Identify a specific family that you regularly interact with at your field placement.
Provide a brief description of the family, including family structure (e.g., two parents, single-parent, multi-generational, same-sex), ages and genders of the family members, race/ ethnicity, socioeconomic status and living situation, and other relevant characteristics. Review the family of origin, current family system, household composition, and any other information relevant to the case analysis. Begin to point toward the theory your family therapy model would indicate to attend to (e.g. sibling birth order for Bowen, boundary problems for Structural, etc.). Use relevant literature to discuss how these family system attributes are strengths and/or vulnerabilities and how the family constellation contributes to, or helps mediate, the presenting problem/s.
Briefly describe how the contact with this family began, how often you see the family (identify family members that the social worker tend to see most often), and what the initial reason(s) for the referral were.
Of the theoretical approaches and interventions covered in the course, which might be the most effective with this family? Explain your rationale. Succinctly describe the presenting problem/s as defined by the family (when did it start, who does it affect, what are the beliefs about what caused it, what has been tried to resolve the issue?). Then describe how the family therapy approach you are using would conceptualize the problem. Use this section to briefly introduce the family therapy approach you are using for this assignment, and the reason why.
Engagement:
Review strategies that you used or might use to engage this client and family system in a supportive relationship. What socio-cultural aspects will you attend to while working on engaging the client/family? How would you explain the approach you will use in understanding the presenting problem/s to the family?
Assessment:
Provide a comprehensive assessment of this family, including its experiences with migration, family structure, and life cycle factors. In your answer, address the strengths and challenges of every family member, family relationships, communication patterns and hierarchy, etc. Moreover, discuss relevant contextual factors, such as parental education and employment, living arrangements, community factors, cultural factors, etc. Be sure to explicitly incorporate knowledge from the theoretical perspective(s) in your answer.
Describe your approach to assessment with this family, based on the theoretical approach you have selected. How would you structure the assessment sessions? Would you be meeting with the entire family each session? What information would you seek? What types of questions would you use? Are there any specific assessment tools that would likely aid in your work with this client? How would you share the findings of your assessment with the client/family?
Reflect on your thoughts and feelings during the assessment process. Try to identify the impact of your family background, personal characteristics and cultural values and biases on the interpretation of assessment data. What self-corrective measures could you take to address such influences?
Intervention:
Review interventions that may be used with this family. Select at least two interventions (from the model you have chosen) and discuss them in detail. Explain not just the general ideas of intervention from this model, but specifically how you would use the two interventions with this client/family directed toward their specific presenting concerns.
Describe the ending of the intervention process, as well as any activities conducted to ensure a successful transition. How did you evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention? Reflect on the family members` feelings in this process, and identify the skills used to ensure a successful ending.
Reflect on your thoughts and feelings during the intervention process. Describe the components of the intervention that you consider to be particularly successful, and others that may have been particularly challenging. This may have included a value conflict, an ethical dilemma, or a need to modify your approach based on the family’s unique cultural background or experiences of discrimination and oppression. Describe what made this challenging for you, how you modified your approach, and what you might do differently next time. Reflect on your ability to successfully implement a specific intervention strategy and what you learned during this process.
