circular questioning - Answers An interviewing technique, first formulated by Milan systemic therapists,
aimed at eliciting differences in perception about events or relationships from different family members,
particularly regarding points in the family life cycle when significant coalition shifts and adaptations
occurred.
complementary - Answers A type of dyadic transaction or communication pattern in which inequality
and the maximization of differences exist (for example, dominant/submissive) and in which each
participant's response provokes or enhances a counter-response in the other in a continuing loop.
counterparadoxes - Answers In systemic family therapy, placing the family in a therapeutic double bind
in order to counter the members' paradoxical interactions.
first-order changes - Answers Temporary or superficial changes within a system that do not alter the
basic organization of the system itself.
hypothesizing - Answers As used by systemic therapists, the process by which a team of therapists forms
suppositions, open to revision, regarding how and why a family's problems have developed and
persisted; to facilitate asking relevant questions and organizing incoming information, it occurs before
meeting the family.
metacommunication - Answers A message about a message, typically nonverbal (a smile, a shrug, a nod,
a wink), offered simultaneously with a verbal message, structuring, qualifying, or adding meaning to that
message.
neutrality - Answers As used by systemic family therapists, a nonjudgmental and impartial position,
eliciting all viewpoints, intended to enable the therapist to avoid being caught up in family "games"
through coalitions or alliances.
paradoxical injunction - Answers A communication to obey a command that is internally inconsistent
and contradictory, as in a double-bind message, forcing the receiver to disobey in order to obey.
paradoxical interventions - Answers A therapeutic technique whereby a therapist gives a client or family
a directive he or she wants resisted; as a result of defying the directive, a change takes place.
positive connotation - Answers A reframing technique used primarily by systemic family therapists
whereby positive motives are ascribed to family behavior patterns because these patterns help maintain
family balance and cohesion; as a result, the family is helped to view each other's motives more
positively.
prescribing the symptom - Answers A paradoxical technique in which the client is directed to voluntarily
engage in the symptomatic behavior; as a result, the client is put in the position of rebelling and
abandoning the symptom or obeying, thereby admitting it is under voluntary control.