MFT PRACTICE SET EXAM REVIEW FILE 2026
TESTED QUESTIONS
◉ Strategic Metaphoric Task. Answer: Prescribing a directive to a
family that engages them in conversation or activity that is easier
than talking about the problem directly. By discussing it through
metaphor, it will indirectly contribute to resolving the actual
problem.
◉ Strategic Reframing. Answer: Presenting an alternative
perspective on a family members' view of another's problematic
behavior.
◉ Strategic Paradoxical Interventions. Answer: Interventions used
to address the concept that families are naturally resistant to
change.
◉ Strategic Goals of Therapy. Answer: Symptom relief and changes
in structure of family and parent parental hierarchy.
◉ Strategic Presenting Problem as Metaphor. Answer: Symptom is
redefined as a metaphor of a larger problem.
,◉ Strategic Unbalancing. Answer: An intervention where the
therapist intentionally sides with one family member over the other.
Meant to disrupt homeostasis.
◉ Strategic Pretend to Have Symptom. Answer: Paradoxical
Intervention where therapist instructs child to have a symptom and
instructs parents to help child through it.
◉ Strategic Incongruous Hierarchies. Answer: Occurs when children
create symptoms in attempt to change their parents.
◉ Strategic Aligning with Parental Generation. Answer: Technique
directed at strengthening the parental hierarchy and reinforcing that
parents are in charge of the children. Therapist breaks neutrality
and intentionally aligns with parental subsystem.
◉ Strategic Ordeal Therapy. Answer: Paradoxical directive that
places a client in a situation where it creates more work for them to
maintain problem symptoms than it would be to change it.
◉ Strategic Main Contributors. Answer: Jay Haley and Cloe Madanes
◉ Strategic Directives. Answer: Specific, directed behavioral tasks
for the family to engage in during session and then carry out at
home between sessions.
,◉ Strategic-Humanism How Individuals Resolve Conflict. Answer: 1.
Dominate and Control (behavior problems)
2. Desire to be loved (anxiety and depression)
3. Love and protect (abuse and neglect)
4. Repent and forgive (sexual/physical abuse)
◉ Strategic-Humanism Themes. Answer: -All problems stem from
conflict between love and violence.
-Clients are continually presented with range of choices as to what
to make of themselves and the present circumstances.
◉ Strategic-Humanism Primary Contributor. Answer: Cloe Madanes
◉ Cybernetics Isomorphism. Answer: Phenomenon in which two or
more systems or subsystems exhibit similar or parallel structures.
◉ Cybernetics Attenuating/ Negative Feedback Loops. Answer:
Maintains stability and homeostasis; Reduces Change.
◉ Cybernetics. Answer: Studying organization, pattern, and process
rather than matter, material, and content.
, ◉ Cybernetics Equipotentiality. Answer: Same initial conditions can
result in different end states.
◉ Cybernetics Equifinality. Answer: An organism or system can
reach the same end state from multiple sources, conditions, and
means.
◉ Cybernetics Amplifying/ Positive Feed Back Loops. Answer:
Mechanism by which families respond to changes in homeostasis.
Attempts to change the system from a steady state to a new steady
state or behavior.
◉ Cybernetics Feedback Loops. Answer: Self-Correcting
mechanisms by which families attempt to adjust deviations and
maintain organizational integrity.
◉ Cybernetics Negative Entropy. Answer: A state that emerges when
a system is balance between openness and closedness.
◉ Cybernetics Entropy. Answer: Refer's to a system's tendency to
break down over time which threatens the survival of the system.
◉ Cybernetics Homeostasis. Answer: Tendency of a system to resist
change and maintain dynamic equilibrium.
TESTED QUESTIONS
◉ Strategic Metaphoric Task. Answer: Prescribing a directive to a
family that engages them in conversation or activity that is easier
than talking about the problem directly. By discussing it through
metaphor, it will indirectly contribute to resolving the actual
problem.
◉ Strategic Reframing. Answer: Presenting an alternative
perspective on a family members' view of another's problematic
behavior.
◉ Strategic Paradoxical Interventions. Answer: Interventions used
to address the concept that families are naturally resistant to
change.
◉ Strategic Goals of Therapy. Answer: Symptom relief and changes
in structure of family and parent parental hierarchy.
◉ Strategic Presenting Problem as Metaphor. Answer: Symptom is
redefined as a metaphor of a larger problem.
,◉ Strategic Unbalancing. Answer: An intervention where the
therapist intentionally sides with one family member over the other.
Meant to disrupt homeostasis.
◉ Strategic Pretend to Have Symptom. Answer: Paradoxical
Intervention where therapist instructs child to have a symptom and
instructs parents to help child through it.
◉ Strategic Incongruous Hierarchies. Answer: Occurs when children
create symptoms in attempt to change their parents.
◉ Strategic Aligning with Parental Generation. Answer: Technique
directed at strengthening the parental hierarchy and reinforcing that
parents are in charge of the children. Therapist breaks neutrality
and intentionally aligns with parental subsystem.
◉ Strategic Ordeal Therapy. Answer: Paradoxical directive that
places a client in a situation where it creates more work for them to
maintain problem symptoms than it would be to change it.
◉ Strategic Main Contributors. Answer: Jay Haley and Cloe Madanes
◉ Strategic Directives. Answer: Specific, directed behavioral tasks
for the family to engage in during session and then carry out at
home between sessions.
,◉ Strategic-Humanism How Individuals Resolve Conflict. Answer: 1.
Dominate and Control (behavior problems)
2. Desire to be loved (anxiety and depression)
3. Love and protect (abuse and neglect)
4. Repent and forgive (sexual/physical abuse)
◉ Strategic-Humanism Themes. Answer: -All problems stem from
conflict between love and violence.
-Clients are continually presented with range of choices as to what
to make of themselves and the present circumstances.
◉ Strategic-Humanism Primary Contributor. Answer: Cloe Madanes
◉ Cybernetics Isomorphism. Answer: Phenomenon in which two or
more systems or subsystems exhibit similar or parallel structures.
◉ Cybernetics Attenuating/ Negative Feedback Loops. Answer:
Maintains stability and homeostasis; Reduces Change.
◉ Cybernetics. Answer: Studying organization, pattern, and process
rather than matter, material, and content.
, ◉ Cybernetics Equipotentiality. Answer: Same initial conditions can
result in different end states.
◉ Cybernetics Equifinality. Answer: An organism or system can
reach the same end state from multiple sources, conditions, and
means.
◉ Cybernetics Amplifying/ Positive Feed Back Loops. Answer:
Mechanism by which families respond to changes in homeostasis.
Attempts to change the system from a steady state to a new steady
state or behavior.
◉ Cybernetics Feedback Loops. Answer: Self-Correcting
mechanisms by which families attempt to adjust deviations and
maintain organizational integrity.
◉ Cybernetics Negative Entropy. Answer: A state that emerges when
a system is balance between openness and closedness.
◉ Cybernetics Entropy. Answer: Refer's to a system's tendency to
break down over time which threatens the survival of the system.
◉ Cybernetics Homeostasis. Answer: Tendency of a system to resist
change and maintain dynamic equilibrium.
