How to Formulate the Therapy (Essay Sample)

Psychology
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Introduction
Samuel and Sarah being African-American couples at their early 50's, they are entitled with a responsibility of bringing up their three grandsons whose parents died in a car accident. Among the two couple, Samuel is the one in good health since his wife has an autoimmune disorder. However, Samuel fears that he does not have the capacity to take care of the kids. On the other hand, Sarah is determined to bring up the kids in honor of her son and daughter-in-law who passed away. The family was referred by their Church pastor for a family therapy which would see them get over their challenges.
How to formulate their therapy
An effective family therapy for Samuel and Sarah can be ensured through addressing a relational and interactional perspective of their problem. I would focus on determining how the responsibility of taking care of the three kids would affect their lives. At the age of 50 they are not able to engage in vibrant projects which would see them secure high income. According to Samuel, they are not certain that they have the ability to take care of the kids. This means that he views the responsibility to be of a higher magnitude than he can bear. I would structure the therapy to discover the possible sources of income which the family can rely upon in taking the responsibility. I would also focus on strengthening the relationship bonds in order to facilitate influential behavior towards bearing the responsibility of taking care of the kids. Despite of Sarah's ill-health, she is determined to take care of the kids. Therefore, if her relationship with her husband is strengthened, she will be able to influence him to start seeing the importance of taking the responsibility. The couple has their own opinions concerning possible measures which can be taken to ensure that the three kids are taken care of. Therefore, I would focus on determining how resourceful they can be in solving the problem. This would include determining the extent of help which they are willing to provide concerning both material assistance and parental care. I would invite other members of their community in order to advise them too concerning their ability to bear the responsibility and offer support where necessary.
Regarding to mutual influences and accountability of families, it will be easy to convince Samuel to accept the responsibility since his wife is already willing to take it. Family members are culturally interconnected which makes actions of one member to affect the rest CITATION RSc06 \l 1033 (Schwartz, 2006). Therefore, if the kids will be willing to stay with their grandparents and Sarah is ready to take care of them, then Samuel will be influenced to bear the responsibility too. I would focus on determining the repetitive behavioral patterns in the relationship of Samuel, Sarah and the kids. This would enable me to determine the best advice which would be effective for the couple in order trigger a common agreement of taking care of the kids. For instance, I would pay attention towards determining how difference in opinions between Sarah and Samuel affects the kids if it occurs in their presence. This will enable me to discover the attitudes held by the kids towards their grandparents. Therefore, if they love one grandparent more than the other, I would prescribe corrective measures through advising behavioral change of the grandparent whom the kids hold a negative attitude towards. This process would enable me to discover what makes Samuel to feel that they are not able to take the responsibility. Sarah is determined to bring them up which means that she has seen the possibility of successively bearing the responsibility. However, Samuel is emotionally distracted and sees it to be too much to bear. This would form the basis of discovering the nature of former relationship between Samuel and kid's parents. Unlike, Sarah Samuel is not fully motivated to ensure honor for the deceased. Bearing in mind that the couple is of different racial backgrounds, I would focus on determining whether this difference could be the cause of the contrary opinions towards bringing up the kids. This would enable me to advise Samuel accordingly and pinpoint the available opportunities which can be utilized to ensure good life for the family. I would perform an assessment of the family functioning in order to discover the extent of trauma affecting both Sarah and Samuel. It would help in determining how the death of the kid's parents affected their grandparents' attitude towards them. The assessment would enable me to discover any possibility of emergent coherence to chaotic systems hence paying attention to intervention planning. Moreover, I would also award attention to discovering the family beliefs. These would include ethical and relationship rules which are followed since they determine the set of expectations concerning roles, actions, and consequences which dictate their behaviors. Therefore, if there are retrogressive beliefs held, I would focus on advising on the necessity to discard them in order for the couples to help each other in raising their grandsons.
Treatment in regard to experiential family therapy
I would refer the couple to their former family relationship when the kid's parents were alive. This would enable me to encourage them to bear the responsibility of taking care of their grandsons in order to promote the good relationship which had been existing in the family before the accident occurred. I would encourage them to consider the incident as their opportunity to show their grandsons how their parents were committed towards supporting the family. This would be attained through taking care of them in order to honor the deceased and appreciate them for their support when they were alive. I would advise Samuel not to take the responsibility as a punishment to them, but a chance to uphold the joy which had been persisted in his family before the accident occurred.
Treatment in regard to psychoanalytic family therapy
I would advise Samuel that for any group which regards itself as a family, there is existence of objective interdependence that makes its members to owe various responsibilities to each other. Therefore, he owes a responsibility of care to his grandsons since they are members of his family and they have not yet matured to take care of themselves. He should stop seeing it as an unbearable responsibility and help his wife in taking it since she has already accepted.
Treatment in regard to cognitive-behavioral therapy
I would inform the couple that their trauma of losing their son and daughter-in-law makes them to feel like despairing in life. This feeling makes Samuel to see raising their grandsons to be much responsibility than they can bear. He also becomes more unwilling to take it after considering her wife's ill-health. He feels like he will be bearing the responsibility alone since he is the one in good health. Therefore, he should be strong to get over the trauma and play his part towards raising the kids.
Analysis of my cultural background
I come from a family of mixed cultures. My parents are of different races and they often incurred challenges in achieving common agreements. Both parents seemed to pay more attention to their different cultures hence making it necessary to have relationship rules. They established a way of sharing responsibilities which made the relationship inflexible in accommodating life changes. They disagreed in adopting their nephew after death of his parents. My father was willing to adopt him since he belonged to his race but my mother was reluctant. This made them to agree that my father would provide for everything needed by his nephew without stretching the responsibility to my mother. These might be the same challenges facing Samuel and Sarah which make them to have different opinions towards adopting their grandsons.
Practices relevant for helping people of culturally diverse backgrounds
People of diverse cultural backgrounds such as Samuel and his wife would be faced by challenges of racism. They tend to make decisions which favor their cultures even if they are members of the same family. Illustration of the multigenerational family life cycle perspective would enable them to discover the cause of the contrary opinions hence triggering need for a common agreement CITATION ASG08 \l 1033 (Gurman, 2008). For instance, since Samuel and Sarah realize their differences in culture which affect the way they make decisions. Therefore, therapy should be guided towards understanding that the effect of cultural difference will con