Family Therapy with Adolescents: Giving Up The Struggle

This paper examines problems in adolescence from the perspective of a power struggle between parent(s) and teenager. The structural approach of Minuchin and the strategic approaches of Haley, Madanes, and the Mental Research Institute (M.R.I.) are considered in relation to the significance they attribute to power and power struggles in families with adolescents. It is argued that the M.R.I. approach has certain therapeutic advantages for working with problematic adolescents, primarily because of its focus on understanding and intervening in the power struggle itself. A focus on the power struggle as the ‘problem’ reminds the therapist of the circular nature of parent-adolescent interactions. This awareness assists the therapist to design indirect interventions that are less likely to become absorbed into this vicious cycle. It also encourages a therapeutic stance that prevents the therapist from becoming involved in a power struggle with family members.