ABSTRACT
Wamboldt, Gurman, and Wamboldt (1985) discuss four quadrants that depict different schools of family therapy that one could research. (See Diagram 3.1, page 18.) It should be mentioned that there have been new developments in the field of family therapy, especially with the new narrative, constructivist, and strategic schools since this circumplex model was created ten years ago. However, I believe the basic overview of the schools of family therapy still has utility. The first quadrant represents behavioral interventions and psychoeducational approaches. These schools of thinking emphasized outer changes in one's behavior with emphasis on adjustment and support. Much focus was on fixing the individual or having others in the family cope better with a problematic family member. The second quadrant represents the structural and strategic models. These schools worked with changing the external transactional behaviors between family members. The third quadrant is labeled humanistic, including gestalt, symbolic experiential and Satirian family therapy. These schools of thinking emphasized the uniqueness of the individual's subjective internal experience, especially the person's affective life. In addition, the individual's experience was explored in their relationship to connections within their most significant intimate others. The last quadrant includes the psychodynamic marital and family therapy and multi-generational approaches. These schools reinforced the need to integrate historical patterns of family life with present-day functioning.
