As the members of the family are interviewed, individually and together, the therapist is able to assemble a coherent picture of the family, its typical ways of interacting, the habitual, automatic patterns of response of one family member to another, the family's values and beliefs. What one member tries to hide another often will express.
The family therapist has a difficult double role, as both observer and participant. He or she needs to be able to notice what the styles of interaction of individual family members are and at the same time interact with members of the family. The therapist tries to bring about meaningful emotional interchange, create an atmosphere of trust and rapport, and reduce the feeling that family members are threatened.
Over time, the therapist seeks to show the members of a family how they tend to interrelate inappropriately, how their own ineffective defenses cause them to hurt one another. To do this, the therapist has to be able to cut through the vicious circles of resentment, anger, blame, frustration, and intimidation that frequently hold families in a death grip.
THE THERAPIST'S FUNCTIONS
In both marriage and family therapy therapists must:
* establish a sense of rapport and trusting communication between clients and themselves
* use this rapport to bring out the conflicts, frustrations, and inadequate means of communication that burden their clients
* see through denials, rationalizations, and excuses
* push family members to put out in the open feelings and pains they have kept from one another