Introduction
Families have been traditionally known as the foundation of any community and nation/ unfortunately, this is increasingly ceasing to be the case given the ever-rising number of divorce and separation rates family therapy has for some time been seen as a savior to this fundamental institution of any nation but just how effective are they?
Discussion
It is clear that from the many researchers including Neil Jacobson that among the numerous concepts and methods of family therapy methods, none has so far been proved to be one hundred percent effective. In his critic of Snyder et al 99, Neil suggested that various methods of therapy had to be tried on various t couple in order to establish which method works better and for which type of couple or family. Despite many researchers agreeing with Neil idea that couples and families should be exposed to different kinds of treatments Gurman 91 had a different opinion saying that since it has not yet been known which kind of treatment reported the highest percentage of efficacy, couples should not be hurriedly changed from one type of treatment to another just for the sake of it. (Friedlander et el 2006, suggested that therapeutic alliance whose main aim was according to Bordin 99 to explore a problem, establish a common ground that would eventually lead to a hopeful accomplishment of a mutual goal, was an important variable to many families and couples. However due to the limited research and also different couples and counselors involved, it is difficult to quantify this method as the best method yet.
Due to the different behavioral and emotional aspects exhibited by different couples and families at different stages of treatment including both pre and post-treatment periods, it has become very difficult to establish any particular method that works. Though a consensus has been reached that Behavior Couples Therapy (BCT) has been effective for both marital adjustments and satisfaction, Cognitive Behavior Marital Therapy (CMBT) seems to be better since it deals with the unrealistic expectations and beliefs that a (BCT) client would have had to live with. For the emotionally focused couples, the Insight-oriented Marital Therapy (IOMT) approach proved superior to BCT since clients were encouraged to solve their problems by first examining themselves and correcting any fault found then deal with external types of relationships. These clients were expected to have more or less control of their emotions since they now had an understanding of the underlying principle and subsequently relate better with their spouses. IOMT proved to be efficacious compared to BCT especially since after a period of follow-up for both treatments clients, the ratio of divorce was at 38 percent and 3 percent respectively. However CMBT was proved to be superior to both BCT and IOMT in changing spouses’ related experiences (Michael 2007).
Conclusion
Given the many problems facing many couples and families it is clear from the above discussion that marital counseling has a long way to go before it can be proved to be effective. The fundamental challenge is basically to find one form of treatment that can at least deal efficiently with all the forms of marital problems currently present. Therapeutic alliance was thought to be the best type of marital counseling in the market. However it has faced problems just like others and therefore needs more research. The challenges include for example a questionnaire that can be designed for couple with a particular problem only for the couple to exhibit a mixture of symptoms that will sideline the goals of the researcher. Researchers have therefore decided to change the method of research to be able to accommodate as much information as they can including history, multiple symptoms, changes experienced with different types of treatment, expectations etc in order to be able to come up with a more comprehensive data that can give a more accurate picture of what is happening on the ground both during pre and post-treatment. It is also clear from the material available that there has not been enough comprehensive report and therefore family therapy is likely not to be effective presently but hopefully with much research in the future, there will be a solution to the family sector (Pinsof 2000).
Reference
Michael, P. and Richard, C. (2007) Concepts and Methods, Pearson Education (US).
Carter, B, and Monica, M. (1989): The Changing Family Life Cycle, 60-90 Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Pinsof, (2000) the Family Therapy Alliance Scale-Revised.