Breastfeeding

86% of mothers do not meet recommendations to breastfeed infants until they reach at least 6 months.


CDC. 2003 National Immunization Survey in Social Marketing:  Influencing behaviors for good by Philip Kotler and Nancy R. Lee, 3rd Edition, CA: Sage Publications, 2008.

What to Do and Say...

 “It is your task not to advise, not to change, not to tell, but to inquire. As you inquire, clarify, and reflect, you will gain an appreciation of the client’s ability to think, to reason, to plan and to problem-solve" 

(Urdang, 1999)


You really gotta trust the client and the process in order to not do certain things.  You really gotta believe in and respect the client in order to appreciate how they think and make decisions.  You gotta trust and believe.

Managing our Aggressive Drive

We all have an aggressive drive (all of us!) - built in when we were born.

1.  So how do you want it served up from others?

a.  Passive aggressively (consider that hiding our feelings in order to be polite does not dissipate the aggression, only channels it underground where it is expressed in some other way)

b.  Assertively (consider that it might be most respectful to self & others to state clearly what we want and need, regardless of what the other person might say or do)

c.  Aggressively (do what we want without regard for others and their safety - it may seem to work for a time, but this can come back to bite us and cost us in both the short-term and long-term)

If you chose b., then use your voice. Consider doing to others as you would have them do to you.

Conflict Resolution

"Conflict avoidance guarantees a certain sense of equilibrium but at the same time prevents growth and differentiation. Growth and differentiation are the offspring of conflict resolution."

Stay quiet and keep the peace?  

Or choose to use your voice and grow up into who you really are?


Szapocznik, J. (1989).  Structural family versus psychodynamic child therapy for problematic Hispanic boys.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57(5), 571-578. 

Structural Family Systems Theory

"One of the central tenets of family systems theory is that the child, the identified patient, is serving an active role in holding the family together by helping the family avoid other problems."

In one study, when the behavior of disruptive boys improved, the families began to deteriorate in their general functioning.  This only occurred when only psychodynamic child therapy was used  to improve child behavior but did not occur when structural family therapy was used.

"Structural family systems therapy assumes that treating the whole family is important because it improves the symptoms and protects the family, whereas treating only the child may result in deteriorated family functioning."

"Structural family therapy (SFT) is well suited because of the match between this approach and the value orientations and interpersonal style of Latino families." 

"Underlying processes are seen as being primarily responsible for the symptoms.  SFT aims at symptom reduction.  SFT postulates that family interactions represent the intervening variable that needs to be modified in order to eliminate the symptom."

"Psychotherapy does not have the answers to poverty and other social problems."
"Therapeutic strategy focused on realignment of the structural relationships within the family. The therapeutic solution is in the modification of such structure - changes in positions of family members.  Hierarchical relations and coalitions are frequently in need of a redefinition." 

Szapocznik, J. (1989).  Structural family versus psychodynamic child therapy for problematic Hispanic boys.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57(5), 571-578. 

Family Systems by Bowen

Overall Principles of Family Systems Theory & Therapy

"The same patterns that exist in families are present also in social and work relationships and relationship patterns have the quality of systems."

"Systems therapy assumes that all important people in the family unit play a part in the way family members function in relation to each other and in the way the symptom finally erupts." 

"The family is a system in that a change in the functioning of one family member is automatically followed by a compensatory change in another family member."

Alcoholism as viewed through family systems theory and family psychotherapy by Murray Bowen in Annals of New York Academy of Sciences (1974).

The Family Can Have the Corrective Experience

"In psychodynamic therapy, the therapist provides the corrective experience.  In family therapy, the parent is taught to change his or her behavior so that the parent becomes the source of the corrective experience."

Szapocznik, J. (1989).  Structural family versus psychodynamic child therapy for problematic Hispanic boys.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57(5), 571-578.