Strategic Therapy Essay

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` Heading: STRATEGIC MODEL Strategic Model Summary Tiffany C. Lockhart SWK 674 Families Michelle Brazeal, LCSW University of Southern Mississippi March 11, 2012 Explanation of the Theory Strategic family therapy was developed from the works of the Palo Alto research project that was under the leadership of Gregory Bateson, Don Jackson, Jay Haley, John Weakland, and Paul Watzlawick. Strategic family therapy’s goal is to reduce or eliminate presenting problems within families or the behavioral symptoms. The strategic model has three different explanations for how problems develop. They are cybernetic, structural, and functional. There are four perspectives that make up strategic therapy. These perspectives are the MRI interactional view, MRI Brief therapy, Family Therapy Institute, and the Milan Model. MRI Interactional Model The MRI interactional perspective involved several communication paradigms. Some important concepts of these paradigms include symmetrical and complimentary relationships, symmetrical escalation, and paradoxical injunctions. The therapeutic assumptions include the concepts of first and second order changes, therapeutic double bind, prescribing symptoms, and relabeling. MRI brief family therapy is usually time limited with no more than ten sessions. According to Goldenberg and Goldenberg (2011), “the steps to performing brief therapy is as follows: define the problem, identify any attempted solutions, determine the position of the client, design an intervention, sell the intervention to the client, assign them homework, do a homework follow-up, and then terminate (pg. 313, para.5).” Family Therapy Institute of Madanes and Haley The Haley-Madanes Family Therapy Institute defines the presenting problem in a unique way in which it can be solved. The

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