What is a strategic family therapy?

Strategic Family Therapy is a short therapy offered to families. The therapist accepts a front role in identifying conflicts and designing the solution of these conflicts. This type of therapy was developed by Jay Haley as a solution for lower socio -economic families of the class whose problems were not solved by current methods of therapy. Haley was disappointed and discouraged with the results of established methods of family therapy. He noted that social problems and intra-psychic conflicts dealt with existing therapies did not apply to lower socio-economic classes, but only dealt with middle-class problems. With the help of other pioneering psychologists from the time, Haley decided to propose a therapy that would allow the therapist to identify and develop the solutions of the unique social problems of the family.

One of the main defining characteristics of strategic family therapy is that it is the therapy therapy. This is not the case with many other types of therapies that are managed by the client. Therapeutic teraPie means that the therapist is responsible for managing change in the family or individual. The therapist identifies conflicts and provides solutions for these conflicts.

Another characteristic of strategic family therapy, which distinguishes it, is that it does not include introspection in the therapeutic process. Many other types of therapy immerse themselves in the thoughts, feelings and history of the person or family in therapy. Strategic family counseling, however, adheres to the current and immediate problem, does not focus on the basic cause of the problem.

Strategic family therapy is very oriented to the solution and can be divided into five general phases. The first stage is identification of solvable problems. The second phase is to set goals, followed by another phase of designing interventions to achieve the set goals. The fourth phase reviews the response to established interventions and finally the fifth phase involves reviewing overall success or failure of the teraPie.

Critics of strategic family therapies deal with the same argument as advocates use for their effectiveness. Proponents of this therapy argue that its effectiveness is largely caused by the amount of therapists' intervention, but critics consider it rather a disadvantage. The amount of progress depends on how much work the individuals of the family are willing to do. Some therapists think it is ineffective for the therapist to become such an active role in changing clients.