Contextual Family Therapy

Question 1

Accountability

Answer 1

A situtation in which the therapist holds the client and all other family members who are involved in a particular relationship responsible for their actions that caused damage and violation of trust in the relationship.

Question 2

Acknowledgement of efforts

Answer 2

This occurs when the therapist asks questions that invite other family members to notice the contributions or injustices that the clients have made in the relationship. This applies to positive (refraining from argument) and negative (harmful actions) efforts. This action of acknowledgment allows family members to be heard.

Question 3

Asymmetrical relationship

Answer 3

A type of relationship in which one party is obligated to give more and receive less from the other (e.g., parents are obligated to give more than to expect to receive from their children).

Question 4

Constructive entitlement

Answer 4

This develops when family members receive a fair return from what they give in the relationship.

Question 5

Crediting

Answer 5

A technique used in session when the therapist role-models the acknowledgment and acceptance of the unfairness, insults, and violations that the client has experienced in his or her life.

Question 6

Destructive entitlement

Answer 6

Destructive actions or emotions that individuals demonstrate as a way to claim a self-justified compensation for the pain and injustice that they have experienced in their lives.

Question 7

Dimensions

Answer 7

In contextual therapy, these are the dilemmas that the therapist evaluates during a session: facts, individual psychology, systemic interactions, and relational ethics.

Question 8

Empathy

Answer 8

One part of the multidirected partiality techniques during which the therapist recognizes the pain and injustice that clients have experienced in their lives and helps them to distinguish the specific actions or events that created unfairness.

Question 9

Entitlement

Answer 9

An ethically valid claim for the compensation in return for the contribution that a person has made in a relationship.

Question 10

Facts dimension

Answer 10

One of the four information-gathering dimensions in the contextual therapy model concerned with the facts about life and relationships of a client that are true and difficult to change (gender, birthplace, illness, parents’ divorce, etc.).

Question 11

Fairness

Answer 11

The preservation of long-term, oscillating balance among family members that leads to benefits on both sides of the relationship.

Question 12

Give and take

Answer 12

The polarity of an emotional exchange in the relationship that allows people to maintain balance in the relationship.

Question 13

Individual psychology dimension

Answer 13

The second and four interconnected dimensions that evaluates different aspects of a client’s life. This dimension encompasses the individual’s mental and emotional characteristics, such as thinking style, cognitive ablities, and defense mechanisms.

Question 14

Invisible loyalty

Answer 14

Indirect actions through which people who have experienced pain and injustice in the relationship attempt to gain love and respect by repeating the same patterns that caused them pain.

Question 15

Ledger

Answer 15

A balance that is achieved in the relationship between two members of a family by using the method og giving and receiving.

Question 16

Legacy

Answer 16

The patterns and characteristic behaviors that are consciously or unconsciously carried from one generation to the next.

Question 17

Loyalty

Answer 17

In the contextual therapy model, feeling loyal refers to an obligation to another person in the relationship.

Question 18

Merit

Answer 18

A leverage that maintains the balance in relationships. When a person invests in the relationship, he or she creates merit and trusts that another party will bring his or her contributions to the relationship to bring balance.

Question 19

Multidirected partiality

Answer 19

An attitude that the therapist must exhibit of being fair and giving credit where it is due in the session. It is a principle that allows the therapist to be aware of each individual in the session, give each individual respect, consideration, and credit.

Question 20

Parentification (destructive parentification)

Answer 20

A concept that was created by Boszormenyi-Nagy and refers to the relationship in which one or more children assume the parental role.

Question 21

Rejunction

Answer 21

An intervention during which the therapist invites clients to evaluate and realize their capacity to restore balance between their obligation to give and their entitlement to receive in the relationship.

Question 22

Relational ethics

Answer 22

A criterion that establishes the balance between fair giving and receiving among the members of a relational unit.

Question 23

Relational ethics dimension

Answer 23

The fourth and most important dimension in contextual therapy that evaluates the balance in the relationship of what people give and what they are obligated to receive from other people.

Question 24

Revolving slate

Answer 24

The patterns of injustice that repeat from one generation to another, creating a new victim in the family.

Question 25

Split loyalty

Answer 25

The phenomenon that occurs when a person can be loyal to one individual at the cost of being disloyal to another person in a deserving relationship.

Question 26

Symmetrical relationship

Answer 26

The relationship between partners who have equal position within the generation and have mutual obligations and expectations of each other.

Question 27

Systemic interactions dimension

Answer 27

The third dimension that deals with such systemic aspects as communication patterns, boundaries, roles, and so forth.

Question 28

Therapy

Answer 28

The interaction between the client and the therapist that includes all interventions that aim at bringing out the healthiest possible performance in the client.

Question 29

Trustworthiness

Answer 29

The relational resource that collects from a reliable and responsible partner who justly gives what he or she is obligated to give in the relationship to maintain the balanced ledger.