Whitaker, Symbolic-Experiential Flashcards
Symbolic-Experiential: WHO, HOW LONG?
Whitaker
Classical
(Kempler also)
Therapist personality & psych health single most important factor to effective treatment. LISTENED TO CLIENTS.
Move from symptom relief to healing attributes inherent within the growth process. Humanistic.
BEING & BECOMING - CO-BEING & CO-BECOMING
WHO: All members of the family - incl. 2 generations - MUST attend early sessions. Refusal to see parts of family bc meaningful/lasting change requires everyone.
HOW LONG: Weekly sessions until later phases, then monthly. Growth - can go as needed - 6 months-2 years
Symbolic-Experiential: Assessment & Diagnosis
Whitaker
- Therapy starts w/first phone call, sets stage for first interview - extends into as many sessions as needed. Demand all family attend. (Battle for structure)
- Competency-based approach - no diagnoses/problems
- Assess family life cycle, transgenerational belief system
- Asses into extended family & community
- Pay attention to subsytems, emotional age vs chrono age, triadic patterns, dyadic collusions, teaming, individual dynamics
Non-pathologizing. When clients inquire about a diagnosis, Whitaker did therapeutic double bind - relational diagnosis that is unlikely to change.
Symbolic-Experiential: GOALS
GOALS:
- Increase sense of belongingness to the family
- Encouraging freedom to individuate
- Increase creative expression
- Safety in emotional expression
- Be congruent with yourself
10 SPECIFIC GOALS
1) Increase level of stress
2) Development of family nationalism (shared anxiety)
3) Expand relationships w/entire family
4) Expand relationships –> culture, community
5) Develop family boundaries
6) Separate generations
7) Play
8) Develop we/they. Therapist-family split (models of constant cycle of separating, joining)
9) Explode myth of individuality - believe in itself sense of unit w/strong sense of its absurdity
10) Each member to be more of themselves.
Symbolic-Experiential: Themes
1) Emotional suppression was source of dysfunction
2) Clinicians need to be attuned to SELF AS THERAPIST, become more of WHO THEY ARE vs. textbook.
3) Authenticity of therapist
4) Respond to your own anxieties to do here-and-now interventions - evoke the emotional experience of the family.
5) By being yourself as the therapist, helps clients be themselves.
Symbolic-Experiential: Stance of Therapist
Artist & Healer
- Co-therapist: rely on their interpersonal intimacy to sustain them rather than expecting client family to meet their needs
- Therapist mirrors grandparent role. Involved in loving but not essential to family function.
- Therapist does NOT take role of expert.
- Relationships within the family more important than that of relationship w/family and therapist.
Person of the Therapist
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
Primary factor for outcome of therapy is psych health and authenticity of therapist!
Be real! Spontaneity
Existential Encounter
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
Therapist’s willingness to receive client’s reactions to them and to share their reactions w/clients
Therapy of the Absurd
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
May be seen as absurd bc it’s unrecognizable structure, spontaneity, transparency of therapist
Individuation
Whitaker
Symbolic Experiential
Primary Goal - become more of who you are
Family Interaction
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
Health fam interaction is flexibly & openness to life experiences
Battle for Structure
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
Therapist must win this battle to be effective.
Determine who attends session, what time they are, how frequent, for how long.
If fam won’t do it, they aren’t ready.
Battle for Initiative
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
After winning battle for structure, fam must win this battle. Realize & demonstrate they are responsible for change.
Expanding Distress
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
Shift the problem to whole family so as to get rid of scapegoating, blame
Activating Constructive Anxiety
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
Reframe symptoms as efforts toward competence - focus on positive attributes of working w/family
Redefining Symptoms
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
Redefine sx from pathological toward growth
Fantasy Alternative
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
When you talk about probs in a fantasy/what if way. “What if you medicated your husband and he wasn’t so emotional.”
Affective Communication
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
Therapist directly reports to family their subjective emotional response
Co-Therapist
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
Always work w/co-therapist. You can be crazier, your co grounds you.
Degrees of Craziness
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
Driven crazy
Going Crazy
Acting Crazy
occurs in dysfunctional families
Teaming Roles
Whitaker
Symbolic-Experiential
healthy fam members may be inteionally put into teams by TH to encourage further healthy B
Therapeutic Double Bind
Whitaker
Symoblic-Experiential
What about a diagnosis? Whitaker would give a double - bind, diagnosis that won’t likely change
Bilateral Pseudo-Therapy
Whitaker
Symb-Exp
When family members try to be therapist to ea. other
Bilateral Transference
Whitaker
Symb-Exp
Taking on gestures, language, posture of family
Flight Toward Health
Whitaker
Symb-Exp
Fam abruptly stops treatment. Positive sign - they experienced sudden growth. Always supportive no matter what phase they are in
Symbolic-Experiential: Treatment Phases
No true structure.
Not even a theory, just focus on growth.
Early: win Battle for Structure, Battle for Initiative
Middle: Achieve reorganization around the expanded symptom
Late: operate as mobile milieu. Move to terminate is always encouraged.
Therapists should also check in on their own growth and interest.
Whitaker’s Common Strategies
- Basic empathy for family
- Develop liaison w/patriarch (contemporary male inadequacy)
- Treat kids like kids - play with them
- Person of therapist, growth of therapist
- Sx are efforts for growth
- Probe unconscious, tickle defenses
- Invade family’s operation
- Personal confrontations
- Increase pathology - implicate whole family - absurdity
- Fantasy alternatives
