Strategic Therapy uses a paradoxical intervention to influence family behavior by encouraging the problematic behavior. What is this technique called?

• A. Reframing
• B. Paradoxical Intervention
• C. Time Projection
• D. Coping Question

Answer: (B)

Paradoxical interventions in strategic family therapy involve guiding the family to continue or even intensify the problematic behavior on purpose. The therapist may prescribe the symptom or direct the family to perform the behavior in a specific way, with the aim of making the pattern visible and disrupting resistance. By encouraging the problem, the family can observe how their attempts to control it actually maintain the cycle, which often motivates them to adopt new, healthier interaction patterns.

Reframing, by contrast, changes how the behavior is interpreted rather than directing its continuation. Time projection uses future scenarios to explore patterns, not to provoke the problem. Coping questions focus on resources and strategies for managing the issue, rather than encouraging the problem itself.