Scenario: A family has conflict in the form of parents arguing and fighting with their children and the children rebelling against the parent’s control.
• If you are a court judge do you order anger-management training for the whole family or send one or more of the children for inpatient drug abuse treatment?
• If you are a counselor do you try to teach communication or conflict resolution skills, or do you use structural family therapy (SFT, Minuchin)?
• If you are a counselor do you see the problem as undifferentiated ego mass (Bowen) and work to help each member gain self-differentiation within their family of origin?
• If you are a counselor do you understand the problem as the parents and children having low frustration tolerance (LFT, Ellis); and, therefore, teach high frustration tolerance (HFT) to all the family members?
• If you are a counselor do you see the issue as acted-out or unfolded self-talk (FitzMaurice) that everyone shares and everyone can learn to change for the better for their own sake as well as for the sake of the family?