Founders:
o Salvador Minuchin
o Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic
o Minuchin Center for the Family in New York
Theory Foundation
o Three constructs of structural family therapy:
- Structure
- Subsystems
- Boundaries
o Family structure
- The functional organization of families that determines how family members interact.
o Hierarchical structure
- Family functioning based on clear generational boundaries, where the parents maintain control and authority.
o Subsystems
- Smaller units of families, determined by generations, sex or function
o Boundaries
- A concept used in structural family therapy to describe emotional barriers that protect and enhance the integrity of individuals, subsystems, and families.
o Disengagement
- Minuchin’s term for psychological isolation that results from overly rigid boundaries around individuals and subsystems in a family.
o Enmeshed
- Minuchin’s term for loss of autonomy due to a blurring of psychological boundaries
o Accommodation
- Elements of a system automatically adjust to coordinate their functioning.
- People may have to work on it
o Salvador Minuchin
o Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic
o Minuchin Center for the Family in New York
Theory Foundation
o Three constructs of structural family therapy:
- Structure
- Subsystems
- Boundaries
o Family structure
- The functional organization of families that determines how family members interact.
o Hierarchical structure
- Family functioning based on clear generational boundaries, where the parents maintain control and authority.
o Subsystems
- Smaller units of families, determined by generations, sex or function
o Boundaries
- A concept used in structural family therapy to describe emotional barriers that protect and enhance the integrity of individuals, subsystems, and families.
o Disengagement
- Minuchin’s term for psychological isolation that results from overly rigid boundaries around individuals and subsystems in a family.
o Enmeshed
- Minuchin’s term for loss of autonomy due to a blurring of psychological boundaries
o Accommodation
- Elements of a system automatically adjust to coordinate their functioning.
- People may have to work on it
