Help Needed

The family presents themselves to therapy due to Mason’s increasing defiant and aggressive behavior. Jim and Marie report that he is very argumentative with Marie and her children. He also demonstrates a high level of defiance towards any female authority figure. Recently, he has become aggressive with his stepsiblings. He has attempted to push, punch, trip, and throw things at them. Jim and Marie had initially thought that Mason was just going through a phase and that he would grow to love his new family. However, the frequency of his aggression has increased significantly, and they now seek help.

Jim and Marie have presented themselves to, Matt Gordon, a family therapist for help with Mason’s behavior. Matt has introduced them to a type of play therapy that is called filial therapy. Using this type of therapy, he has trained them how to facilitate play therapy with Mason on their own (Lindo et al., 2016). He has trained them how to facilitate a session and has set an appointment to observe them facilitating a session. During this session, he has given them the task of using empathetic listening to gain an understanding of what is influencing Mason’s oppositional behaviors (Good Therapy, 2016). During this session, they are to give no feedback, but rather just seek to gain understanding. At the end of the session, Matt will help Jim and Marie to set limitations with Mason.