Life Cycle Model -

Stage 1: Single Young Adults: Leaving Home

1. Launching from family-of-origin
2. Becoming independent, emotionally and financially self-reliant
3. Developing intimate relationships outside family-of-origin
4. Differentiation Of self in relation to family of origin

• Begins with courtship, in which individuals test their compatibility and desire for commitment
• This stage is a period of adjustment, accommodation, and commitment
• Forming and defining new couple system
• Redefining relationships with family-of-origin and extended family

1. Adjusting and accommodating to new family, family member(s) – children
2. Balancing the demands of parenthood and being a couple
3. Redefining relationships with family-of-origin and extended family

• Redefining parent-child relationship to accommodate to adolescence
• Increasing levels of peer influence
• Couples may be caring for aging parents in addition to adolescent family members (sandwich generation)
• Addressing midlife issues (career, couple relationship)

Stage 5: Launching Children and Moving On

• Renegotiation of couple system as a dyad
• Redefining relationships –with children as they become adult children with in-laws, grandparents, grandchildren
• Addressing issues associated with aging parents

• Acceptance of support from middle generation
• Balancing new family and social roles in the face of aging
• Dealing with loss

• certain predictable events or phases
• changes are often gradual and continuous

• changes a family system has to make are sudden, disruptive, and lack continuity
• Stressors that result from unexpected life events, often but not always disastrous.

Examples

winning a lottery, getting a divorce, dying young, unexpected death of a spouse, or being taken hostage. ¨ Catastrophes – e.g., house burns down, earthquake, war

• Family structure refers to the functional organization of the family that determines how family members interact.
• Includes: Roles, rules. Hierarchy, Boundaries, Subsystems - These are all the things a therapist is looking for with clients. These make up the nature of the family.
• As interactions among family members are repeated, patterns of interaction and family rules are established.

• Refers to the power balance in the family, how decisions are made, who is in charge.
• In well-functioning families, parents are in charge & children have less authority.
• Problems often arise when this hierarchy is imbalanced or unclear.

• connected with balance between autonomy & closeness. Optimal information flow. (--------------) Structural map

• disengaged relationship (or disengagement),
• lack of information flow,
• lack of connectedness. (Considered extreme)

• Smaller units in families, often determined by generation, role, and/or function
• They exist because these subunits come together to perform functions – whether they are problematic is determined by whether they carry out or fulfill their function.
• They must function independently to fulfill the jobs yet be open enough to get information to and from the family.
• Problems arise when they are not distinct enough and when they are not able to fulfill their function.

• Functions as the decision making body of the family, includes long term goals, values, ambitions, most often comprised of parents or spouses (may include others)
• Responsible for general goals in the family (where to live, religiosity, professions, values, morals, finances, moving, etc.)
• The most qualified members should be in this subsystem.
• Never children in the executive subsystem
• Can include extended family or friends
• Therapist does not presume it’s the nuclear family only.

Functions as the subsystem to raise and nurture the children (guidance, & instrumental support)

Configurations may vary (grandparent, single parent, etc.)

Includes skills for how to raise children

Must balance giving appropriate autonomy and responsibility to children according to age

Boundary should allow children access to both parents

Kids are not in this subsystem.

Members may be in both executive and parental subsystems but boundaries must be clear between the two

EXAMPLES OF INEFFECTENT FUNCTIONING
Disagreement in discipline,

undermining,

unclear boundaries

kids have a say

hierarchical imbalance

over involvement of grandparent

1 Cross-generational coalition - alignment of a person from one generation with another from a different generation against a 3rd family member (father/son are overly close and critical of mother) ( } ) Usually effects the marital subsystem.
· Destructive because it inhibits cohesion in marital subsystem

2 Detouring – parents divert focus of concern onto child
Parents come together to focus on a child in order to avoid dealing with their own stress or problems.
Marital issues become subordinated
Tension on the dyad diffused by focusing on the child

3

• Alignment of a person from one generation with another from a different generation against a 3rd family member
• Example:(father/son are overly close and critical of mother) ( } )
• Usually effects the marital subsystem.
• Destructive because it inhibits cohesion in marital subsystem

• Parents divert focus of concern onto child
• Parents come together to focus on a child in order to avoid dealing with their own stress or problems.
• Marital issues become subordinated
• Tension on the dyad diffused by focusing on the child

Triangulation

• Each parent demands that the child side with him/her in each situation
• Nearly always creates pathology because he cannot respond appropriately and is in a loyalty bind