Reference no: EM133587921

Case Study: Ellen is a 20-year-old college dropout dealing with anorexia, who returns home to the house of her stepmother and father after struggling through an in-patient program and failing to make any progress. With her absentee father unwilling to deal with her, Ellen's stepmother, Susan, sets her up with a specialist, Dr. William Beckham, who insists that Ellen join his patient program. Ellen is reluctant to do so, but her mind is changed by her younger sister.

At a family-therapy session with Beckham, Ellen's father fails to show up.

Until 18 months earlier, Ellen was living with her mother, who abandoned her to move to Phoenix, Arizona, with a lesbian partner. It is revealed that previous artwork she had posted on Tumblr was cited as an influence by a girl who later killed herself. Ellen promises to try to do better, but instead continues to lose weight.

Questions: Please identify family structure and organizations and respond to questions:

• Alliances: Who is close/ not close with whom?
• Coalitions: Who sides with whom?
• Family Hierarchy
• Family subsystems
• Boundaries: Rigid, diffused or clear? (Between which members/ subsystems)
• What is the role of the "symptom"? How do you understand the problem from a structural perspective (What is the role of the family's structure in understanding the problem)?
• Which structural interventions would you use with this family?
• How does culture, religion, gender, and/or socioeconomic backgrounds define/shape this family's structure?