Hypothetical Case Study Description

1.0 Case Description

Joaquín is aged 37. His citizenship status indicates that he is a Mexican immigrant. Jane, his wife, is aged 33. The couple presents to an agency charged with family services. In particular, the central subject is that the couple is experiencing family problems. Asked about the length of the marriage, the couple states that they have been together for a period extending to 11 years. Additionally, Joaquín and Jane have a daughter and a son. Whereas the daughter is aged 7, their son is aged 5. At the agency, Joaquín and Jane are also asked about their period of stay in the U.S. Indeed, they indicate that they have lived in this region for seven years. Currently, Joaquín has been laid off. This adversity comes after a six-year provision of services in one of the local factories, having served in a machine worker's position. Following the layoff, Joaquín currently works as a day laborer. On her part, Jane remains the family's housekeeper.

On his part, Joaquín states to the agency that he has a complaint regarding Jane's recent change in behavior. Mainly, Joaquín indicates that Jane has proved nagging in the recent past – relative to his (Joaquín's) drinking. However, Joaquín contends that recent months have witnessed him drink alcohol more frequently. However, he asserts that the increase in the duration and frequency of drinking has not impacted his daily operations. In defense of this stance, Joaquín indicates that he only drinks during weekends while avoiding drinking during the rest of the weekdays. However, it is notable that he declines to disclose the amount he drinks on these weekends.

Similarly, the couple states to the agency that they have faced significant challenges. The challenges are indicated to emanate from their stay in the U.S., with their citizenship status, suggesting that they are Mexican immigrants. One of the challenges is expressly stated to involve linguistic problems, because neither Joaquín nor Jane speaks fluent English. Joaquín proceeds to indicate the guilt he feels for letting down his family. He says that the recent job layoff has made him worried due to the predicted and looming family economic instability. In response, he states that he has resorted to making ends meet by working long days. However, he insists that he is unlikely to adjust the weekend drinking because it makes him "deservedly" relax.
2.0 Appropriate Modern Model and Its Goodness of Fit

The most appropriate modern model that could be applied to the selected case is Symbolic-Experiential Therapy. Carl Whitaker coined this model in 1953. According to Whitaker and Keith (1981), the model's main aim is to focus on patterns and interactions via growth processes. The implication is that this model does not emphasize the use of medications for purposes of creating change. Roberto (1991) concurred that the focus is to steer client family growth rather than emerge as a resolution to the family's problem. It is also worth highlighting that therapies that adopt this model ensure that they focus on the family of origin in its entirety, rather than individual family members or family subsystems. In relation to the hypothetical case described above, it is evident that Joaquín's layoff threatens to translate into economic instability in the near future, adversity that is likely to affect both his wife and the children. To avoid possible trickle-down effects such as conflicts and the children's social withdrawal, it is imperative to involve the entire client of origin in the family therapy process, rendering the selected model worth applicable and one that best fits Joaquín's family that is faced by a job lay off in the wake of the husband's persistent drinking, complaints from Jane, and Joaquín's decision to work for long days.

Regarding the plan of approach, the model advocates creating a safe environment that provides room for members to discuss presenting problems while allowing the therapist to join the family system. Examples of interventions that have been avowed to steer a safe environment include humor and spontaneity, encouraging attendance and participation of all members of the family, and engaging families as "real" persons (Napier & Whitaker, 1978). Upon establishing a positive and supportive environment, the model states that therapists ought to gain information regarding the coalitions, boundaries, roles, and conflict levels surrounding the family system. To achieve this goal, Whitaker and Malone (1953) observed that examples of interventions that are worth embracing include active listening, assessing disorganized boundaries that emerge, identifying role rigidity, exploring family competencies, and the use of effective confrontation. The next step is to strengthen family initiative while establishing relevant and responsive goals to the problems presented. To achieve this objective, Napier and Whitaker (1978) advocated for therapists' need to allow members of the family to determine the course and pace of therapy and prompt the members to establish the agenda of the session.

