Multifamily Group:

An Ancillary Treatment Modality to Family Therapy

Presented to you by

David P Sanchez, Psy.D., LMFT CEU State of Nevada Approved Training for MFT/CPC Board, Clinical

Psychology Board, & Social Work Board (October 2014)

Objectives

1) To highlight an alternative treatment model that promotes family problem-solving opportunities , promotes positive communication, and fosters new ways of family engagement.

2) To provide a conceptual framework and lens on how to facilitate a multifamily group.

3) To provide “YOU” (the facilitator) with some initial tools to facilitate a multifamily group.

Why Multifamily Group?

https://vimeo.com/66176642

Benefits of Multifamily Group

● Multifamily group is a less threatening treatment option for some families as the “spotlight” is not solely on an “identified” family system.

● Multifamily group allows for different family systems to observe and interact with one another which promotes “People Watching” that may result in new ways of interacting with one’s own family system.

Benefits of Multifamily Group

● Multifamily group provides a structured forum for families to learn and implement newly acquired skills in a safe environment where it’s okay to make mistakes or ask for assistance.

● Multifamily group fosters a normalizing experience illustrating that “we are not alone.”

Benefits of Multifamily Group

● Multifamily group fosters activities for families to learn how to play and interact with their families in positive ways.

● Multifamily group fosters a sense of family cohesion and intimacy by nature of learning and being tasked to work together as an individual family system.

Benefits of Multifamily Group

● Multifamily group brings together different family systems who may potentially share resources with one another and broaden their informal support network by meeting other families.

Multifamily Group Format

● Open or Closed group.

● Group time may run between 50-90 minutes.

● Number of participating family systems may vary (if facilitating alone keep numbers manageable).

Facilitator Skills

→ Organized

→ Directive

→ Genuine

→ Empathetic

→ Sense of Humor

→ Flexible

→ Spontaneous

Facilitation: Helpful Hints

● Set up your room by aligning tables in a pattern where individual family systems will be sitting alongside other families.

● Strategically place and intentionally limit specific supplies related to group activity throughout the tables to promote interaction and engagement between the different family systems.

Facilitation: Helpful Hints

● Set the tone of the group from the beginning (group participation may be anxiety provoking for some families).

→ Welcome, greet, and walk families upon arrival into the group room.

→ Prepare and provide name tags for

all participants (know your audience). Include the role of the family member. i.e. brother, mother, grandfather

Facilitation: Helpful Hints

● Introduce yourself and have participants introduce themselves by sharing their first name and what role they play in their family.

● Introduce the group activity and the objectives to be achieved by participating in today’s multifamily group.

Facilitation: Helpful Hints

● Know your group curriculum and activity

→ Facilitation is a skill and needs to be practiced and reinforced.

→ Families may inadvertently derail the process and get you off topic or side tracked.

Facilitation: Helpful Hints

● Move around your room and engage, observe, and assess each family system.

● Remain CURIOUS and ask “who” determined how to move forward and “how” the family determined a course of action.

Facilitation: Helpful Hints

● Determine if a co-facilitator is necessary dependent upon size of group and/or experience of the facilitator.

● In a co-facilitation role determine beforehand which provider will be responsible for progress noting on which family systems.

Multifamily Group Treatment:

Clinical Considerations

● Assist families to learn healthy “helpful” ways to interact and communicate with each family member to promote positive family interactions.

● Assist families in identifying family roles and establishing learned boundaries supporting each role within the family system.

Multifamily Group Treatment:

Clinical Considerations

● Assists families in creating a sense of family identity and cohesion within the family unit.

● Assists learning and practicing new parenting strategies.

● Assists families in developing and implementing problem-solving strategies to overcome challenges.

Multifamily Group Treatment:

Curriculum Ideas

Topic 1: Identifying feelings and linking them to appropriate behaviors by using Art Therapy

Family’s break into their respective family dyads and are asked to identify feelings and to create a feelings poster. Family’s will then find in magazines an action picture illustrating a behavior that is an appropriate method of expression to match w/ their specific feelings. Family’s will discuss how the behavior is a means of expression for their specific feelings found on their feelings poster.

Multifamily Group Treatment:

Curriculum Ideas

Topic 2: Mapping Family History by using Genograms

Family’s break into their respective family dyads and are asked to draw a family tree. Family’s should try to illustrate in their family tree as many generations as possible. Through words and pictures family’s will be asked to illustrate attributes for each person and should be as descriptive as possible. Facilitator will process with each family the similarities and differences between their immediate family to other family members. Facilitator will work with each family dyad invoking discussion pertaining to “why” or “how” family members became involved in certain activities or “why, how” they possess certain attributes.

Multifamily Group Treatment:

Curriculum Ideas

Topic 3: Identifying and Fostering Healthy Family Communication by using Enactments

Family’s break into their respective family dyads and discuss with each other appropriate ways of communicating that is accepted in their home. Each family will be given a piece of paper so that they may list all behaviors. Family’s will be asked to choose one or two behaviors which they will demonstrate in an enactment illustrating appropriate, healthy, and positive exchanges of family communication and interaction.

Multifamily Group Treatment:

Curriculum Ideas Topic 4: Identifying healthy and

appropriate family boundaries and interactions by using movie clips

The group will provide families w/ an opportunity to view clips of movies demonstrating healthy family interactions. After watching a handful of clips the family’s will break into their respective family dyads and discuss ways in which their family fosters positive communication and interaction w/ one another.

Multifamily Group Treatment:

Curriculum Ideas

Topic 5: “Family Country” – establishing borders (boundaries), creating infrastructure (hierarchy), and recognizing distances between cities (roles/responsibilities) by using Art Therapy.

Family’s work independently w/ their respective family members designing their family country. The family country will be designed, shaped, and named by the family. The family must label w/in their country and along the borders of their country their appropriate behaviors, which are allowed and encouraged to practice in their country. Each family country will possess their borders, which are identifying boundaries and behaviors between persons w/in their country. Family’s will be asked to identify a position (role/job) for each member in the family. Each position will have specific responsibilities w/in the country supporting the development of appropriate, healthy, and positive family communication and interaction.

Multifamily Group Treatment:

Curriculum Ideas

Topic 6: Experiencing, Identifying, and Modeling appropriate ways to express feelings to children as parents using the Feelings Poster (Hand-Out).

Family’s are initially separated into their respective family units. Facilitator/clinician provides the primary caregivers with a “feelings poster” and instructs the parents to demonstrate (act out) appropriate ways to demonstrate each emotion found on the “feelings poster” to their children. Facilitator/clinician directs the separate family units to come together as one family unit and asks primary caregivers to act out specific emotions found on the “feelings poster.” The facilitator/clinician asks participants to identify which emotion is the parent acting out found on the “feelings poster.”

Multifamily Group Treatment:

Curriculum Ideas

Topic 7: Developing trust and increasing self-esteem through the utilization of Movement Therapy and Art Therapy.

The facilitator/clinician directs each family member to make a mask that will be worn during the movement component of this exercise. The mask is symbolic of how each family member presents himself/herself to the outside world. The facilitator/clinician guides the family through movement by using himself/herself as an active participant moving spontaneously to the music being played. Each family member is directed to move freely to the music and during this exercise is directed to remove their mask. The removal of the mask is indicative of the family member allowing himself/herself to become vulnerable within their family system and within society at large. The facilitator/clinician fosters conversation afterwards to process the family’s experience.

Reference

Multifamily Group Treatment

Questions

Presenter’s Contact Information

David P. Sanchez, Psy.D., LMFT

Licensed Therapist

Healthy Minds

drdavidsanchez@healthymindslv.com