COUN 610---Family Counseling Syllabus

INSTRUCTOR:     Dale Brotherton
Office:                    205 Killian (WCU)
Telephone:             (704) 227-7310

Prerequisite:

Accepted in counseling program or permission from instructor.

Course Description

Theories to be addressed will include: systems theory from developmental perspective, family of origin, contextual, structural, strategic, and experiential.

Statement of Purpose

The fundamental role of Western Carolina University is to develop a community of scholarship in which students, faculty members, administrators and staff members learn and apply the products of learning. The School of Education and Psychology fulfills this mission by providing students the opportunity to grow within their personal roles as inviting, reflective, decision-makers in educational and other settings. The guiding principle for all instruction in the School is the belief that the best educational decisions are made after adequate reflection and with interests and welfare of persons affected by the decisions in mind.

This is a didactic and experiential course, intended to expose students to family counseling knowledge and skills in the following areas: advantages for clients, ethical guidelines, historical development of the field, research findings and trends, specific theories, application of theories, and counselor skills.
Students will be expected to participate in class presentations, discussions, role plays, and group exercises with the understanding that any self-disclosures are voluntary and the "property" of the individual who discloses (i.e., we will respect each other's confidentiality). However, students have the "right of exit" as to direct participation in a particular role play or demonstration. Students will be asked to give and receive feedback in the "here and now" as to the counseling process as it unfolds during demonstrations and role plays.

Films and discussions of minority, traditional, and non-traditional family counseling are incorporated into the course.

1.     History and professional organization
2.     Understanding Systems theory
3.     Understanding family development across the life span
4.     Use of Genogram and assessment techniques
5.     Structural family therapy
6.     Strategic family therapy
7.     Brief Family therapies
8.     Transgenerational therapies
9.     Experiential family therapy
10.   Behavioral family therapy
11.   New family counseling approaches
12.   Professional responsibilities and ethical considerations

Competencies

Through testing, out of class assignments, class discussion, presentations, and demonstrations the student will show competency in the following areas:

1.     identifying family systems as having structure, process and development aspects.

2.     assessment and treatment of marital problems.

3.     assessment and treatment of family problems across the life span.

4.     for each therapeutic orientation

       --identify theoretical background

       --discuss healthy and unhealthy interactions

       --describe the therapeutic process

       --identify the goals of the therapeutic process

       --understand the role of the therapist

5.     case management and consultation with school systems and parents and other professionals.

6.     understanding of the history as it pertains to the development of family therapy as a discipline.

7.     ethical issues in child, family, and marital therapy

Texts:
                        Glading, S. T. (1998). Family therapy: History, theory and Practice. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill.

                      Family therapy glossary. (1982) Eds: Foley, V. and Everett, C. American Association for Marriage and Family  Therapy.

Various Handouts to be distributed during the course.

Course Requirements and Grading:
                                                                                          % of Grade                          Due
Family Development paper                                                       40 %                               3/31/98
Family Genogram                                                                     10 %                               3/31/98
Exam                                                                                       30 %                               5/5/98
Five Article Reviews                                                                10 %                               3/3/98
Attendance and Participation                                                    10 %

A     93 % or higher
B     80 % to 92 %
C     70 % to 79 %
F     69 % or Below

Attendance Policy

Students are expected to be punctual and attend all class meetings. A student who either plans or inadvertently misses one class period will not be penalized. Additional absence will result in loss of 10 % of grade. Please contact the instructor concerning any absence.

RECOMMENDED BIBLIOGRAPHY

A counseling professional's learning is never complete. It is expected that the student will develop a pattern of professional reading of material pertinent to counseling field which goes beyond what is offered in the classroom. Below is a suggested list of readings some of which will be on reserve in the library under the course rubric and instructor's name.

        Barnhill, L. R., and Longo, D. (1978). Fixation and regression in the family life cycle. Family Process. 17:469-478.

        Fairbairn, W. D. (1952). An object-relations theory of the personality. New York: Basic Books.

        Gardner, R. (1972). The mutual storytelling technique in the treatment of anger inhibition problems. The International Journal of Child Psychiatry, 1,66-86.

        Green, R. & Framo, J. (Eds.), (1981). Family therapy: Major contributions. Madison, Ct: International Universities Press, Inc.

        Greenspan, S. (1981). The clinical interview of the child. New York: McGraw-Hill.

