Family Assessment and Intervention

Family Intervention Movie Assignment “Meet the Parents” One of our main objectives as future counselors is to understand individual clients is to first gain an understanding of family background. Working with family from a systems perspective, the counselor is able to gain an understanding to the ways in which family members interact, what the family norms and expectations are, how effectively members communicate, who makes decisions, and how the family deals with needs and expectations (Edleman & Mandle, 2002).
In the concept of systems theory, a family can exist within a community (suprasystem) and at the same time have smaller relationships within that family (subsystems). By composing genograms, or family tree, one can see information on family relationships, health patterns, occupations, and religion. By composing an ecomap one can see information on how a family and its members interact with larger systems or smaller subsystems. The term family can be defined as “a group of individuals who are bound by strong emotional ties, a sense of belonging, and a passion for being involved in one another’s lives (Wright & Leahey, 2000).
After watching the movie, “Meet the Parents” I decided to watch the whole movie to see where it would be that the intervention would start. The scene where “Greg” tries to get the cat off the roof and ultimately to please Jack his girlfriend’s father he goes to a local animal shelter to purchase a look alike cat for the family cat that ran away, named Jinx (Which I thought in hindsight the cat’s name is the complete situation Greg finds himself in…jinxed).

Once the family gets home and finds ‘Jinx’ has destroyed the dress and the house before his youngest daughter’s wedding everything hits the fan…emotions rage and Jack and Greg are starting to really express themselves. I think Greg does this because he feels he has nothing to lose. The interesting part is how this whole fiasco sort of brings the family and friends together…here is where I would begin my interview. The family members that I chose to conduct my interview and research on are the Burns and Greg (Gaylord Focker). By using the concepts of systems theory, genograms, and, I will be giving you an analysis of her amily and its relationships, health patterns, habits, customs, traditions, and how the members of the family interact with one another and also the outside community. People Characters Nurse Teacher Family Functioning Analyze, assess and suggest intervention Assessment of individuals Assessment of individual and Family dynamics and patterns Behavioral issues and problems Family background Ask the fathers permission to marry the sister Teacher is motivated by what her dad thinks (smoking as a sign of weakness) Family values…compromised…living together Very pretentious
Father is sarcastic and lacks sense of humor Parents still think their daughter as their little girl Mother is in denial and acts as if everything is wonderful Greg is Jewish not much of a family background for meals and family interactions and has problems with saying grace. Father has a lot of secretive ways—CIA psychological profiler Lie detector scene Burns family circle of trust…a tool of manipulation Son sneaks around and has limited freedom Everyone seems to want to please Jack Jack has at traditional mindset of a man’s role and a woman’s role Jack is controlling…. ven to training the cat how to use the bathroom Other son in law bought acceptance Jack’s friend the surgeon play’s into Jack’s machoism Wife was a voice of reason after the cat incident Address the following: What would a counselor look for or need to find out about this family? What would be essential or important How would the therapist go about doing this? What is my assessment of family functioning What are unique things pertaining to this family to be aware of outside or developmental influences on the family (race, culture, stress, family development, remarriage, divorce, etc. What do I think the focus of the intervention should be? What are some treatment goals? What are some type of interventions or therapist interactions that would make a difference? Based on what I know about the family what strategies could be employed? If the family members were making their own changes or interventions, are they effective? Why or why not? If not changes or intervention is seen what do I feel is needed What dynamics need to change What would assessment, goals and intervention look like for this family/