|
|
 |
APA Psychotherapy Training Videos are intended solely for educational purposes for mental health professionals. Viewers are expected to treat confidential material found herein according to strict professional guidelines. Unauthorized viewing is prohibited.
Before working with a family, it is essential to understand how the family functions in terms of its overall anxiety levels, levels of differentiation, degree of emotional cut-offs, fusion, intergenerational family processes of relating, and areas of conflict. These processes occurring between younger and older family members are building blocks to ensure healthy and balanced attachments. Information about family functions can be attained through the interview process by the creation of a genogram. It is important to identify types of adult children that are caregivers (overresponsible, distant, warring for the gold). It is also important to note the types of elderly people (cooperative and independent, cooperative and dependent, uncooperative and unnecessarily dependent, uncooperative, significantly organically compromised and cooperative, significantly organically compromised and uncooperative). Once the therapist has evaluated the system and the functioning of the individuals within the system (as explained in the preceding paragraphs), it is imperative for both the adult caregiver and the elderly parent or relative to work on the following:
Goals and Techniques for Therapists The primary goal in this approach is to support and enable the caregiver to have the most responsible role possible toward the elderly person. The caregiver must work toward maintaining a quality of life and relationship and monitoring his or her own amount of stress and pressure, enabling the caregiver to have or maintain a healthy quality of life. Some techniques to free the overresponsible caretakers are
In This Video It becomes apparent in the video that the adult son who is experiencing many transitions in life (loss of marriage, loss of daughters, loss of marital home, living with elderly mother, and being assigned as caretaker) is under a great deal of stress. It is fortunate that he has a girlfriend who is supportive to his many losses, jobs, and stresses. It is essential in this session to enable the adult son to realize that he needs
Suggested Outcomes The adult son (caregiver) should be able to set realistic goals for himself and his mother, detoxify the guilt he feels around the commitment to mother, set boundaries, and grieve the loss of his marriage—particularly with his daughters who will energize him so that he can try to develop a new relationship with them. It is important that he give himself enough mental and physical space so that there will be time to nurture the new relationship with his girlfriend while being productive at work. |
|
)
