The Integrated Use of Individual and Family Psychotherapy

Abstract

For almost thirty years after the development of family therapy, the concurrent use of family and individual psychotherapy was seen as incompatible by leading proponents of each modality. Although recently the literature has revealed an increased willingness to utilize family and individual therapies concurrently, the decision for or against any such combination has been left largely to the intuition or bias of the individual clinician. This paper suggests the concurrent use of family and individual psychotherapies when disturbances of family structure and interaction co-exist with, reinforce, and are maintained by largely ego-syntonic internalized psychopathology (that is, the character defences of individual family members). It provides a rationale for integrating the concurrent therapies, and uses clinical examples to illustrate how each can potentiate the other. There is a discussion of indications and contraindications for the integrated use of concurrent family and individual therapy. From their attempts to apply these principles, the authors conclude that the experience for the family, the individual and the therapists is that the selective and integrated use of concurrent family and individual therapies can achieve more than can either therapy alone — the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.