Basic Marital and Family Therapy Flashcards
7 cards from real MFT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Basic Marital and Family Therapy flashcards as text
When treating a couple where one partner has disclosed domestic violence, which therapeutic approach is CONTRAINDICATED?
Answer: Conjoint couples therapy
Conjoint couples therapy is contraindicated in active domestic violence situations because it may increase the victim's risk of retaliation and can be used by the abuser to gather information.
In Bowen theory, when a child absorbs the most parental anxiety and develops symptoms as a result, this is called:
Answer: Family projection process
The family projection process describes how parents transmit their undifferentiation and anxiety to one or more children, impairing that child's differentiation of self.
A therapist working from a feminist family therapy lens would MOST likely challenge which assumption of traditional family therapy?
Answer: That gender and power inequities are central to family dysfunction
Feminist family therapists critique the field for historically ignoring how patriarchal structures and gender inequalities are embedded in and perpetuate family dysfunction.
The concept of 'therapeutic neutrality' in the Milan systemic approach means the therapist:
Answer: Avoids forming alliances with any family member or hypothesis
Milan neutrality means the therapist avoids privileging any single family member's account or becoming locked into one explanatory hypothesis, remaining curious and open to multiple meanings.
A couple in therapy has reached an impasse where neither partner is willing to change. Which SFBT technique would be MOST appropriate to address this?
Answer: Exception-finding questions
Exception-finding questions direct clients to identify times when the problem is absent or less severe, revealing existing resources and successful patterns they can amplify.
Under HIPAA, which of the following would be permissible for an MFT to share without client authorization?
Answer: Treatment notes to a managed care company for billing purposes
Treatment (billing) notes — including diagnosis, dates of service, and treatment summary — may be shared for payment purposes without specific authorization under HIPAA.
Which of the following BEST describes the therapeutic goal of 'externalizing the problem' in narrative therapy?
Answer: Separating the person's identity from the problem so they can relate to it as an external force
Externalizing separates the person from the problem — 'the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem' — creating space to examine and resist the problem's influence.