Case Study Josh is a 41-year-old who is in Construction. Ten months ago he was promoted as a Project Manager for a construction company. With this promotion he had to transfer from a rural location in Ontario and travel to Ottawa 250 kilometres away from his family. He works long hours and must start very early each day. He travels back on the weekends to see his family. He has a wife and 3 children to support. His wife Lisa is 38 years old and works 3 days per week as a personal support worker (PSW) for an elderly woman. She now regrets the decision they both made for Josh to work so far away. The weekends he comes back to her, and the children are getting fewer and when he does return, all they seem to do is argue. The arguments get heated. Lisa begins to scream and Josh slams doors to get away from Lisa. Lisa is frightened that her marriage will fail and is worried about her kids. She is also concerned Josh has found another woman (Josh had an affair 10 years earlier soon after they had married). They both decided to come for marriage counselling.

• Describe the family's current structure in terms of the boundaries around the family system and among subsystems in the family.
• Discuss what dysfunctional triangles may be present in the family and suggest what function the triangles play.
• Examine possible structural changes the family could make that would help them improve their family dynamic.What are the possible structural changes that the family could make that would improve their current dynamics? What would be the rationale for such changes?
• Discuss the structural techniques that should be used to accomplish the goals.

How might you take cultural considerations into account in evaluating what, if any, structural changes might be beneficial to any specific couple/family?

Reference

Goldenberg, I., Stanton, M., & Goldenberg, H. (2016). Family therapy: An overview (9th ed.). Brooks-Cole.