Counseling Families by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Practical Interventions

The format of family play-based assessment interventions ranges from more structured and standardized approaches (Gehring & Page, 2000) to increasingly creative and informal approaches (Smith, 2000). Some have suggested the single most important factor to consider when selecting a play-based assessment is the presence or absence of a child’s verbal skills as some activities require more or less verbal communication (Russ & Niec, 2011).

One structured family play-based assessment is the Family Systems Test (FAST) developed by Gehring and Page (2000). The FAST assesses relational structures of cohesion and hierarchy within the family by having each member place figures representing family members on a board (similar to a chessboard). The placement of figures on the board reveals each member’s perception of the family as typical, ideal, or conflictual (Gitlin-Weiner et al., 2000). This assessment is normed for ages 6 and up and can be administered with one or several members present. While the directions to this assessment are straightforward and easy to follow, it may be challenging for young children to fully comprehend the directions. Nonetheless, this is a highly utilized assessment with strong psychometric properties and research support that provides many clinical implications and considerations.

The Kinetic Family Drawing (Burns & Kaufman, 1970) is a structured projective assessment in which family members are asked to draw each member of their family, including themselves, doing something. Then the counselor asks each family member to describe all the family members in the picture and say what they are doing. Subsequently, they can tell a story about the picture stating what happened immediately before and after as well as what they would like to change if they could. Extreme caution must be used by not overly interpreting the drawing. The drawing should not be used to determine abuse or predict behavior. It is only to be used for identifying individuals’ perceptions of their family.

Dynamic Play is a specific, semistructured method of family assessment developed by Steve Harvey (2000). In Dynamic Play, families are given tasks centered on interpersonal interactions in a gamelike format and in the presence of a therapist. Variations in formats include art, movement, drama, and video expression (Harvey, 2000). Central to the Dynamic Play assessment process is the concept of creativity. Harvey suggested all family members have a way of creatively interacting with one another that influences the quality and meaning of interpersonal interactions and communications. The targeted gamelike prompts reveal ways in which families communicate and interact with each other.

Diagrammatic methods such as the family genogram, ecomap, and social network grid are less structured family play-based assessment approaches that visually depict the family system in a larger context or environment (Thomlinson, 2014). The counselor asks the family to create a genogram by selecting toys or sand tray miniatures for each family member that they place on a large piece of paper or in a sand tray. The counselor observes the type of toys selected for each person and prompts family members to draw or make a line indicating whether they are close or cut off.

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