In the middle phase, the model states that therapists ought to establish a sense of cohesion with family members. To achieve this goal, perceived interventions include role-play, utilizing sufficient intensity to address feelings and issues that remain unacknowledged, and encouraging positive anxiety via the use of effective confrontation. This phase has also been avowed to involve creating and maintaining inter-generational boundaries by helping client families understand their interactional patterns' absurdity via metaphors and humor (Whitaker & Keith, 1981).

In relation to the late-phase goals advocated by Symbolic-Experiential Therapy, Roberto (1991) observed that therapists ought to steer individual growth towards developmental task achievement. Upon completion of these tasks (and accomplishment of goals), the success of addressing symptoms could be highlighted. At this stage, the use of Symbolic-Experiential Therapy as a model guiding the selected family situation is deemed appropriate because it allows the respective family members to express their feelings regarding the therapy’s experience. One of the studies that utilized Symbolic-Experiential Therapy was conducted by Gehart and Tuttle (2003). In the study, the main aim was to determine the efficacy of employing Symbolic-Experiential Therapy in the case of a family facing a danger of economic constraint and its associated adverse effects on boundaries and inter-generational interaction. In the findings, it was observed that Symbolic-Experiential Therapy aids in accommodating all diversified clients and families that present at family service agencies. Thus, it is projected that the model's adoption towards addressing problems with which Joaquín’s family presents is appropriate and targeted.

3.0 Appropriate Postmodern Model and Its Goodness of Fit

To address the problems with which Joaquín’s family presents, the most appropriate model that could be adopted is solution-focused therapy. Coined by Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer, the model does not focus on the problems that might have prompted client families to seek therapy. Instead, the model is goal-directed, future-focused, and strives to achieve solutions. According to xxx, this therapy process is conducted in such a way that the therapist observes the responses of clients directly. These responses come in relation to several questions that are constructed precisely (Lindforss & Magnusson, 1997). Hence, it is worth inferring that this therapeutic approach focuses on what the client's family intends to achieve, implementing the practice without exploring the provenance and history of the issues at hand. With much of the therapy sessions involving the future and the present, the past is only likely to be reviewed to the degree deemed necessary for understanding clients' concerns accurately (and communicating empathy) (De Shazer, Dolan & Korman et al., 2007). As mentioned in the hypothetical case described above, the family sought the family service agency's intervention with the central objective of obtaining solutions to the family problems confronting the members. Hence, solution-focused therapy is rendered appropriate and worth applying because it promises to support the achievement of these solutions.

McGee, Del Vinto, and Bavelas (2005) conducted one of the past studies that have employed solution-focused therapy. In the study, the main aim was to determine the effectiveness of solution-focused therapy when applied to client families that present with compromised inter-generational communication and conflicts among couples. Thus, the leading intention was to establish the extent to which the model could prove useful (upon applying to client family situations). In the findings, it was established that solution-focused therapy yields short-term and long-term solutions via the establishment and implementation of solutions that are specific to the problem(s) at hand. Furthermore, it was noted that solution-focused therapy reduces tensions between clients and therapists because the approach attracts clients' attention, with the curiosity attributed to their quest to realize solutions to the problems they face. Overall, the study indicated that when solution-focused therapy is applied to client family situations, a significant number of conflicts diminish. At the same time, supportive environments that are marked by positive interactions emerge.

4.0 Summary

In conclusion, the challenges facing Joaquín's family include the presence of a perceivably "nagging" wife (Jane), the presence of a husband who has been laid off recently (and currently works long days), and the husband's persistent drinking. Notably, these problems threaten to destabilize the family so that Joaquín's loss of the job is likely to compromise the ability to provide for the family. Having found himself in a position where he feels he has let down the rest of the family, Joaquín is evidently guilty. These feelings are compounded by the case in which he insists that he deserves to relax (by drinking during weekends). Therefore, Symbolic-Experiential Therapy has deemed an appropriate model that might address the client's family's problems by focusing on some of the past trends of interaction. Emerging flaws might be unearthed. In relation to the use of solution-focused therapy, it is predicted that the postmodern model is worth applying to this client family case because its nature as a solution-focused approach implies that it promises to restore stability and positive interaction to the near and far future of Joaquín's family. The appropriateness of these models is also supported by promising results established by some of the past scholarly studies examining therapeutic service situations that are marred by client family problems similar to those of Joaquín's family.