Filial Therapy

Filial Therapy

Student’s Name

Institution

Filial Therapy

Introduction

Caregivers are integral personnel during the filial therapy process. Play theory has helped many families since the 1960s, particularly because it involves both parents and caregivers to act directly as agents of change elicited by the therapy (Guerney, & Ryan, 2012). In particular, caregivers facilitate effectiveness in executing therapeutic programs because of their direct involvement in the whole process. Some caregivers double their roles by being both the trained play therapist and family psychological nurses. Conventionally, they work in collaboration with the parents and therapists to build better attachment relationship of children with their families.

Typically, children always love involving themselves in “special play time.” Also, parents and caregivers find that, the time spent during the filial play therapy is valuable and heralds happiness (VanFleet, 2014). Notably, the therapy helps parents to develop some form of consistency in parenting style since the plays assist them to get accustomed to their children’s needs and desires. As such, the family relationship and attachment become enhanced.

As a result, any family filial treatment plan should involve the caregivers so as to achieve manifold outcomes (Landreth, & Bratton, 2006). The treatment benefits children, parents, and caregivers in a number of ways such as:

Appropriately manifest and enhance the inner thoughts and emotions of children.

Assist the child to employ his or her inner sanctum to assign meanings to issues, people, or relations.

Help the children to synthesize the world, with particular interest in the immediate family environment for proper cognitive development.

Allows parents to avert pervasive personality development in their children.

Parents and caregivers use the playing sessions to develop relevant communication skills that the children understand.

Strengthen the caregiver/parent’s relationship with the children using the filial play, which is apparently children’s natural language.

The intervention helps children who have been abused or neglected through a constructive approach to amend their filial relationships.

The counseling technique teaches caregivers the necessary skills for problem-solving and promoting empathy using non-punitive and healthy boundaries (VanFleet, 2014). Thus, they strengthen the bond with the children. Play, as a natural children’s language is taught to the parents and also caregivers learn varied skills.

Table 1: shows what caregivers and parents learn

What caregivers and parents learn during the child-centered play therapy

Boundaries Designation of the physical area for playing

Communicating to children about how and what they should play

Reflection and tracking Caregivers learn empathetic listening skills

They learn how to verbally reflect what the children do or feel during the session

Non-Directive play Caregivers develop the skill of letting the children play without directions

Limit setting They set limits to ensure safety and protection during the play sessions

Different forms of therapy

Filial therapy can be done in different ways or contexts. For example, it can be school, individual, or family-based; therefore, all the different forms elicit some benefits and challenges (VanFleet, 2000).

The benefits, risks, and challenges of the therapeutic programs

Family-Based Therapy

Benefits

The therapy may involve all the family members; thus, resulting in synergistic outcomes.

Family caregivers fully cooperate with the parents and therapist professionals to rebuild the relationships completely.

Parents have ample time to involve weekly in the play sessions with the children for up to the recommended six months.

Strengthen family cohesion and support.

Risks and Challenges

Family therapy may not be child-centered as the focus is given to the family.

The therapy seems multifaceted since it aims at benefiting all members of the family; thus, aims cannot be fully achieved.

Family therapists may have a hard time to plan for the session which includes many subjects.

Family-centered therapy may just benefit a few persons in the family.

Individual-Based Therapy

Benefits

Individual focus on one person may make the therapy to result in increased benefits

Many people, friends, and family may devote their support on one individual

It is easier to plan for an individual client than the whole family

The problem can be solved together in a family context.

Challenges

Not all family members are included in the in the therapy sessions

The therapists face intricacies in developing the effective ways of solving all family’s difficulties and challenges.

The therapists and the patient do not receive appropriate support from the other relations and family.

Case Study

This psychological therapy focuses on Jared and his family, which include his mother, auntie, and grandmother. The African-American Scot child shows some symptoms of cussing and hitting in the school. All the members of the family show some aspects of problems; for example, Jared’s mother devotes most of her time away from the family, Morita cannot visit her friends since she has to care for Jared. The grandfather also worries about the history of her family, where men, brothers, or husbands have not been present.

Rationale for filial therapy in relation to the case study

In Jared’s family, filial therapy is seemingly the best mechanism for solving their family problems and situations (VanFleet, 2000). First, the therapy shall help Jared, both at home and school to express his fears and feelings through the use playing as his favorite and natural language for development. He is a kid and over time, Jared will:

Understand his feelings better and become capable of presenting them more appropriately. As result, he would develop the cognitive skills to solve the cussing and hitting problems.

Jared would learn and develop his communication skills and shun the abusive language that he is used to. Also, he will be capable of communicating to his peers, teachers, aunt, mother, and grandmother about what he worries about or want.

He could also learn to appropriately and confidently solve his problems or seek help from the family.

