Treatment Planning for Marriage and Family Therapists, Essay Example

From the intergenerational perspective, the issues occurring between David, Martha, and their son is due to an inherent prejudice that each generation holds against the other. This issue reappeared when David and Martha placed their son under the care of his grandparents for the same purpose. In this situation, it appears that the main problem occurring between David and Martha and their son is disagreement pertaining to religious and cultural beliefs. Since David and Martha are devout members of their cult, they see their son’s deviance as an objection to their beliefs, which they believe should not be tolerated.

Ultimately, the issue at hand here is the parents and their son fail to see eye to eye concerning their participation in the cult. The cult lifestyle draws David and Martha to it because they believe that it provides them with a supportive community, which they were likely lacking before involvement. Because they are devoted to the community and the community has done good things for them, they are unable to see why their son opposes these practices and believe that he is a bad child for doing so.

From this perspective, a helpful intervention would be to work towards the establishment of intergenerational equity in the family. It would therefore be helpful for David, Martha, and their three sons to engage in family therapy using structural and strategic therapy techniques. In this situation, the goal of the counselor would be to enhance communication between family members, and then eventually allow them to build a mutual respect for everyone’s opinions. Ultimately, it is important to send the message that they should learn to accept their son despite the fact that he does not share their religious beliefs.

The object relations theory suggests that the way that people react to others in their adult lives is a reflection of family experiences during infancy. Therefore, in contrast to the intergeneration perspective, the goal of therapy in this situation would be to make David and Martha understand that they do not need to expect a lack of support from the people in their lives. It is possible that they began involvement in their cult because they feel that this is the only true community they have, and they have let this primary connection consume them in a manner that contributes to neglect of their son.

Since this theory is related to psychotherapy and unveiling suppressed memories, it is ideal to focus on the potential abuse that David and/or Martha experienced in their childhood. Although they do not recognize it, they are behaving as if their son’s refusal to belong to their cult is his way of rejecting them as parents. It is therefore the role of the counselor to lead sessions and provide prompts that will allow David and Martha to recognize the root cause of how they treat their child. As sessions continue, they will be made to see that they are treating him in the manner that they expect others to treat them and that they are using their cult involvement as a way to cope with these feelings. The final goal for therapy is for David and Martha to learn to accept their son and to allow them to provide support for one another as a family.

References

Gehart DR, Tuttle AR. Theory-Based Treatment Planning for Marriage and Family Therapists. (2003). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.