What is Structural Family Therapy?
Strained relationships, stress and anger can make households and families feel like they’re walking on eggshells. However, this tension and strife can be healed through different family therapy methods, including Structural Family Therapy.
If you’re looking to work on conflict and dysfunction within your family, Structural Family Therapy at Broward Therapists may be the right option for you.
What is Structural Family Therapy?
The goal of Structural Family Therapy is to recognize and change unhealthy behaviors within your family to improve your family’s overall relationships and interactions.
SFT is an evidence-based therapy method that believes that dysfunctional family relationships create stress and mental health challenges for other members of the family. Therefore, each family member is present during SFT, allowing a trained Broward Therapist to fully understand how your family interacts.
An added benefit to SFT is that, since each family member is present, our therapists can get a true, holistic view of your family’s relationships. Further, every family member gets to share their viewpoint, allowing Broward Therapists to truly understand your dynamics.
When is Structural Family Therapy used?
Structural Family Therapy is one of the most popular family therapy models used. It is mostly used in families experiencing distress, tension and conflict from different situations, including:
Divorce, separation, remarriage
Blended families
Intergenerational families
Single-parent families
Family members impacted by mental health conditions
Families dealing with chronic illness or disability
Significant life changes
How can Structural Family Therapy help?
Structural Family Therapy is helpful because it recognizes and focuses on the fact that a family’s structures—including habits, communication and routines—play a role in a family’s dysfunction.
During SFT sessions, your family will learn how to establish healthy boundaries, improve communication and relationship dynamics, ultimately reducing anger and resentment. The goal of SFT is to create a positive, stable and loving home for every family member.
Common techniques used in Structural Family Therapy:
Since Structural Family Therapy aims to understand each family member intricately, there are certain techniques that many counselors, including those at Broward Therapists, use to help fully comprehend these dynamics.
Enactment: Our therapists observe family interactions in real time and guide you toward healthier communication and behavior patterns
Restructuring: Helps adjust the family’s hierarchy and interaction patterns—guiding parents in adopting more effective leadership roles or helping siblings develop healthier ways of connecting
Boundary setting: Establishes clear, appropriate boundaries between family subsystems—working with family members to strengthen roles, responsibilities and healthy communication patterns
Joining and accommodating: Our therapists connect with your family in a supportive way, earning trust and learning how you interact so that change can happen
What makes Structural Family Therapy beneficial?
Research has found there are four main benefits to Structural Family Therapy. These benefits include:
Reorganizing the family structure: The benefit of reorganization is that each family member has a clearly defined role within the family, allowing for healthy interactions
Improving emotional connections: Building emotional connections helps family members better understand one another and provide genuine, mutual support
Identifying strengths and resources: Highlighting existing strengths promotes collaborative problem-solving and supports growth and development through positive, healthy interactions
Adaptability and flexibility: Our therapists work collaboratively to identify effective solutions while taking into account your family’s cultural background and how it influences both challenges and resolutions
Structural Family Therapy at Broward Therapists:
At Broward Therapists, we know that Structural Family Therapy is an empirical and effective method to help families resolve struggles, improve communication and overall family dynamics.
If you’re ready to take the next step and better your family’s relationships, reach out to Broward Therapists to see how our highly trained and qualified team can help your family move toward a healthier, loving future.