Article

The Interacting-Reflecting Training Exercise: Addressing the Therapist’s Inner Conversation in Family Therapy Training

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Abstract

In recent years several authors have made a beginning in describing therapeutic conversations from a dialogical perspective. Training and supervision, however, have not yet been addressed from a dialogical perspective. In this article, an experiential training exercise is described that is focused on the basic dialogical skills of the trainee: respectful inquiry and constructive reflecting. Rather than teaching and instructing, this training exercise is aimed at staging a dialogue. The trainees are invited to take part in this dialogue, as they are encouraged to experiment with new positions and new ways of encountering others, and as their different voices tell of their experiences, of the things they have learned, and of the new perspectives that have opened up for them. Leaning on ideas about the therapist's inner conversation (Rober, 1999, 2005b) and stressing the importance of polyphony, dialogism, and tolerance for uncertainty, the training exercise described in this article is consistent with a dialogical and postmodernist frame, as described by Seikkula and Olson (2003).

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... My inner dialogue, my thoughts, feelings and experiences that I bring in the session, are also important in the therapeutic encounter. I am reminded of how Rober (2010) uses the therapist's inner conversation in the therapy session, but I am also bringing honesty in the therapy room in responding to client's questions. I have always been a proponent for the therapist's openness and transparency, which I have found can be beneficial to clients, when done carefully and skilfully. ...
... Apart from the outer dialogue, however, the therapist brings in the session not only her professional self, but also the voices of her personal selves, with her inner voices containing different experiences (Seikkula et al. 2012). Therefore, the therapist's inner dialogue, what I experience, feel and think (Rober 2010), create the relational space within the therapist, which plays an important role in the therapeutic relationship. ...
... In line with this thinking, I consider my clients as co-participants in the process of change and collaborate during the therapy process. I am also particularly influenced by the work of Peter Rober (1999Rober ( , 2010Rober ( , 2011 on the way the therapist brings her inner voices in the therapy room and how these inner voices become a powerful part of the dialogue. The way I see it, this process also includes, but is not limited to, the therapist's self-disclosure and transparency. ...
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This paper reflects the complexity of working therapeutically in times of social, political and economical crisis. It is not only a story about me; it is a story about how therapists use their selves, as well as the importance of self-reflexivity, relational reflexivity and transparency in our work. I present ideas about how therapists can navigate complex therapeutic encounters within a systemic framework. In this way, I hope the readers will make their own reflections alongside my own. Greek version in Metalogos Journal: https://metalogos-systemic-therapy-journal.eu/gr/issue/abstract/43-02
... Furthermore, the setting of direct supervision allows for reflexive activity during the session as compared to the postsession activity in the case of indirect supervision, a distinction similar to the one Sch€ on has drawn between reflection in action and reflection on action (Senediak, 2014). The influence of post-Milan developments brought about the use of reflecting team formats in training and supervision (Neden & Burnham, 2007;Tseliou, 2010) whereas dialogic approaches to therapy seem to have inspired training in the dialogic self of the therapist (Rober, 2010). Against such a polymorphic background, the proposals for incorporating the development of reflexive awareness and reflexive skills in family therapy training extend from nonsystematic suggestions (Neden & Burnham, 2007;Tseliou, 2010) to systematic proposals of models like the development of the Person Of the Therapist Training program (POTT) (Aponte & Kissil, 2014;Niño, Kissil, & Cooke, 2016). ...
... However, the content of such inner dialogues was not the focus of this study and is discussed in detail elsewhere (Frediani & Rober, 2016). Rober (2010) proposes that therapists seldom explicitly articulate the answers to the questions posed in such inner dialogues. Yet, these answers seem to influence the therapists' thoughts and actions. ...
... This could take place either in indirect supervision where we could encourage reflexive discussions about the experience of direct supervision and of the dual role of the therapist and the trainee or in direct supervision, at a special "space" saved in postsession reflections. Finally, we could experiment with dialogic and reflexive training formats, like the use of reflecting teams in group supervision (Par e, 2016) or the use of training exercises to promote inner dialogue (Par e & Lysack, 2006;Rober, 2010). ...
