ABSTRACT
Family-of-origin therapists are unique among family clinicians in several ways. First, there is a disproportionate emphasis on theory versus clinical techniques. Whereas much of family therapy is devoted to intervention techniques, such as symptom prescription (Haley, 1976), paradoxical injunctions (SelviniPalazoli, Boscolo, Checchin, & Prata, 1978), boundary establishments (Minuchin & Fishman, 1981), or generating new cognitive frames and solutions (deShazer, 1985), family-of-origin treatment sees understanding of historical patterns as the key to therapeutic change. The genogram, a schematic family history discussed in greater detail later in this chapter, is a tool used to depict these patterns. Armed with these historical insights, the client will then be less emotionally reactive to relationship triggers, and a calmer, more choiceful behavioral pattern will follow. Therapies can be placed on a continuum with respect to the relative emphasis on affect, cognition, or behavior as the fulcrum of change. Family-of-origin therapy is heavily weighted toward the cognitive end of this spectrum. However, the cognitive aspect of this treatment is not directed toward present-centered thought patterns as in Beck's (1976) therapy for depression but instead focuses on history and its meaning. The client and therapist become engaged in a process similar to that of an anthropological historian—the goal is to elucidate family themes and how they are behaviorally symbolized.
