The youtube video found on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzY-njtfX-U is called “The Legacy of Unresolved Loss: A Family Systems approach” and is features Dr. Monica McGoldrick. Over a series of excerpts from four sessions, the video shows the progress a family makes in a family therapy session. It is an accurate and precise summary of the general routine and course a family systems therapy session take. It is short enough to be digestible and comprehended quickly. The movie is oriented in family therapy that combines multiple techniques and therapeutic strategies.
The movie featured a family with a 15-year-old daughter, Cathleen, and a father who had suffered various losses and rearrangements in their familial life in the preceding few years. Namely; the father’s job is very stressful, his wife died, he got remarried and had another child. Cathleen seems to enjoy a passive remark made by the father about having a Puerto Rican mother. Dr. McGoldrick takes this opportunity to engage Cathleen in some questions when she sees that it was the patients first signs of interest throughout the interview sessions. This is very useful in the elementary school teaching experience due to the often thorny navigation of the pupil’s familial life and how it effects his or her school experience.
This was an interesting vignette to learn from. Data was well presented and enjoyable. In it, we learn the value of an opportune time to engage other family members in the setting of family therapy. We further learn the value of the connection a therapist can make with a patient and the importance that the idea of making a connection has on the entire therapeutic arrangement.
Dr. McGoldrick seemed very knowledgeable and equipped to handle her patients. This video clip nicely portrayed a realistic situation where the interplay of family connectedness was challenged by external stressors and the aid a therapist can provide to a parent and child in coping and understanding their situation. It neatly presented the stated theories in an easily manageable way.
References:
McGoldrick, M. (Producer) (2009). Family Systems Therapy with Monica McGoldrick.
Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzY-njtfX-U