Article
In this article, we present a qualitative research study concerning the ways that systemic family therapy trainees experience reflexivity while in training. There is inadequate theorizing and limited research concerning reflexivity in family therapy, particularly from trainees’ perspective. In our study, we used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to analyse transcripts of semistructured interviews with 10 systemic family therapy trainees. Here, we present one of the four superordinate analytic themes, entitled “Moving between reflexive processes”. Our analysis suggests that trainees seem to experience reflexivity as a multifaceted, dialogic process, which occurs both at an inner and at an outer space and both synchronically but also subsequently to the therapeutic/training process. We conclude by raising implications for family therapy training. Video abstract: https://youtu.be/-pG_0I0OSy4
... Στην έρευνά μου επιβεβαίωσα αυτό που παρατηρούσα στη δουλειά μου ως συστημική θεραπεύτρια: ο σχεσιακός χώρος ένδον μου, δηλαδή οι σκέψεις μου, τα συναισθήματά μου, οι αναμνήσεις μου και οι σωματικές αντιδράσεις μου, αλληλεπιδρά με το σχεσιακό χώρο μεταξύ θεραπευόμενου και θεραπεύτριας. Οι εσωτερικές φωνές μου, το τι βιώνω, αισθάνομαι και σκέφτομαι (Rober, 2010) επηρεάζουν τον τρόπο με τον οποίο συνδέομαι με τους θεραπευόμενούς μου. Αυτό σημαίνει ότι, όταν είμαι εντελώς παρούσα με τους διαφορετικούς εαυτούς μου στη θεραπευτική συνεδρία, τόσο παρών είναι και ο θεραπευόμενός μου. ...
... As a systemic psychotherapist, I bring to the session not only my professional self, but also the voices of my personal selves, moments with my family of origin, culture, personal beliefs and values, current difficulties in my life, and my thoughts and feelings, all of which create the relational space within myself (Karamatsouki, 2020). My inner voices, what I experience, feel and think (Rober, 2010) affect the way I connect to my clients. In my research, I confirmed what I have noticed all these years that I have been working as a therapist: when more of myself is in the therapy room, more of the client is in there, too. ...
Article
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The subject of therapists facing an illness or living with a health condition that impacts their practice hasn’t been addressed much. In my research I confirmed what I have been noticing in my practice as a systemic therapist: the relational space within myself, my thoughts, emotions, memories and embodied reactions, interconnects with the relational space between client and therapist. My inner voices, what I experience, feel and think (Rober, 2010) affect the way I connect to my clients. This means that when I am fully present with my various selves in the therapy room, more of the client is in there too. Therefore, when I was diagnosed with cancer, I chose to disclose my illness to my clients. In this paper, I discuss my experience with cancer, the way it had an impact on my practice and how I found a way to include the relational space within myself facing an illness in the therapy room. The story that is included in the paper is a story from within practice that appears in my doctoral thesis (Karamatsouki, 2020).
... Consequently, open dialogue no longer seems to be a therapeutic method but rather the ability to see the polyphonic nature of the client's reality. The base from which to offer professional help is realized by listening carefully to what the client and family members have to say (Anderson, 2002;Buus et al., 2017;Rober, 2010;Seikkula, Arnkil, & Eriksson, 2003). ...
... Open dialogue invites family members into a mutual learning process (Rober, 2010;Seikkula & Trimble, 2005). DFG offers a collaborative working process for all family members over six meetings within 3 months. ...
