Salvador Minuchin is a family therapist who developed Structural Family Therapy, which addresses problems within a family by charting the relationships between family members, or between subsets of family. These charts represent power dynamics as well as the boundaries between different subsystems. The therapist tries to disrupt dysfunctional relationships within the family, and cause them to settle back into a healthier pattern. In couples counseling, Structural Family Therapy is useful for couples with children or other family members living in the home.

According to Minuchin, a family is functional or dysfunctional based upon its ability to adapt to various stressors which, in turn rests upon the clarity and appropriateness of its subsystem boundaries. Boundaries are characterized along a continuum from enmeshment through semi-diffuse permeability to rigidity. In addition, family subsystems are characterized by a hierarchy of power.

Minuchin’s goal is to promote a restructuring of the family system along more healthy lines, which he does by entering the various family subsystems, continually causing upheavals by intervening in ways that will produce unstable situations which require change and the restructuring of family organization.

Family Patterns

According to Minuchin, it is through observing patterns of interaction repeated across time and situations that an understanding of roles, subsystems, coalitions, hierarchy, and rules ( family structure) can be achieved.

Structural Family Therapy outlines three basic subsystems:

• the spouse subsystem in which the couple relationship, its function, and roles are contained;
• the parental subsystem in which the parental relationship including its roles and function are maintained; and
• the sibling subsystem in which the children’s’ relationship, function, and roles are contained

A family operating under a generic hierarchical structure places the parents at the helm, in good communication overseeing the family together with mutually agreed rules and roles. A family operating under idiosyncratic structure might have the teenage children as a team running the family, making the rules. The latter is considered problematic even if it is an adaptation to parental incapacity.

Family Boundaries

According to Minuchin, understanding a family requires identifying the processes and boundaries that operate the subsystems and coalitions in that family. Minuchin defined three types of interpersonal boundaries (clear, rigid, or diffuse) that determine the overall ability of the family to adapt successfully to change:

• Clear boundaries around generic subsystems are ideal because they are firm yet flexible, permitting maximum adaptation to change.
• Rigid boundaries imply disengagement between family members or subsystems. The prevailing non-communicative hinders support and limits effective adaptation.
• Diffuse boundaries imply enmeshment where everyone is into everyone else’s business. In this case, no one and everyone is taking charge and effective guidance during times of change is impossible.

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