What was the focus of the therapist’s assessment?

The therapist focused on the factors contributing to Chuck’s behavior at school or situations that might have facilitated his erratic behavior. Chuck had reportedly been suspended at the initial elementary school where he was enrolled, and the parents transferred him to a private elementary school where he graduated with honors. Despite his graduation with honors, he was under probation for acting out behaviors that have become an issue in the present case. In his current school, the social worker at the school has received several complaints about Chuck’s outrageous behavior, ranging from eating sandwiches in the classroom, unsportsmanlike conduct, and resulting in the disqualification of the school’s track team. There is a pattern to Chuck’s behavior, as he has equally been kicked out of two other private high schools, and the parents presently have enrolled him in the local suburban high school.

In determining the cause of Chuck’s behavior, the therapist’s approach was to examine each family member’s analysis of Chuck’s situation and what could be the issue. Through the forum where each member contributed to the study of Chuck’s behavior, the therapist assessment focused on the family dynamics and how they might have impacted Chuck’s actions. The family environment would often dictate the way children behave (Rasheed, Rasheed, & Marley, 2010). Depending on a child’s situation within the family context, their outward behavior could be erratic or accommodative. In the case of Chuck, his behavior could be a reaction to what he experiences within the family context. For the therapist, examining the possibility that the child’s behavior is incited from within the family setup would provide a means of determining the appropriate therapy. If the situation is externally motivated, the therapist would equally develop a therapy session that addresses the issue at hand (Rasheed, Rasheed, & Marley, 2010). Only by allowing each family member to evaluate Chuck’s situation could the therapist adequately analyze the contributing factors or influencers to his behavior. 

What hypotheses did the therapist develop about the family’s/couple’s dynamics?

From the therapist’s session with the family, the hypotheses developed were that Chuck’s behavior was a reaction to his mother’s strictness, the harsh words that the mother was using against him, and the lack of sustained involvement of Mr. Richardson in Chuck’s situations. Additionally, the therapist discovered that the mother was commanding and domineering over other family members, which was unhealthy for the development of the children. In the case of Chuck, he demonstrated his reservations by acting out at school. The behavior started when Chuck was young, given his problems from elementary school. The other aspect could be high expectations from Chuck, regardless of the achievements that he could have made, as is demonstrated in the way Mrs. Richardson seems to handle the job opportunities that Mr. Richardson gets.

Another aspect of the couple’s dynamics is collective agreement on what to do or implement the family’s decisions. For instance, in the desire by Mrs. Richardson to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle, the same is not followed by both Mr. Richardson and Chuck. The net effect is that only Felicia and Mrs. Richardson keep to the dictates of a vegetarian lifestyle. It reveals a lack of togetherness in the decisions that the family makes. Most likely, it is a matter of communication and ensuring that each family member communicates their displeasure to a decision to be made by the family. The type of communication and decision-making approaches that the family is using are not working in their favor. They are the likely reasons for tension and discomfort that morphs into Chuck’s acting-out behavior at school. Mrs. Richardson is too overbearing and does not give any other family member the room to communicate freely. 

How did the therapeutic interventions address these underlying problems?

The issues that emerged were that the communication approach that the family was using was dysfunctional. Also, some of the family members had low self-esteem. The therapist approached the interventions in three stages; where the first stage was to affirm the worth of the family members, and in the second stage, the therapist sought to allow the family to get into protected communication areas. In the third stage, the therapist focused on providing an aura of motivation for the family on the benefits of their change in approaches on how they communicate and address each other. Within the first stage, the objective was to ensure that every family member displayed with each other in different communication styles through the experiential exercises formulated by the therapist. The effect was that Mrs. Richardson could witness some of the issues that family members would want to communicate to her in the past. Some of the issues include the reservations on issues that Mrs. Richardson is blind to, given the past communication approach. Additionally, the experiential exercises revealed to the family members that the communication style that they were using was detrimental. For Mrs. Richardson, she could visualize what her domineering approach was causing to her husband and children. For Chuck, Felicia, and Mr. Richardson, they could voice out their concerns freely.

In the second intervention approach, the therapist’s objective was to allow each family member to understand how harmful their previous communication style was, as this would act as a mechanism of ensuring that they do not revert to the old communication behavior. With this, the family would sustain the benefits from the first intervention for the future. Lastly, in the third intervention stage, the therapist sought to display to the family members the effect of their changes, which is a motivating tool for each family member to stick with the new developments for the betterment of the family. Mr. Richardson was communicating better and was spending more time with the family. On the other hand, Chuck was showing minimal erratic behavior at school, and some of the reasons for his disciplinary issues were less serious than the previous case. 

What else do you believe the therapist should have explored with this family/couple?

The other aspect that I thought the therapist could have explored was the impact of external factors on how Chuck behaved. Internal issues within the family could influence the type of behavior that children portray. In some cases, they could be a combination of both external and internal issues. Despite Chuck’s erratic behavior lessening, he was still facing disciplinary matters at school. It could be that the therapist could have explored the influence of either friend that Chuck has at school, or other effects from the extended family, or likelihood of an antisocial personality disorder. Subsequently, the solution to the issue could have corrected the cause of Chuck’s behavior as impacted by the family’s dysfunctional communication style, but not addressed any external causes.

References

Rasheed, J. M., Rasheed, M. N., & Marley, J. A. (2010). Family therapy: Models and

techniques. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications