Satir's Family Therapy Model

Background information and dynamics of the family

Gorden Wong, 30 years old, elder son in the family; living with father, Sing (age 70), mother, Cindy (age 65) and younger brother, Simon (age 25). Sing and Cindy retired for 4 and 10 year separately. Simon is still in the college, studying a nursing course; he will be graduated from college in coming July.

Sing and Cindy were immigrants from Mainland China 35 years before. They are hard working and live frugally. Father Sing grew up in a big family, having 6 brothers and sisters. Well educated (high school) in Mainland China, experienced the Cultural Revolution when he is teenage. When he is the age of 35, in order to look for a different life and living, he then immigrated to Hong Kong with

When the communication in the family members is in indirect, unclear, vague, dishonest, distorted, and incomplete, it is a poor communication. The tense relationship may cause because of the different understanding on social event, Simon thought parents are over-reacting, and then tended to have less communication. Therefore when Simon was highly involved in the Umbrella Movement, Cindy felt stressful and anxious. Also Simon seldom shares his daily life to the family members. Communication is indirect, unclear and incomplete. In essence, poor communication results in low self-esteem, which can trigger individual or familial maladaptive responses, especially in times of high stress. According to Satir’s review, functional families are having clear, complete, congruent communication in which there are clear roles and rules to govern family processes. A functional family is compatible with Satir’s notion of an “open system”, interchange of information and resources is clear within and without the adaptive and dynamic

The intervention session plans to help the family member to understand that what they have within themselves. The Wong’s family members have their own resources to grow, change, and solve problems. Like what Satir viewed family problems that are symptom of an indication of impaired communication. It will block the freedom of family members to grow and denies them an opportunity to thrive in a family environment that promotes health, well-being, and good self-esteem. The intervention plan aims to help individual family members feel good about themselves. The goal of first two sessions is to enhance the growth potential of the individual, the self-actualization. Therapy was set to integrate the needs of each individual family member for independent growth with the integrity of the family system (Satir & Baldwin, 1983). It also entails the installation of hope, helping the family and its individual members enter therapy to develop a positive feeling. Helping refocus the family off of the presenting problem or symptom and on to the strengths within the family. Like Satir’s growth-oriented approach, the intervention focuses on the transformation of the individual rather than an attempt to eliminate or extinguish