Experiential

Question 1

Virginia Satir

Answer 1

Experiential Family Therapist who was interested in communication. Originally with MRI Group from 1959-1966, but she wanted to invest more in emotions. Highly nurturing, empathetic, and genuine, she used techniques like touch and family sculpting.

Question 2

Carl Whitaker

Answer 2

A “maverick” psychiatrist who was amongst the first to conduct therapy with families; he would often work as a provocateur with his partner, Augustus Napier, acting as the “straight man”. He wrote “The Family Crucible”

Question 3

Emotionally Focused Therapy

Answer 3

Sue Johnson - empirically supported as the most effective form of couples’ therapy. Based on attachment theory. Focuses on uncovering the hurt underneath a person’s defensiveness, anger, or withdrawal and helping couples understand these dynamics - “the dance”. Three stages: cycle de-escalation, changing interactional positions, and consolidation and integration.

Question 4

Experiential Family Therapy - Role of the Therapist

Answer 4

Directive, active, genuine, caring, and accepting; an educator; provides for new experiences by being a foreign element in the system

Question 5

Self Actualizing

Answer 5

Self-awareness leads to the ability to make decisions and take responsibility

Question 6

Content (Experiential Family Therapy)

Answer 6

Seen as superficial

Question 7

Basics of Experiential Family Therapy

Answer 7

Focuses on the here and now experience within the therapy room and emphasizes individuals and their emotions

Question 8

Premise for dysfunction (Experiential)

Answer 8

Emotional suppression, faulty communication, inappropriate roles, inappropriate rules, and/or unrealistic expectations lead to dysfunction. Low self-esteem and defensive behavior result from dysfunctional family systems.

Question 9

Change process (Experiential)

Answer 9

Change families by getting in touch with emotions, hopes/desires, and fears/anxieties. Techniques are focused on promoting new forms of communication and interaction

Question 10

Healthy family development (Experiential)

Answer 10

Healthy families support individual growth in family members and permit a wide range of experiences/emotions and allow for family members to express their emotions; dysfunctional families resist awareness and limit emotional expressiveness.

Question 11

“Quiet desperation”

Answer 11

A term coined by Satir to refer to the state of suppression in dysfunctional families

Question 12

Destructive behaviors (experiential)

Answer 12

Blaming, placating, being irrelevant (checking out), and being “ultra-reasonable” but inauthentic as a means of protecting self-esteem.

Question 13

Goals of Experiential FT

Answer 13

Promote individual family growth through experience/emotional expression, increase personal integrity (congruence of feelings/behaviors), liberating the affect of family members, and revitalize relationships through more congruent family members

Question 14

Assessment (Experiential)

Answer 14

Less focus on assessment than other schools of therapy and avoid characterizing or diagnosing people; instead, seek to understand the defenses that keep people from experiencing their full range of emotions and feelings

Question 15

Family Sculpting

Answer 15

Tx asks a family member to physically arrange the family to represent family roles, rules, perceptions of family members

Question 16

Role-playing

Answer 16

Re-enacting scenes from childhood or the present, at times using Gestalt techniques like the “empty chair”

Question 17

Family art therapy/conjoint drawing

Answer 17

Experiential technique to help families warm up and express themselves in ways that tap into their emotions. Ask families to “draw a picture as you see yourselves as a family” and the results may disclose perceptions that haven’t previously been discussed.

Question 18

Personal touch

Answer 18

Very important to Satir and her brand of Experiential FT

Question 19

Psychology of the Absurd

Answer 19

Taking clients’ statements to the extreme; often used by Carl Whitaker

Question 20

Internal Family Systems

Answer 20

Dick Schwartz. Examines the inner conflicts people have with themselves by personifying conflicting inner voices as parts.

Question 21

Dick Schwartz

Answer 21

Internal Family Systems

Question 22

Sue Johnson

Answer 22

Founder of Emotionally Focused Therapy

Question 23

Secure attachment bond

Answer 23

Characterized by emotional accessibility and responsiveness. Secure attachment refers to both having grown up with a sense of being loved and to having the confidence that comes from having a dependable relationship.

Question 24

Attachment injuries

Answer 24

Traumatic occurences that damage the bond between partners and maintain negative cycles and attachment insecurities if not resolved