Family Therapy Models : Drawing The Line w Oliver Drakeford & Dr Ben Edwards

How do family therapy models change the way we understand a teenager who is lying, failing school, and becoming the focus of an entire family?Get more family systems theory, training and resources in my free online Skool Community here https://www.skool.com/family-systems-collective-7929/aboutIn this episode of Drawing the Line, Oliver Drakeford, LMFT, talks with Dr. Ben Edwards, a Los Angeles therapist and professor of family systems theory. Using a family case vignette, they move beyond the idea that the teenager is simply “the problem” and ask what her symptoms may be communicating about divorce, co-parenting, emotional distance, parental overinvolvement, and a family struggling to reorganize after a major change.One central idea in the episode: divorce may end a marriage, but it does not end the family system or the parenting relationship.The discussion draws from family systems theory, structural family therapy, and contextual family therapy. Topics include the identified patient, triangulation, circular causality, loyalty binds, family life-cycle transitions, parental hierarchy, unbalancing, paradoxical interventions, and the ways schools can unintentionally reinforce a child-focused explanation of the problem.Oliver and Ben also discuss who should attend the first family therapy session, what therapists notice when a family enters the room, and how a child’s symptoms can pull disconnected parents back into the same room. Oliver introduces two parts of his GLANCE framework—negativity and centrality—to show how a problem can become the organizing focus of family life.This conversation is for therapists, trainees, students, and anyone interested in seeing family therapy models applied to a practical clinical case.CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction00:54 The 5P family case presentation01:03 The presenting problem01:53 Triangulation after divorce03:28 Divorce reorganizes the family system04:02 Family life-cycle transitions and nodal events05:33 Moving beyond “fix the child” thinking06:23 How schools can become part of the triangle08:03 The identified patient and self-blame09:30 Overinvolved and disengaged parenting patterns10:46 Circular causality and loyalty binds12:39 Paradoxical interventions with parents13:43 Who should attend family therapy?17:21 What therapists observe in the first session20:19 Negativity and centrality in the GLANCE framework21:30 Power within the family22:46 How a teenager’s symptoms can organize the family24:21 What a teenager’s lying may communicate25:25 Final thoughtsFind out more about Dr Edwards here https://www.benedwardsphd.com/ and me, Oliver Drakeford here: https://www.oliverdrakefordtherapy.com/family-counselor/family-therapy-los-angeles-wehoThis video is intended for education and professional discussion. It is not a substitute for therapy, clinical supervision, or individualized mental health care.#FamilyTherapyModels #FamilySystemsTheory #StructuralFamilyTherapy