Family Case Study Paper Psychology Essay Research Paper

Family Case Study Paper
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Family Case Study Paper
Traditionally, nurse practitioners deal with identified patients. However, Murray Bowen insists on the importance of family members in reciprocal functioning that impacts the patient’s emotional intensity. In this perspective, the patient’s emotional symptoms reflect their family’s emotional symptoms that are often wired in behavioral patterns from past generations (Haefner, 2014). An understanding of Bowen’s theoretical framework of family systems is critical in providing family therapy. Another model proposed by Salvador Minuchin, structural theory, seeks to consider family relationships, patterns, and behaviors as portrayed within therapy sessions to assess the family structure. Through the structural theory, nurses can utilize activities such as role-play in examining subsystems within the structure of a family such as a sibling or parental subsystems. This approach to family therapy offers an incredible perspective to nursing therapists involved in providing care to multicultural families (Navarre, 2009). This paper describes two hypothetical families and their presenting issues and provides recommendations to apply Bowen’s and structural theories in providing nursing family therapy.
“Bowen” Case Study 1
Case Conceptualization
Having known each on campus, Kara’s and Jamie’s relationship had blossomed after school. They were very close to each other thereby creating a formidable bond between them. Consequently, their relationship soared to greater heights when they got engaged and later married. Nothing changed much albeit they leaned on each other even more for emotional support. They were highly focused on their dreams and goals. Kara respected Jamie as the husband of the homestead while Jamie loved her and was a primal source of comfort particularly in times of challenging times. After a couple of years in their marriage, Kara got pregnant, which a process that came with its dynamics. Changes in her body shape and weight brought about increased self-esteem issues. Increased blood pressure caused swelling of the legs (edema) and this position coupled with nausea raised her insecurities to extraordinary levels.
Despite the prevailing situation, both knew that their dreams and goals were equally important. Jamie was the leader in this aspect and his rising position in the company meant that his time with Kara was limited and even further, he perceived Kara’s concerns as nonessential. The distancing nature of the relationship became even more prevalent after their baby boy was born. The decreasing time between Kara and Jamie meant that the former sought comfort from her son. Besides, she was keen on ensuring that her son became more independent and strong emotionally. This situation arose as Jamie was keen to highlight that work was overwhelming his life. It was getting to be an ensuing dynamic that was far from what they had while on campus.
The mother and son grew close together with their bond advancing daily. This position meant that their son, Edu was quite demanding at times. He had grown to become a young man with explosive tantrums with anxious moods as well as poor sleep patterns. In such circumstances, Kara and Jamie claimed that he had come selfish, and worse is that he would cry often. However, if Edu portrayed this type of behavior excessively, Jamie would project harsher words towards him. Alternatively, his mother would come to his defense. On the other hand, if the problem was between the mother and her son, then Kara would ask Jamie to intervene with the best advice. It is something that Jamie would do although he never felt that this was never the right approach to the situation. However, he never spoke to his wife about these predispositions.
The ensuing dynamic was a reflection of a triangular relationship. In essence, when Kara was in circumstances that posed as emotional barriers to her, she would turn to her husband for comfort and consolation. In case Jamie failed to fulfill his needs, which became prevalent as the relationship grew, Kara would opt to ‘use’ her son as the conduit to making herself feel better. This development guaranteed a sense of overprotection meaning that the son was less capacitated to deal with minor issues himself. Resentment, as well as ill behavior of conversing rudely, was the consequence. Finally, there was Jamie with whom he had no clarity on where he should place his emotions and feelings. He failed to align with Kara’s demands of speaking worthwhile advice to his son because he thought that it made him even more malleable from the best result. Initially, he failed to understand why Kara was quite demanding while she knew that work was taking a toll on him. In essence, Jamie was the outsider in this relationship while his nuclear members were insiders who had a greater bond and sought to protect each other in the worst circumstances.
Intervention Plans
It is very important that healthcare practitioners and more so nurses, get acquainted with Bowen’s therapy techniques as he offers explicit ideas on how to face these circumstances. For instance, the family systems therapy takes into account all the tensions, triangles, distance, closeness, and emotional processes that remain unsolved from the family origin (Haefner, 2014). Besides, this approach invokes everyone’s participation. Nursing practitioners will use n genogram to articulate possible substance abuse, physical and mental health as well as the prevailing family relationships. Therefore, a genogram, which is a mere graphical representation of these dynamics offers the nursing practitioner with an avid analysis of this situation and more importantly, it helps in organizing multigenerational information (Rovers, 2004).
A nurse who is at the center of this process will commend the need of people particularly the parents to address the situation at hand but from the ‘I’ perspective. This aspect is what Bowen described as the differentiation of self where a person sought to determine their contributions to the problems rather exhibiting blames and emotional reactivity (Jankowski & Hooper, 2012). Also, the therapist must remain neutral whilst being objective so that Kara, Jamie, and their son, Edu can recognize their input to their current predicament. Edu will realize that he has overt emotional responses that would obscure his ability to see other possible alternatives. On the other hand, Kara will get to acknowledge her role in the change process considering that she is a very important bridge in her family. Further, the case for boundaries will attenuate when she is too demanding and when Jamie is underwhelming in his duties as the leader of the house.
Above all, family members understand their emotional processes and patterns. The therapist will not only seek to enhance the need to understand their emergence but will also endear to find amicable solutions for those that are dysfunctional. Thus, the de-triangling process is only successful when the individuals involved realizing the root cause of their emotional behaviors (Haefner, 2014). The use of open-ended questions is an exceptional tool for this achievement. In this case, the healthcare practitioner will request the parents to pay greater attention to the periods when the members’ anxiety and tension are very high because that moment offers the best observations and learning experiences. When it came to Edu’s case where he had psychological disturbances, then the conc...