This article is based on the Behavioural Family Therapy analysis which is an integral effort of educating and increasing couples’ awareness on matters which relate to feelings and hypotheses on marital life and the family system. It further interrogates the role of attributions that pertain to the problems which arise as a result of communication in the relationship of the couple.
Behavioural family therapy concerns itself with the awareness of marital ethics through the use of cognitive therapy. Couples exhibit dysfunctional behaviour when they are emotional because they find themselves refining inappropriate information from a general form of hasty conclusions to implied negative reviews.
By this, behavioural therapy is concerned with solving the negative thinking potentials of couples which often transpire into the negative behaviours that cause a toll of distress on marriage. Family therapy is most required in moments of shifts and metamorphosis from one stage to another stage which may prove mentally difficult to understand or contain. Especially, from the stage of early marriage to the period of childbirth and the family structure.
Most children cultivate emotional crises which makes it crucial for a family to visit a therapist. It should be emphasized that children don’t experience a problem solely. It must have been enhanced from either the father’s or the mother’s extremity. Hence, any issue that may arise while training a child must be resolved before the social consciousness of the child.
Based on the works of Patterson and Forgatch of the Oregon Group, this essay will consider their model in the treatment of behavioural family therapy.
Assumptions about parenting: most times, people formulate suppositions about the functions of parents, parenting objectives, and duties/commitments as well as the implication of parents in comparison with other grown-ups who children tend to learn from as they grow.
Regardless of beliefs, the therapist must instil confidence in parents. The assurance that they are in charge of their wards and they have the responsibility and authority to imbue moral positive behaviour in their wards. Parents will, therefore, learn to organize their children in socially acceptable manners. It should be stressed that the environment where a child develops is also vital to what social traits he portrays.
However, as parents are reckoned to nurturing their children, there is a glint of inefficiency which comes from the fear parents inhabit at making mistakes and the fear of conveying impaired beliefs to their children. Also, they fear that their children will contradict and reject them. These are erroneous beliefs and parents must first accept their ability to make mistakes if they want to help the child. This will assist both the parent and the child to overcome unpleasant sentiments in the course of parenting.
At this, it becomes the task of the parents to acquaint their wards with socially appropriate behaviour. By this, parents wield both social and financial responsibility. However, when parents are more firm, they’re able to employ mild punishment and not utilize a form of physical and emotional abuse in the course of training the child. Emotional and physical abuse may cause a strain on the relationship.
It is also important that therapists inform parents about the significance of spending time with their kids. Parents must spend time with their kids to establish a long-term deliberate relationship and become more effective teachers in their life.
The steps to guaranteeing the attainment of this therapeutic process involve coaching parents in maintaining positive behavioural control. The behaviour of the parent must be patterned in a way that accommodates their children.
The first step is concerned with the familiarity of parents with alternate behaviours. By this, parents are provided reading assignments and in-session teachings.
The second step involves informing parents on how to carry out ideas and principles in their homes. The process must be shown to the parents, they must not simply be informed. This practice ensures that even confrontational children ultimately succumb to the instructions of their parents.
The third principle asserts that parents should implement the principles before applying them directly to their kids. By this, the therapist allows them to demonstrate particular gestures to correct them where essential.
The fourth principle provides that those “rehearsed” principles are implemented at home. By this, the skills acquired during sessions with the therapist are applied to secure a healthy family relationship. These practices can, however, be reviewed depending on further developments in the home.
To reinforce effective behavioural programs with families, the therapist must instil basic principles. This is teaching the parents a positive and efficient model of managing their children’s behaviour and the means to reduce the crisis behaviour where parents are most concerned.
One of the important things is to improve positive behaviour while curtailing negative behaviour simultaneously. By this, when a parent corrects bad behaviour, it is replaced by positive behaviour and it discourages exclusive punishment on the children. This then facilitates communication and enhancement of more positive behaviours.
Another priority is teaching children about contingency. This means that children’s desires can only be met after compliance with parents’ demands. By this, there will be a reward for good behaviour which propels children to do what they are required to do.
Consequently, while parents discern both positive and negative behaviours in their wards, they are wary and willing to correct them. It is also important that parents ensure giving rewards that should be easy to secure at first. With time, the rewards may be established based on some embodiments of the child. The reward must also be tangible as the child grows. This gives a child a sense of primacy in the family structure.
A therapist must ensure that parents must punish their wards moderately. It is most times a considerable difficulty for parents to determine the extent of punishments. Some parents want to punish too much or too little, and sometimes, it is as decided by social taboos.
However, an alternative form of punishment is the willful isolation of the child from the family for a brief period of 2 – 5 minutes. A child can be held in the bathroom for such minutes to reconcile with himself before he’s incorporated back into the family. It is also important that verbal force and tone must always be controlled in the family.
The essence of family therapy is to recognize positive and negative behaviour. Recognizing this will aid in training the parents on how to handle their wards without being authoritarian and frightened or weak. This brings the parent closer to their wards and it establishes a long-term communication medium between them. This family support system helps both parents and the child with a conscious attraction to positive social behaviours.