Marilyn Wedge PhD on Strategic Child-Focused Family Therapy

Marilyn Wedge, Ph.D. on Strategic Child-Focused Family Therapy. Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist and author Dr. Marilyn Wedge is the originator of strategic child-focused family therapy, following in the family systems therapy tradition of Jay Haley. She strongly opposes the over-diagnosis of children with psychiatric disorders and the use of medication to treat childhood behavioral, emotional and social problems. A better approach, she believes, is the application of strategic family therapy which conceptualizes the childs problem in relationship to other problems occuring within the family. A frequent pattern is that a child will manifest a problem as a way to help draw parents attention away from their own problems. The therapist can then take on the role of helper within the system, relieving the child of that duty. As parental problems resolve or are isolated from the child, children tend to get better. Various systems techniques (such as the invariant question) and case histories are discussed.