Article
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Aim To describe the development and implementation of a Dialogical Family Guidance (DFG) intervention, aimed at families with a child with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). Design The DFG components are presented and the content of a DFG training course. Professionals' experiences after the DFG training were evaluated. Methods Dialogical Family Guidance development phases and implementation process are examined. The Revised Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence checklist (SQUIRE 2.0) was used to provide a framework for reporting new knowledge. Results The DFG training course seemed to increase possibilities of a more independent role as a nurse to deliver the DFG family intervention. The project showed that the use of dialogue can be difficult for some professionals. Analysis of the questionnaire completed after DFG training reported a high level of satisfaction. DFG training offered a new approach to deliver knowledge and understanding to families using dialogue, including tailored psychoeducation and emotional and practical guidance.
... This inner conversation has been found to be rich and complex (Rober et al., 2008a(Rober et al., , 2008b including "different kinds of reflections: observations and evaluations of the client's process, reflections about trying to make sense out of the client's story, reflections dealing with the therapist's own experiencing, and finally reflections about how the therapist can be helpful to the client" (Rober, 2010, p. 159). Rober (2010) suggests, that the therapist appears to constantly ask himself questions such as ''What will I say?'' ''What will I ask?'' ''What will I do next?'' ...
... Recently, various activities have been designed to familiarize trainees with the idea of a dialogical and polyphonic self (see, for example, (reference); Reed, 2010;Stratton, 2007;Tseliou, 2007). Rober (2010) has designed an activity to familiarize trainees with the notion of therapist's inner dialogue. In this particular activity, one of the trainees, the supervisee, talks about a case in which she or he feels stuck. ...
Article
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The notion of therapist inner dialogue is currently the focus of much research and clinical attention. In the present qualitative study we were interested in ways that the therapist's inner dialogue, as performed in various therapy acts, may shape the client's and observer's own inner dialogues, and therefore help or hinder the therapeutic process and outcome of the first session. We used written material from the training activity " Inner Dialogues-Therapist Observer Client (ID-TOC), which is introduced to trainees of a professional program in systemic psychotherapy. The inner dialogues were recorded in writing by participants during specific pauses, and were analyzed as structured narratives leading to a resolution. Four types of first session resolutions were identified: (1) connection, (2) unacknowledged connection, (3) misconnection and (4) no connection. The results of the analysis emphasized the importance of therapists' inner dialogue, as performed in various therapy acts, in shaping both clients' and observers' inner dialogues. Implications for training and practice are discussed.
... In this approach, the self of the therapist is not modeled by characteristics such as his or her training, experience, cultural attitudes, but by the feelings and emotions the therapist has during a therapy session. Although research has been scarce on the subject, a few conclusions can be drawn from this line of research: Most therapists experience anger, hate, fear, and sexual feelings (Pope & Tabachnick, 1993); both experienced and novice therapists encounter feelings of incompetence (Th eriault & Gazzola, 2005, 2010; and therapists also experience positive emotions in the session, such as liking the client and personal involvement (Vandenberghe & Silverstre, 2013). Self-awareness is another topic within the domain of therapists' experiences that has received attention (e.g., Williams, 2003;. ...
... We have focused in our trainings and supervisions on the concept of the therapist's inner conversation and we developed some specific tools for family therapy trainers and supervisors. One of these tools was the interacting-reflecting training exercise (Rober, 2010). Another tool is the assignment we used in this study: the Therapist Inner Conversation (TIC) assignment (Rober, 2015). ...
Article
"What do novice family therapists experience during a session with a couple or family?" This is the central question in this article. A videotape-assisted recall procedure was used to study novice family therapists' inner conversations. The therapists' reflections were analyzed using thematic analysis. This resulted in a coding system that distinguishes four main domains: (a) reflections concerning the self; (b) reflections about the therapy process; (c) reflections on emotions about the family members; and (d) managing the session as well as own emotions. The study furthermore revealed that during a session, novice family therapists experience strong emotions, such as self-criticism and irritation. Both emotions may encompass dangers, as well as opportunities for the therapeutic alliance and the process.
