Family Counseling and Gender Differences Assignment

Family Counseling and Gender Differences - Assignment Example The gender difference is important in the family to be able to have dynamics in the interaction and the roles being played. One experience that exhibited the importance of gender roles and gender differences in the family is having different perspectives in decision making. The mother can offer a different view from the father, thus as an offspring, I can make decisions wisely. II. Homeostasis in the Family Homeostasis means stability within the family, thus, it defines the different processes and actions undertaken by the members of the family to achieve this state. There are different instances when this had occurred in the family. One example is when one of my parents needed to work far from home. The habit of seeing and having my father at home to ask advice from became one of the deprivations when he worked in a place far from home. Adjustments to such situation and achievement of homeostasis can be considered as long and tiring journey (Goldenberg and Goldenderg, 2008, p.84; Wo rden, 2002, p.3) III. Marital Skew, Marital Schism, and Emotional Divorce There are different situations in the life of the family that can affect each member. Examples of these situations can be classified to marital schism, marital skew, and emotional divorce. Marital schism can be defined as the failure of the parent to fulfill his or her role in the family due to preoccupation in his or her own problems, e.g. work, which can ultimately result to the undermining of the role of the other parent in the eyes of the children. This can negatively affect the family relationship and dynamics (Goldenberg and Goldenderg, 2008, p.104). Marital skew is the situation wherein problems and stress are encountered in the family but not enough to threaten the marriage. One of the main examples that define the concept is having one psychotic parent who is continuously dependent and weak. One negative effect of such a situation is the development of denials and distortions in the reality being view ed by the children just to cope with the situation (Goldenberg and Goldenderg, 2008, p.105) Emotional divorce or emotional distance is a stage in the relationship of parents in the family which occurs between the periods of over closeness and over distance. It is similar to the situation within the family experiencing marital skew. This leads to the situation when the distance between the two parents balances out and stabilizes to the point where there is the least amount of anxiety in their relationship and w0ithin the family (Goldenberg and Goldenderg, 2008, p.105-6) IV. Symptomatic Family member A symptomatic behavior of an identified patient includes motives of improving family relationships by expressing that the conflict is caused by other family members. This is expected behavior, thus, the main method of intervention is talking to the whole family and then to each member of the family to fix any conflict. The main target is to let the patient feel at ease first prior to the intervention that can help the symptomatic member of the family (Goldenberg and Goldenderg, 2008, p.20; Worden, 2002, p.3). Thus, when this happens, other members of the family should cooperate and prevent from making negative reactions toward the intervention to be able to help a family member in need.