Jared would feel more secure with his family and learn to trust the parents because of increased healthy self-esteem and confidence.

In addition, the mother, grandmother, and auntie to Jared will acquire, learn, and develop several skills to help construct their family’s torn social cohesion. That would help them to focus more or their social development rather than thinking about men fathers who lack in their family.

Filial therapy will not only help the Jared but will also make the family understand Jared’s worries or other feelings. That would encourage cooperation within the family (Guerney, & Ryan, 2012).

The family will enjoy playing and attending to Jared through listening and communicating.

They shall also develop self-confidence and trust in their children and deal with the frustrations within the family.

Carl Rogers/ Psychanalytic Theory and the filial theory

Carl Rogers, a highly acclaimed humanistic psychologist developed the theory of personality. He emphasized the value of self-actualization as a mechanism for shaping people’s personalities (VanFleet, 2014). In a phenomenal context, he argued that humans consistently react according to their subjective reality, which shows dynamism. With time, people acquire self-concepts concerning the feedbacks of reality (Hill, 2014). The self-conception demands unconditional and conditional positive regard. The former denotes an environment without preconceived value notions while the latter is the environment with worthy predeterminations of success. In sum, human beings develop real and ideal selves based on positive regard. The dichotomous aspects (real and ideal) occur in correspondence called congruity (Landreth, & Bratton, 2006). The model of the theory is illustrated as shown in the figure below.

Figure 1: Illustrates Carl Rogers Psychanalytic Theory

Source: (Guerney, & Ryan, 2012)

Notably, Carl Rogers’ theory is disconnected, but related to filial theory. According to Rogers, the phenomenal field of self-conceptualization is made up of objects, people, thoughts, behaviors, and images. Similarly, filial theory aims at developing the mentioned facets of being. For example in the case study, filial program would help Jared and the family to achieve self-know-how or conceptualization, which is multifaceted and shown on the diagram (Landreth, & Bratton, 2006). Again, Roger’s self-concept is a function of individual motivation and learning from the environment. The environment could represent the physical aspect, caregivers, families, or therapists, which is likewise to the idea of filial therapy (Guerney, & Ryan, 2012).

Legal and ethical issues in filial therapy

When conducting the intake interviews or during the whole period of therapy, specific ethical concerns must be observed; for example:

Autonomy: The client’s right has to be in a self-governing nature in order to allow the children to employ their mechanisms, skills, capacity, and rights for their development and psychological healing.

Fidelity: The trust and confidence placed in the therapist or practitioner must be honored. That ensures confidentiality and non-disclosure of information concerning the client or the practitioner.

Beneficence: All the operations must be done in the best interest of the clients so as to promote commitment to their wellbeing.

Non-maleficence: It is ethical to avoid any form of client exploitation through incompetence, malpractice, sexual, emotional, or financial exploitations.

Justice through impartial and fair treatment of the client is imperative; coupled with self-respect and professionalism.

Examples of Intake interview questions for filial therapy

At the preliminary intake stage, the vital information to be known include developmental, social, medical, and mental history of the client (Hill, 2014). The information should provide a clue about family interactions, attitudes, skills, and child/parent behaviors (Schaefer, 2011). The therapist asks the questions to plan and develop the foundation of the potential intervention mechanism. From the mentioned case study, possible questions the therapist might ask might include:

What does Jared like to play?

How is his relationship with his friends and family?

What does he feel about not knowing his father?

Does Jared he knows that cussing and hitting friends are not nice behaviors?

Do you know your role as the family during the therapy?

What are other peculiar behaviors or conduct do Jared show?

Are you as a family ready to cooperate in the process?

In conclusion, the intake questions can be so many, but all must relate to all the dimensions of therapy. As such, filial therapy must be planned for in order to build the foundation of the process and to assist the therapist in inculcating all what is required (Schaefer, 2011). However, the success of the whole process is dependent on cumulative contributions from the child, caregivers, parents, family, and the practitioners.

References

Guerney, L. F., & Ryan, V. (2012). Group Filial Therapy: The Complete Guide to Teaching Parents to Play Therapeutically with their Children. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Hill, C. E. (2014). Helping Skills: Facilitating Exploration, Insight, and Action.Landreth, G.,& Bratton, S. (2006). Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT): A 10-Session Filial Therapy Model. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN: 9780415951104

Schaefer, C. E. (2011). Foundations of Play Therapy. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.

VanFleet, R. (2000). A Parent’s Handbook of Filial Play Therapy: Building Strong Families with Play. Boiling Springs, PA: Play Therapy Press. ISBN: 9781930557062

VanFleet, R. (2014). Filial Therapy: Strengthening Parent-Child Relationships through Play (3rd ed.). Sarasote, FL: Professional Resource Press. ISBN: 9781568871455