... In the POTT model, learning to work with and through these "signature themes" is so vital to therapists' professional performance that the training revolves around mastering the signature theme in all aspects of the therapeutic process. The three basic components of the model are to train therapists to know themselves (signature theme, personal history, and life-outlook; Aponte & Winter, 2000), achieve the ability to access their inner personal experience in the therapeutic process (Rober, 2010(Rober, , 2011, and make use of their selves actively and purposefully commensurate with each task of the therapeutic process-connecting with clients, assessing cognitively and intuitively, and intervening in a personal transaction specifically tailored to the client (Aponte & Carlsen, 2009). ...
... 165). The POTT model's emphasis on how the therapist uses self in the here-and-now falls closer to Rober's (2010) "inner conversation" when he talks about the "different kinds of [therapist] reflections" during the therapeutic process: "Observations and evaluations of the client's process, reflections about trying to make sense out of the client's story, reflections dealing with the therapist's own experiencing, and finally reflections about how the therapist can be helpful to the client" (p. 159). ...
Article
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This study premises that self-of-the-therapist work is pivotal in the development of effective therapists. However, therapy models vary in their goals for this work and the means of accomplishing them. This study presents the perspective of the person-of-the-therapist Training (POTT) model that prioritizes the ability to consciously and purposefully use the self-as-is at the moment of contact with the client over the traditional goal of therapists working to resolve their issues. A key underlying assumption of the model proposes that therapists' core issues (referred to as “signature themes”) are potent resources that can be tapped into to connect, assess and intervene effectively with clients. The study presents the model and illustrates the use of signature themes in clinical work.
... Once these constructions of meaning are identified, therapists can recognize the facilitating contexts in which the emergence of subjective positions in emotionally difficult situations can be promoted. Regarding internal conversations, it has been proposed that there are different positions in the therapist's self that engage in dialogue with each other (Rober, 2010) as well as a continuous dialogue between the professional and personal selves of therapists (Mikes-Liu et al., 2016), which underlies some interventions that emerge in external conversations with patients. Understanding the intersection between the two dimensions can be achieved by combining descriptive methodologies, such as systems for coding subjective positions (e.g., Kay et al., 2021Kay et al., , 2023, with techniques that allow the recognition and tracking of internal voices, such as autoethnography (e.g., Råbu et al., 2019;Hills, 2023), or postsession semi-structured interviews with therapists and patients. ...
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Introduction This systematic review identified qualitative and mixed-methods empirical studies on psychotherapy from dialogical and narrative approaches, aiming to address the following questions: (1) How are subjectivity and intersubjectivity qualitatively understood in dialogical and/or narrative psychotherapies studied using dialogical and narrative approaches? (2) How do therapeutic changes occur, including their facilitators and barriers? (3) What psychotherapeutic resources are available for psychotherapists in these types of studies? Method The articles were selected according to the Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and the eligibility criteria proposed by the PICOS strategy (participants, interventions, comparators, outcomes, and study design) from 163 records identified in the Web of Science Core Collection databases. Results The systematic review process allowed the selection of 16 articles. The results provided insights into the understanding of subjectivity, intersubjectivity, change in psychotherapy, its facilitators, and barriers from these perspectives. It also offered some therapeutic interventions that can be implemented in psychotherapies, integrating dialogical and/or narrative aspects. Discussion The centrality of dialogical exploration of patient/client resources, therapists as interlocutors fostering client agency, polyphony serving as scaffolding for change, and interconnection with the sociocultural environment are discussed. The integration of this latter topic has been a challenge for these types of studies, considering the active construction of shared meanings. The dialogical and narrative approaches focus psychotherapy on transforming meanings through dialogue and re-authoring stories, evolving within cultural and historical contexts. Thus, this study highlights the relevance of these perspectives in contemporary psychotherapy, emphasizing dialogue in co-creation within an intersubjective framework.
... The whole DFGtraining program and DFG interventional details are published by Cavonius-Rintahaka et al. 2020. (47,(49)(50). ...