        Hill, R. (1970). Family development in three generations. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman.

        Luepnitz, D. (1988). The family interpreted: Feminist theory in clinical practice. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

        Jacobson, N. S. (1977). Problem-solving and contingency contracting in the treatment of marital discord. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 45:92-100.

        Jacobson, N. S., and Follette, W. C., and Elwood, R. W. (1984). Outcome research on behavioral marital therapy: A methodological and conceptual reappraisal. In Marital interaction: Analysis and modification, K. Hahlweg and N. Jacobson, ed. New York: Guilford.

        Kempler, W. (1965). Experiential psychotherapy with families. Family Process. 7:88-89.

        Martin, P. A., and Bird, H. W. (1953). An approach to the psychotherapy of marriage partners. Psychiatry. 16:123-127.

        Satir, V. M., and Baldwin, M. (1983). Satir step by step: A guide to creating change in families. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books.
 
 

Date                                                Topic                                                        Reading

1/6                                                    Introduction to Systems Theory                    Glossary
                                                         Three Family Functions
                                                         Pre-Test

1/13                                                 Healthy/unhealthy families                              Chap. 2

1/20                                                 Fam. Development                                        Chap. 1

1/27                                                 Fam. therapy history                                      Chap. 3
                                                       Genogram Fam. Assessment                           Chap. 4
                                                        Film
 

2/3                                                  Transgenerational Fam. T.                               Chap. 5
                                                       Framo and Mate Selection

2/10                                                Transgenerational Fam. T.                               Chap. 5
                                                       Bowen

2/17                                                Transgenerational Fam. T.                               Chap. 5
                                                       Boszormenyi-Nagy

2/24                                                Strategic and Solution Focused T.                   Chap. 9&10

3/3                                                  Structural Family T.                                        Chap. 8

3/10                                                Spring Break

3/17                                                Experiential Fam. T.                                       Chap. 6

3/24                                                Behavioral and Cognitive Fam. T                    Chap. 7

3/31                                                Single Parent Family                                       Chap. 11

4/7                                                  Remarried Family                                           Chap. 12

4/14                                                Professional Resp.                                          Chap. 14
                                                       Ethics, Research Chap. 1                                Appendix A & B

4/21                                               Assessment with Families                                 Chap. 15

4/28                                               New Counseling Approaches                            Chap. 16
                                                      Gender Bias in Family Counseling Theories
                                                       Post-test

5/5                                                 Final Exam
 
 

Article Critique:

Choose five articles from therapy journals which discuss treatment approaches to various marital or family issues. Read and critique each article using the following guidelines.

•  Should be typed (font size of 12), double spaced, and no longer than 1.5 pages.
•  Indicate the treatment issue and population being treated.
•  Identify the theoretical approach to treatment.
•  Are there important aspects of assessment and treatment you believe the author(s) needed to consider?
•  Do you have ethical concerns about this approach to treatment? Were these concerns addressed by the author(s).

1. Construct a three generation genogram of your family beginning with you and your siblings as the first generation. If you are or have been in a significant relationship (married or other arrangement) include this information and indicate children if present.

2. Include all significant events (i.e. births, marriages, divorces, deaths, sickness, etc.)

3. Include relationship lines between you and key family members.

4. Identify long-term triangles.

5. Identify external and internal boundaries.

6. For information you include in items 3, 4, 5, write briefly the reasoning behind your insights. (This is a way of letting me know you know what you are talking about based on what you are learning in this class.)

Family Development Paper

For this paper, focus on your family of procreation.

Using family life cycle information provided in your text and Brotherton's developmental model, describe and discuss the development of your family.

1. You should begin with exploring how your parents individually left their own homes.

2. You should discuss their courtship process.

3. With the beginning of the marriage, how did the families of origin relate to one another?

4. With the beginning of the marriage, how did the families of origin involve themselves with the marital couple?

5. What plans were made for children to be born in this family?

6. Discuss changes around adding the parent-child subsystem to the family.

7. Discuss involvement of family of origins with your family as it adds children.

8. Discuss how interaction patterns changed around different developmental periods of the family up through each of your
siblings (include yourself) leaving home.

9. Identify stresses which impacted your family from when your parents were married till the children left home.

10. Finally, briefly identify where the different family units (siblings and parents) are currently at developmentally.

610syl.s98