Hey, guys! I just started my first semester of advanced social work graduate classes (as in, I don’t have my bachelor of social work, so I had to do 30 hours of foundation courses before really getting into the master’s level work, and I’m just now starting to really get into the clinical stuff). Anyway, my first paper for Children & Families class was to select a therapeutic approach and write a short analysis on how to apply that approach to a fictional family featured in film.
I just got the paper back and graded, so I thought I’d share it here for those who are interested. Here’s the Google Docs link to my CBFT approach to the Solatano family in Silver Linings Playbook. 
Enjoy!
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I requested access to the paper! look forward to reading it!
Ugh I forgot to switch drive accounts when I moved the doc over from Word. I can’t share student account stuff outside of the school. Here’s the link for the open share version on my public gmail account (and the link above has been updated as well).
Sorry for the confusion.
That was a good read. It’s been a long time since I took classes on social work / psychology. I miss the academic life of writing essays and reading detailed literature. In med school it’s all memorization of everything and multiple choice tests. I agree that one of the main issues is one of psychoeducation. I think the family could definitely benefit from understanding a bit more about what it means to be bipolar and what sort of things they can expect and ways of coping with it in a supportive fashion. From then on hopefully they will be more receptive during CBT and addressing their own individual issues and how it plays into the family dynamic.
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Thanks for the thoughtful feedback! It’s good to know I’m on the right track.
I honestly didn’t think I’d enjoy family therapy at all, just because my own family was so toxic and stressful, and I was afraid that sitting with other stressed-out families might lead to a lot of countertransference. But I really enjoyed researching and writing this little introductory analysis, especially since I was able to use the medium of fiction, which has always felt so much “safer” for me. It gave me more confidence, and now I’m actually looking forward to our skills demonstration project that’s coming up soon! Not that I want to become a family therapist, but still. It was a good thought experiment.
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Sometimes because we can draw from personal experience our insights are more globally informed. I say freely engage with family therapy if it works out for you. Always makes sure to put self-care above all.
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