CONTEMPORARY FAMILY SYSTEM 1 Contemporary Family System
Anthony Hill
Saybrook University
Professor Jane Warren 1 CONTEMPORARY FAMILY SYSTEM 2 Identifies and explores: 2. Cultural Dimensions, and 3.A Developmental Trajectory
and The Family Form Identifies and explores: 1. Challenges (Cultural, economic,
racial, etc.) faced in this contemporary family system, 2. Their Strengths, and 3.
Resilience characteristics.
The movie I selected was Greenleaf, which is the exploration of the Bishop of a
Christian Church. The movie is set in the south. The setting includes the lifestyles of the
family which is condensed within the structure of the father, Bishop who oversees all
things. The Bishop is married to a mixed raced African American woman, whose father
is living with them as a senior disabled person needing living support. They have a son
who’s also a pastor of another church, a daughter who is having a child from her
husband who is a closet gay man; The other daughter is co-pastor at the Bishop’s
Greenleaf Church. This daughter is divorced from her husband who is Caucasian and
lives outside of the county where the family resides. They also have a mixed raced
daughter who resides with them. The brother is married to another African American
woman and they have one daughter. This brother is also pastoring for a neighboring
church who also competes with the Bishop’s church for congregation members and
social influences. The wife of the Bishop has a brother and sister, who interface within
the family dynamics and have integral influence on the dynamics of the family history.
The children of all the brothers and sisters are very supportive of each other, even to a
fault. They look out for each other and are protective of their family culture as well. CONTEMPORARY FAMILY SYSTEM 3 Let me first discuss the dynamics of large African American congregation churches so
you can understand the culture of this family. The Bishop and lead Pastor, took over the
church through the appointment of the senior church committee. The brother, who left to
the neighboring church, who also wanted to take the Bishops position, but was ignored
due to the rumors and challenges he had with his own past transgressions. As a result,
the Bishop’s dynamic characteristic, trust in God, ability to lead through trials and
tribulations, caused the church to grow and build a following that allowed for financial
stability and strength.
Black churches also hold high esteem and power within the community. This is
due to the political influence to adopt change and increase status for its members. The
congregations usually take on the entitlement of the leader of the church and this
carries them through difficult times. Many church goers follow the lead pastor’s
message more than their own personal lead. This caused many affects to their own
families as a result, such as who to trust. As a result, following the pastor also allowed
the members to feel comfortable knowing who their leader was and this made it a very
competitive environment. Many of the congregation members are known as opportunist
and came through the church to reach better community status and job opportunties.
Having this influence also always for status in the community, opportunity
for potential financial wealth, eventually changing one’s position quickly. The antithesis
of this situation within the church is being ostracized out from the committee and from
the support network which offers a variety of assistance. CONTEMPORARY FAMILY SYSTEM 4 The family hierarchy usually involves the approval of the Bishop and Mother of
the Church, his wife. The functionality within this family structure includes the
characteristic traits of manipulation, cheating, incest, gossip, rumors, backstabbing,
stonewalling, infidelity, and tough love. Even though these dysfunctions were normal
family behaviors, every person in the family still needed the approval within the
hierarchy. This approval came at the cost of people going to jail, embezzlement, and
even death. Each family member, worked extremely hard to get other member’s
approval and support. This trait was done to a fault at times and when a situation didn’t
go their way, “the any means necessary became the standard”. An example is when the
Bishop accidently started a fire and caused a lost life in the church and the family hid
this from the community, the church, and police for many years. It took the resentment
and bitterness of the wife’s brother, who wanted the Bishop’s job, to tell this former
rumor into the truth to individuals outside of the family.
The brother of the Bishops wife was in jail at the time for molesting many of the
young adults for many years. Because of his jealousy and envy of the Bishop, he told
this information to another family members who told the police. He ends up at the
bishop’s house with the police releasing him. The Bishop’s Wife’s brother He told a
family secret to get out of jail compromising his own situation with the family. Even
though he would never get the position as the Bishop, he made the decision to seek his
truth and try to get some of the family members to except him back even with his
transgressions of sexual abuse.
Identifies and explores what this system might need or what does it have to
develop family resilience and well-being. (note the family resources) CONTEMPORARY FAMILY SYSTEM 5 The dynamics involved with this family include, competition, power struggles, and missidentity. With all these barriers and confusion, the family continue’s to being resilient by
growing, gaining community support, and increased exposure and wealth. With these
challenges as a family, the Bishop and wife did not divorce and make their marriages
work even though their were many indescretions. Other resilient family behavior’s that
continued even through the indescretions, included the bishop’s wife incestual
relationship with her father, but kept him in the house because he was not able to take
care of himself independently. As well as the disapproval of the Bishop’s son going to a
rival church to preach, because he was not able to maintain his position at Greenleaf
church. The Bishop and his wife continued to support his son even though they he was
working with the other senior pastor of the rival church. This family shows resilience
through the trauma and dysfunctional dynamics, and gives credit to God as the reason
they are still alive and together.
Identifies and explores what might be some practices and intervention strategies
(evidence based) that would contribute to the wellbeing or enhance the well-being
of this system (Honest communication; roles redefined, fun, etc.)
General practice strategies that come to mind would include implementing family
group sessions, referrals for supportive services, and mediation. Because the family unit
had so many secrets and rumors surrounding its identity, these services would be
encouraged and acknowledged. Healing through talk therapy would follow up with
everyone regarding these sessions, because legalities, value based outcomes and
support groups would need to be included as part of the implementation plan for this CONTEMPORARY FAMILY SYSTEM 6 family system (Young, 2016). Also, because of the trauma associated with the acts
went on for years, I would seek additional help. I would consider bringing in a
psychiatrist and psychologist to help deal with the shame and guilt each person carries
from knowing what they knew about the family’s past and never speaking up.
Interventions within the religious sects are sometimes challenging. The
challenges begin with the difference in how a person teaching index starts. For religious
persons from Greenleaf they follow Christianity and for a therapist who utilized secular
perspectives, this can be challenging without having some experience in that arena.
Many times, it can be difficult to develop treatment components that incorporate the
Bible without understanding it within its context. But some intervention strategies to
consider, may include psychoeducational, and humanistic experiential therapies. To
implement the suggested strategies, the counselor should include assessments that
scale religious and cultural perspectives as part of the guiding principle to follow.
Cognitive behavioral therapy could be used because it combines
behavioral interventions and attempts to decrease maladaptive behaviors and
implementing the capacity to new ones. Secondly the cognitive interventions attempt to
improve the thought process and belief system.
The Solution Focused Therapy could be utilized because it dives
into the solutions as quickly as possible. This may help their family rather than keeping
people in therapy for long periods of time, in order to promote relief for those in therapy.
This also would help because of the controlled environment of the church setting in
which the family system works. Also because of the trauma associated with the acts
involved for years, I would consider bringing in a psychiatrist and psychologist to help CONTEMPORARY FAMILY SYSTEM 7 deal with the shame and guilt each person carries from knowing what they know about
the family past and personal responsibility.
Identifies theories used (Adler, Satir, Cog Beh., Sol. Focused, Structural, etc.)
The various theories used would have to support the goals associated with each
character. I believe that focus based solution would be one that would work for these
individuals because they have a belief that through God, all things will work out for their
good. Cognitive behavioral therapy could be used to respond to the various challenges
brought forward from the wife’s brother who repeatedly sexually abused the young
women in the family and in the community because he had a mental impairment which
he could not get past until he went to jail (Bowen, 2016).
The incest that was occurring between the wife and her dad, I would consider
utilizing the Adlerian approach to first adopt the principles of addressing the major
problem in which this act kept occurring even though they knew its detriment and
secrecy would come out at some time in the family. As for the husband who was
married but had relationships with other males and had daily turmoil within himself and
his family, I would utilize narrative therapy in which he began knowing about his feelings
and explore the issue of identity he had as a man and what that meant to him.
COMMENT
As a therapists the challenge is working with religious clients is to develop treatment
components that incorporate the Bible. When mental illness is apparent for a religious
person, the traits of guilt, shame, resentment, grief, and loss are reported as the reason CONTEMPORARY FAMILY SYSTEM 8 for their behavior or illness. This can make it challenging when the patient has hidden
behind their religion or “masking” to get to the truth, thus becoming more difficult to
treat. Utilizing a spiritual based intervention, as part of the psychotherapy, can be
beneficial in the treatment of clients with religious beliefs. These interventions may
include prayer, meditation, fasting, or a person from the patient’s faith as part of the
integration and dialogue. These integrations have been found to improve conditions of
patients by reducing anxiety and depression and increasing self-awareness.
References
Bowen, A. (2016). Encouragement and adjustment: Investigation of the relationship
between Adlerian encouragement and military resilience (Doctoral dissertation,
Adler School of Professional Psychology).
Young, J. H. (2016). Mindfulness-Based Strategic Awareness Training: A Complete
Program for Leaders and Individuals. John Wiley & Sons.
Bitter, J. R. (2014). Theory and practice of family therapy and counseling (2nd ed.).
Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Garzon, Fernando, Interventions that Apply Scripture In Pscyhotherapy
Journal of Psychology & Theology. Summer2005, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p113-121..

