younger people
e. older people
213. Communication occurs between people at multiple levels. Think of an instance from your own recent interactions with someone close to you that demonstrates how words, body language, tone of voice, posture, or intensity seemed to transmit different meanings Analyze this interaction to see if you can clarify the range of meanings that you were receiving from this person.
214. You have an argument with a friend. Discuss how each of you is likely to punctuate the communication sequence.
215. You are treating a husband and a wife. The husband says that he always pays attention to what his wife tells him about her feelings but feels that she doesn’t respect his. She cuts him off and claims that she most certainly listens to what he says and that he should appreciate how attentive she really is. Identify the report and command communications in this scenario.
The Interactional Viewpoint
216. Describe a double-bind situation in which you have been caught. Remember that you must have a close relationship with the person, must respond, and be receiving conflicting messages at two different levels. What did you do?
217. Describe an unsolved problem in your family. What makes the behavior persist?
218. When a therapist tells a client “Don’t be in such a hurry to get over your anxiety” what technique is being employed? What is the goal of this technique?
219. A therapist tells a raging couple “Well at least the two of you continue to talk.” What technique is the therapist using? To what end?
Brief Family Therapy
220. At what point in your life could you and your family have benefited from brief (up to ten sessions) crisis intervention? (For example, you might consider divorce, death, drugs, alcohol abuse, school separation, or an auto accident as possible crisis times.) Describe the situation and explain why you believe such intervention might have been helpful.
221. A friend has a problem stopping smoking. How would you “prescribe the symptom”? What consequences would you anticipate?
222. Which would feel more comfortable to you as a family therapist: defining the family’s problem before the session starts, or getting your cues from their unfolding discussion? Why?
223. You are working with a family that has been struggling to accept that their son is gay. Each week someone in the family discusses how something unkind or dismissive has been said about the son. When you point this out, the mother often says, “We’ll have to try harder.” How would you, as an MRI therapist respond to the mother? Why?
The Strategic Viewpoint
224. Haley believes that symptoms are indirect strategies for controlling a relationship while at the same time denying that one is voluntarily doing so (e.g., mother becomes ill and can’t be left alone when her adolescent daughter wants to go out for the evening). Can you cite an example from your own experiences? As a therapist what intervention might you make to address this symptom/strategy?
225. According to strategists, implicit in every relationship is a struggle for power. What power struggles are you currently experiencing with members of your family?
226. Suppose a friend of yours drank too much and came to you for help in changing this behavior. Can you think of a therapeutic double-bind, a symptom prescription, or a paradoxical intervention to aid in reducing or eliminating the symptom?
227. Describe a current important relationship that you are in, and consider whether a third person is also somehow involved. How does this third person affect the quality or condition of the dyadic relationship? What would happen if the influence of the third person were to become less important or to disappear all together?
228. How would your family respond to a series of directives from a therapist? Would it be easier if he or she were an authoritative expert or a collaborative coach?
229. As a strategic therapist, think of a paradoxical intervention to help a couple resolve issues over jealousy? What impact would you expect the paradoxical intervention to have?
The Milan Systemic Model
230. You finally persuade your family to come for family therapy, hoping the therapist will expose the family “games”, which only you seem to acknowledge. Instead, she offers positive feedback on behavior patterns you believe are destructive, and she warns the family about premature change. How would you react?
232. What were the rituals surrounding the evening meal in your home when you were young? Did you eat together regularly? What topic could be discussed? What topics were off limits and avoided? Did people sit in special places on a regular basis? Who was served first?
233. What circular questioning might be thought-provoking for your family (e.g., “Who first noticed that?” or “Who enjoys fighting the most?”)?
