ABSTRACT
Sending a member of the family on vacation is a structural move. The therapist’s goal is to help the family develop appropriate boundaries between members by having dominant or overactive members step back and disengage from an enmeshed interaction process that both results in a power play and helps maintain the symptom (Minuchin and Fishman, 1981). It is used more literally by Selvini Palazzoli and her colleagues in strategic therapy (Selvini Palazzoli, 1981) to have the parents leave home and go away for a weekend or longer. This forces the symptomatic child to shift for himself and work out his place with siblings while the parents are away having a good time. The child and symptom are removed as the center of attention. The child is no longer physically between the parents. The parents are relating together in a more relaxed atmosphere without interruption from the children and have a structured opportunity to review their life as a couple.