• 1493861914-movie paper 4-27-17.docx

SuperTutor

(15)

Status NEW Posted 04 May 2017 01:05 AM My Price 20.00

-----------

Attachments

file 1493861921-Solutions file.docx preview (56 words )

S-----------olu-----------tio-----------ns -----------fil-----------e -----------Hel-----------lo -----------Sir-----------/Ma-----------dam----------- T-----------han-----------k y-----------ou -----------for----------- yo-----------ur -----------int-----------ere-----------st -----------and----------- bu-----------yin-----------g m-----------y p-----------ost-----------ed -----------sol-----------uti-----------on.----------- Pl-----------eas-----------e p-----------ing----------- me----------- on----------- ch-----------at -----------I a-----------m o-----------nli-----------ne -----------or -----------inb-----------ox -----------me -----------a m-----------ess-----------age----------- I -----------wil-----------l b-----------e q-----------uic-----------kly----------- on-----------lin-----------e a-----------nd -----------giv-----------e y-----------ou -----------exa-----------ct -----------fil-----------e a-----------nd -----------the----------- sa-----------me -----------fil-----------e i-----------s a-----------lso----------- se-----------nt -----------to -----------you-----------r e-----------mai-----------l t-----------hat----------- is----------- re-----------gis-----------ter-----------ed -----------on�-----------�th-----------is -----------web-----------sit-----------e. ----------- H-----------YPE-----------RLI-----------NK -----------&qu-----------ot;-----------htt-----------p:/-----------/wo-----------rkb-----------ank-----------247-----------.co-----------m/&-----------quo-----------t; -----------\t -----------&qu-----------ot;-----------_bl-----------ank-----------&qu-----------ot;----------- -----------Tha-----------nk -----------you----------- -----------

Not Rated(0)

• Buy Answer