Family Therapy

Abstract

Family therapy is a set of treatment methods based in a systemic understanding of mutual influence in family systems, and which typically involve the presence of more than one family member in treatment. Research finds the effect sizes of couple and family therapy to be approximately the same as in individual therapy, with 70% of clients showing significant improvement. The first major schools of family therapy included structural family therapy, strategic therapy, Bowen therapy, and experiential, cognitive, and psychoanalytic therapies. Ideas and intervention strategies from each of these schools have influenced present practice. Today, many major forms of family therapy are largely integrative, including multidimensional, multi-systemic, and functional family therapies and integrative behavioral and emotionally focused couple therapies. Understandings of culture and gender are crucial foundations of today's family therapies. Keywords: family therapy; family systems; couple therapy