Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Accommodation in Couple and Family Therapy

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy

  • 170 Accesses

Name of Concept

Accommodation

Synonyms

Adaptation; Adjustment; Joining

Introduction

Accommodation broadly refers to the spontaneous way a system instinctively adapts to coordinate functioning (Nichols 2017). Accommodation has two distinct definitions within the field of marriage and family therapy. The first is defined through a structural lens and describes the techniques a therapist uses to make self-adjustments in order to successfully join with and understand a system’s functioning (Minuchin 1974). The purpose of accommodation in this context is to join with the system to create change.

The second application of accommodation describes the way family members change or adapt their behavior to decrease another family member’s emotional distress often reinforcing an individual’s maladaptive behavior (Calvocoressi et al. 1995). Within the family system, accommodation maintains maladaptive functioning and/or behaviors often through subliminal patterns of interaction. Family...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Black, D. A. (2017). Applying systems to anxiety disorders. In J. A. Russo, J. K. Coker, & J. H. King (Eds.), DSM-5 and family systems. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calvocoressi, L., Lewis, B., & Harris, M. (1995). Family accommodation in obsessive-compulsive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152(3), 441–443. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.152.3.441.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lebowitz, E. R., Woolston, J., Bar-Haim, Y., Calvocoressi, L., Dauser, C., Warnick, E., … & Leckman, J. F. (2012). Family accommodation in pediatric anxiety disorders. Depression and Anxiety, 30(1), 47–54. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.21998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merlo, L. J., Lehmkuhl, H. D., Geffken, G. R., & Stroch, E. A. (2009). Decreased family accommodation associated with improved therapy outcome in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 77(2), 355–360. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012652.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and family therapy. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichols, M. P., & Davis, S. D. (2017). Family therapy: Concepts and methods. Boston: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piaget, J. (1932). The moral judgment of the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swann, J., Deumert, A., Lillis, T., & Mesthrie, R. ( 2004). A dictionary of sociolinguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Katherine O’Neil & Danielle A. Black

Authors
  1. Katherine O’Neil
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Danielle A. Black
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katherine O’Neil .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Family Institute at Northwestern, Evanston, IL, USA

    Jay Lebow

  2. The Family Institute at Northwestern, Evanston, IL, USA

    Anthony Chambers

  3. The Family Institute at Northwestern, Evanston, IL, USA

    Douglas C. Breunlin

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Family Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    David Kearns

  2. The Family Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Bahareh Sahebi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

O’Neil, K., Black, D.A. (2019). Accommodation in Couple and Family Therapy. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_343-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_343-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation