The Puzzling Metaphor: Teaching General Systems Theory to Marriage and Family Therapy Trainees

This article aims to connect the general systems theory (GST) principle of Holism and structural family therapy (SFT) to highlight commonalities between theories. This article will discuss primary concepts, family development, symptomology, process of change, and techniques of SFT in order to provide a basic overview of the theory. In an effort to provide a means for teaching marriage and family therapist trainees, an innovative strategy using metaphor will be introduced. The Puzzling Metaphor symbolizes the systems concept of holism in a visual representation coupled with SFT’s concepts and techniques to concurrently learn principles of both models.

Introduction

Over the past two decades, solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) has become a popular therapeutic model for marriage and family therapist, professional counselors, and social work educators and practitioners. This chapter will provide a historical overview of how SFBT was developed inductively from a multidisciplinary team of clinicians working at the Mental Research Institute in the 1970s, the development of the Brief Family Therapy Center in the 1980s by de Shazer and Kim-Berg, and the development of the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Association in the 2000s. This chapter will also cover the basic tenets of SFBT, an overview of the process of a SFBT session, and serve as an introduction to the rest of the book

Instrument Design and Principle Components Factor Analysis of the Productive Processes Inventory

Many clients drop out of therapy before reaching their goals; and research has yet to develop a thorough understanding of the factors that lead to dropout. Some have suggested that experiencing therapy as helpful or productive is key to therapy persistence. A small body of qualitative research has investigated client perspectives about things that happen during therapy sessions to produce change or therapy productiveness. The present study describes the process of developing and refining an instrument used to measure client perception of therapy productiveness in a sample of participants seeking therapy with a marriage and family therapist. Seventy-two participants engaged in therapy and completed the Productive Processes Inventory (PPI). Procedures used to establish reliability and validity are presented and discussed. Results of a principle components analysis revealed three factors. Results support the potential usefulness of the PPI as a measure of therapy productiveness.