ABSTRACT
Strategic family therapy is a development that stems from the strategic therapy of Milton Erickson. A primary feature is that the responsibility is on the therapist to plan a strategy for solving the client's problems. The therapist may choose to view the helpless symptomatic child as powerful and the parents may be seen as tyrannical. A strategic therapist generally prefers to think of all symptoms as voluntary and under the control of the patient, although this thought may or may not be shared with the clients. The therapist who thinks of the presenting problem as part of a sequence that is metaphorical for another sequence may think that a change introduced in one sequence of interaction may have repercussions in other relationships in the family. Self-destructive behaviors are usually a misguided attempt to punish someone who does not provide enough love and attention. So the symbolic act should involve certain punitiveness toward those whom the person is symbolically punishing.
