Structural Family Therapy Services

Structural Family Therapy

This approach stresses the importance of family organization for the functioning of the group and the well-being of its members. The worker "joins" (engages) the family in an effort to restructure it. Family structure is defined as the invisible set of functional demands organizing interaction among family members. Boundaries and the rules determining who does what, where, and when are crucial in three ways: 

1. Interpersonal boundaries define individual family members and promote their differentiation and autonomous yet interdependent functioning. Dysfunctional families tend to be characterized by either a pattern of rigid enmeshment or disengagement.
2. Boundaries with the outside world define the family unit, but boundaries must be permeable enough to maintain a well-functioning open system allowing contact and reciprocal exchanges with the social world.
3. Hierarchical organization in families of all cultures is maintained by: generational boundaries, the rules differentiating parent and child roles, and rights and obligations.