Structural therapy applied to a family in the city of La Paz

Abstract

Lucia is a 14-year-old teenager. Attend consultation derived by a psychotherapist colleague, along with his parents, Carlos of 50 years and Carola of 46. He has an older sister of 18 years of age. The family's demand is focused on the identified patient, its members refer that Lucia shows bad character, bad mood, emotional explosions, anxiety problems and possible scattered attention. The present case study was carried out in different stages, each consisting of several sessions. In the first stage we proceeded to collect information in individual sessions with the adolescent sisters, starting with Lucía, in order to obtain a good therapeutic alliance with both; In addition, the patient is referred to a specialist in neuropsychology to rule out possible difficulties in attention, memory or other functions. During the second stage, family sessions were held to intervene and achieve a change in the organization of the family by having different hypotheses about the relational diagnosis and the malfunctioning within it regarding its limits and rules, hierarchies, roles and functions.. In the third stage, couple sessions are planned with Lucia's parents, and thus intervene on the possible collusion and, therefore, triangulation of the identified patient. The design of therapeutic intervention is based on Systemic Family Therapy in its models of Structural Therapy and Strategic Therapy focused on Solutions. The most used techniques were: the accommodation, the staging, the approach, the search for exceptions to the problem, the question of the miracle and the scale questions. Currently, the family shows remarkable changes in their interactions and is learning new behavioral repertoires to be able to relate in a more functional way.