Introduction
Structural Family Therapy is a method for understanding and treating behavioral problems within the context of the family. Its characteristic features are an emphasis on interactional context as the organizer of individual behaviors, the central role assigned to the family as the protagonist of therapy, and the reliance on “making change happen” in the therapy room.
Prominent Associated Figures
SFT is the brainchild of Dr. Salvador Minuchin. He recognized Braulio Montalvo as his “most influential teacher” (Minuchin 1974, p. iv). Other authors associated with the model are Harry Aponte, Jorge Colapinto, Charles Fishman, Jay Lappin, Patricia Minuchin, Michael Nichols, George Simon, and Wai-Yung lee.
Theoretical Framework
Core Concepts
Structural Family Therapy poses that individual behaviors are shaped by the relational contextwithin which they occur. If a father screams at her son, the structural therapist wants to know what is happening between and around them. What is...
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References
Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and family therapy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Minuchin, S., & Fishman, H. C. (1981). Family therapy techniques. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Minuchin, S., Montalvo, B., Guerney, B. G., Rosman, B. L., & Schumer, F. (1967). Families of the slums. New York: Basic Books.
Minuchin, S., Rosman, B. L., & Baker, L. (1978). Psychosomatic families: Anorexia nervosa in context. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Minuchin, P., Colapinto, J., & Minuchin, S. (2007). Working with families of the poor. New York: Guilford.
Stanton, M. D., & Todd, T. C. (1982). Family therapy of drug abuse and addiction. New York: Guilford.
Szapocznik, J., Schwartz, S. J., Muir, J. A., & Hendricks Brown, C. (2012). Brief strategic family therapy: An intervention to reduce adolescent risk behavior. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 1(2), 134–145.
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Colapinto, J. (2019). Structural Family Therapy. In: Lebow, J.L., Chambers, A.L., Breunlin, D.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_334
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_334
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