NCMHCE NCMHCE - National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination Family Systems and Couples Counseling 4

Question 1

A couple presents with chronic conflict over finances.
The husband hides purchases while the wife monitors all accounts obsessively.
Which family systems concept BEST describes the wife's monitoring behavior?

Accepted Answer

Reactive pursuit

Answer

Triangulation

Answer

Enmeshment

Answer

Undifferentiation

Question 2

In structural family therapy, a therapist deliberately sides with one family subsystem to shift a rigid coalition. This technique is called:

Accepted Answer

Unbalancing

Answer

Reframing

Answer

Enactment

Answer

Joining

Question 3

A same-sex couple reports that one partner's family of origin refuses to acknowledge the relationship. Using an Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) lens, the FIRST priority is to:

Accepted Answer

Identify each partner's attachment fears and needs underlying the conflict

Answer

Coach the rejected partner on assertiveness with family members

Answer

Refer the couple to family mediation with the family of origin

Answer

Educate the couple about minority stress and its effects

Question 4

A family therapist notices that the parents never disagree in front of their children and that the children are unusually well-behaved and anxious. This pattern is MOST consistent with:

Accepted Answer

Conflict detouring through children

Answer

A healthy authoritative parenting style

Answer

An effective parental alliance

Answer

Sibling subsystem rigidity

Question 5

In Gottman's Sound Relationship House model, 'turning toward' bids for connection is associated with which foundational level?

Accepted Answer

Building love maps

Answer

Shared meaning system

Answer

Fondness and admiration

Answer

Positive perspective

Question 6

A counselor using a narrative therapy approach with a couple would MOST likely begin by:

Accepted Answer

Identifying the problem-saturated story each partner holds about the relationship

Answer

Mapping the couple's family-of-origin attachment patterns

Answer

Teaching the couple active listening communication skills

Answer

Assessing the couple's level of differentiation of self

Question 7

A multigenerational family therapist constructs a genogram and notices that three generations of men in a family had alcoholism and abandoned their families. This pattern is BEST described as:

Accepted Answer

Vertical stressor transmission

Answer

Undifferentiated ego mass replication

Answer

Triangulated legacy

Answer

Horizontal stress accumulation