Chap 10 - Experiential Flashcards
Experiential Family Therapy
- emerged from humanistic-existential, Gestalt, psychodrama, client-centered, and the encounter group movement
- emphasis on immediate, here-and-now, intrapsychic experiences
- affect = emotions
Major Theorists
- Virgina Satir (1916-1988)
* Carl Whitaker (1912-1995)
Virgina Satir (1916-1988)
o Raised on farm in Wisconsin
o Sickly childhood, always felt different because of height
o Started out as a schoolteacher, switched to social work
o Entered private practice in 1951 in Chicago
o Developed her unique approach after working with schizophrenic women
o Started working with families as well
o Influenced by Murray Bowen’s and Don’s Jackson’s work
o Asked to join Palo Alto group in 1959
o Wrote Conjoint Family Therapy
o Originator of family communications theory
• An approach that focuses on clarifying transactions among family members
o Human Validation Process Model
Carl Whitaker (1912-1995)
o Raised on farm in upstate New York
• Always felt shy and awkward as a child, made friends with two smart and popular kids he called “cotherapists”
o Went to medical school in 1932, wanted to be a gynecologist/ obstetrician, but a patient died after a surgery even though he performed the surgery perfectly/ switched to psychiatry
o Worked with schizophrenics
o Developed theory while in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
• Saw 12 patients a day, decided he needed a co therapist, used spontaneous unconscious
o Named chairman of Department of Psychiatry at Emory
• Hired supportive colleagues who left with him after being dismissed
• Went into private practice
o Went to University of Wisconsin
• Coauthored “The Family Crucible”
o Uninhibited and emotional way of therapy
o Coined term absurdity
• Half-truthful statements that are silly if followed out to their natural conculsion
o Symbolic-experiential family therapy
• Experience not education changes families
Premises of the Theory
- individuals in families are not aware of their emotions or are suppressing them. This causes emotional deadness resulting in symptoms
- emphasizing sensitivity and expressing feelings
- can be expressed verbally or non-verbally
- being in the present
- attachment theory, self-awareness, and interpersonal skills
Treatment Techniques
two groups of therapist, those that rely on techniques and those that rely on own personality
Therapists who use personality: Carl Whitaker
- Redefine symptoms as efforts for growth
- Model fantasy alternatives to real-life stress
- Separate interpersonal stress and intrapersonal stress
- Add practical bits of interventions
- Augment the despair of a family member
- Promote affective confrontation
- Treat children like children and not like peers
Redefine symptoms as efforts for growth
Helps to see previous unproductive behaviors as meaningful
Model fantasy alternatives to real-life stress
- Helps to see if ideas will work, role-playing
- Sometimes you need to go outside of the expected and conventional
Separate interpersonal stress and intrapersonal stress
- Interpersonal stress is generated between two or more family members
- Intrapersonal stress is within the individual
Add practical bits of interventions
More concrete information can be beneficial
Augment the despair of a family member
Enlarge or magnify his or her feelings so the other family members, and the family as a whole understand them better
Therapists who use Structured Techniques: Virginia Satir
o Modeling of effective communication using “I” messages
o Sculpting (we did this in class, I was the child of lesbian parents remember)
o Choreography
o Humor
o Touch
o Family reconstruction
Other experiential Techniques
o Play therapy
o Filial therapy
o Family Drawings
o Puppet Interviews
Modeling of effective communication using “I” messages
o “we” statements give unclear and nonspecific messages
o involve the expression of feelings in a personal and responsible way and encourage others to express opinions
o leveling- congruent communication, in which straight, genuine, and real expressions of feelings are made
o when this does not occur people adopt four roles
• blamer- attempts to place the focus on others and not take responsibility; loud and tyrannical
• placater- avoids conflict at the cost of his or her integrity; timidity and eagerness to please
• distractor- makes irrelevant statements; tires to be evasive and elusive and does not seem to be in contact with anything that is going on
• computer (or rational analyzer)- interacts only on a cognitive or intellectual level; avoids emotion and stays detached
o communication stance- family members are asked to exaggerate the physical positions of their roles
Sculpting (we did this in class, I was the child of lesbian parents remember)
(we did this in class, I was the child of lesbian parents remember)
o Family members put into positions as seen by one or more family members reflecting the actual relationships
o Can move the structure through time/ events
o Three roles and four steps
• Roles- the sculptor, the facilitator (therapist), and the family members
• Steps- (1) setting the scene: the therapist helps the sculptor identify a scene to explore, (2) choosing the players: individuals are chosen to portray family members, (3) creating the sculptor: place people in a specific metaphorical position, (4) processing the sculpture: de-role and debrief about experiences and insights
Choreography
o Family members are asked to symbolically enact a pattern or sequence in their relationship to one another.
o Similar to mime or a silent movie
o Should be reenacted several times from the perspective of different family members
o Pick a specific time of day like eating breakfast
Humor
o Risky
• Can alienate people
o Can reduce tension and promote insight
• Point out absurdities
Touch
o Putting one’s arms around another, patting a person on the shoulder, or shaking hands
o Don’t get crazy with it
Family reconstruction
o Find dysfunctional patterns in their lives stemming from their families of origin (Let’s put the fun back in dysfunctional ya’ll)
o Reveals the source of old learning, realistic picture of parents, discover respective personhoods
o Begins with a star or explorer (central character) and a guide (therapist)
o Family map- this is basically a genogram; example on pg. 237
o Family Life fact chronology- list all significant events in one’s life and of extended family (pretty much a genogram in list form)
o Wheel or circle of influence- the star is in the middle with people who have had positive and negative impacts on his or her life. A spoke is drawn from the star to each person. The thicker the line of the spoke the more important that person is; look for strengths and weaknesses
Role of the Therapist in Experiential
• Active participant, a whole person
• Followers of Carl Whitaker engage in spontaneous and absurd activities such as falling asleep
• From a structured approach- a facilitator and a resource
o The therapist may make use of herself/himself in interacting with the family
• Therapist establish a warm environment that promotes acceptance, respect, hope, and movement to change
• Behave as real authentic people
• Involved, energetic, and creative
Experiential Process and Outcome
• Family members become more aware of their needs and feelings, find fulfilling roles for themselves without an overriding concern for the needs of the family as a whole
• Some focus on whoever comes to therapy, some insist on the whole family being there
• Whitaker had three stages (1) engagement, (2) involvement, (3) disentanglement
o Therapist increases the families anxiety in a caring way, this produces a breakdown and breakthrough
o Engagement- therapists becoming personally involved with their families through the sharing of feelings, fantasies, and personal stories.
o Involvement- therapists concentrate on helping families try new ways of relating through the use of playfulness, humor, and confrontation
• Therapists must win the battle for structure while families win the battle of initiative
Satir’s three phases
o Making contact- shake each person’s hand and focus her attention on that person, in an attempt to raise the level of the person’s self-worth
• Self-worth is compared to a pot (not the drug)- when the pot is high people are alive and have faith
o Chaos- individuals are engaged in tasks, take risks, and share their hurt
o Integration- emotional stage, closure, inject cognitive information
Unique aspects of Experiential Family Therapy
• Emphases
o Training programs set up to educate others on the approach such as the Avanta Network (Satire) and the National institute of Relationship Enhancement (Guerney’s)
o Experiential therapies are difficult to operationalize.
• Satire and the Guerney’s have some good research, but Whitaker was opposed to empirical research
o Treatment is shorter and more direct
o Emphasizes people and structure