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Background Children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) can have emotional and behavioral symptoms affecting not only the child, but the whole family. Since family members have a strong impact on each other, studies highlight the need to offer effective family interventions to strengthen the wellbeing of the family. The aim of the current study is to clarify whether there is a difference between parents` opinions regarding their child`s emotional and behavioral condition immediately after Dialogical Family Guidance (DFG) has ended and after a three and six month follow-up. Method Fifty families with a child with NDD were randomized into two groups. Group 1 received DFG with an immediate starting point, and Group 2 received DFG after a three-month waiting period. Parent experiences of treatment response regarding their children`s emotional and behavioral symptoms were estimated before and after DFG using the parent version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-p) at baseline, and after three and six months. Additionally, comparisons between boys and girls, and the age of the child were analyzed. Results The total difficulties score between Group 1 and Group 2 showed no difference immediately after DFG, or after three months. Regarding subdomains boys had more peer problems than girls, and at baseline, children between 3 and 6 years appeared to have more conduct problems than children between 7 and 13 years. Subdomain prosocial behavior increased statistically significantly during the study period in Group 1. Other SDQ-p subdomains remained constant in both groups between baseline and three and six month follow-up. Conclusions The result does not show any differences between parents` opinions regarding their child immediately after or three months after DFG regarding SDQ-p total difficulties scores in either group. The difference between younger and older children regarding conduct problems at baseline, and the difference between boys and girls regarding peer problems is worth paying attention to in the clinical setting. Because of the small sample, it is not possible to draw relevant conclusions regarding the intervention`s effect regarding the child`s mental health dimensions, gender, or age. Nevertheless, Dialogical family Guidance represents one intervention that can be used. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04892992 (retrospectively registered May 18th 2021).
... All of these actions-in-reflections and reflections-in-actions (Schön, 1983;Rober, 2010) happen in a short period and I don't have the time to focus on the techniques of how to be in the session. Rather, I engage with my client in the relational space between us, while at the same time I am aware of what happens in the relational space within myself. ...
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Exegesis In my doctoral inquiry, I focused on the relational space in the therapy room. The relational space is a concept that may appear in different forms and include words, emotions, non-verbal communication, objects within the context of space and time (Gergen, 2015). As a systemic practitioner and practitioner researcher, I find the process, and, potentially, the outcome of therapy to be largely defined by: the relational space between myself and my client; the relational space within my different selves; and the interconnectedness of these relational spaces. By being both self-reflexive and relationally reflexive, my research addresses the question of how the relational space between client and therapist interconnects with the relational space within the therapist, thus creating “relational ripples” in the therapy room (Karamatsouki, 2020). My interest in the area emerged as in my practice I observed that when I bring more of myself in the therapy room, more of the client is in there, too. In order to study the complex encounter in the therapy room I used autoethnography through storywriting. Autoethnography, “an autobiographical genre of writing and research that displays multiple layers of consciousness” (Ellis, 2004, p. 37), gives access to research material from an insider’s perspective. I use stories from practice in a literary style and in an ethical manner, where the focus is neither on the therapy techniques nor on the client’s difficulties. Instead, the focus is on the relational conversation between my client and me, as well as my inner dialogue and thoughts and feelings. What follows in a story from within practice which appears in my doctoral thesis and shows the relational flow of the therapeutic process and the creation of relational ripples. In a way, what I am trying to do is expand systemic thinking by bringing to the fore the relational space within myself as a therapist and create a professionally employable space for the personal.
... By contributing to the dialogue, the therapist shows that they are struggling together with the client in their difficulties (Friedman, 1994) and their different ideas can create new meanings (Anderson, 2001;Anderson & Goolishian, 1992). Consequently, there have been attempts to create exercises to develop a therapist's awareness of their inner voices (e.g., Mikes-Liu, Goldfinch, MacDonald, & Ong, 2016;Rober, 2010). ...
Article
The Open Dialogue approach has gained increasing international interest outside of its origins in Finland. However, the central principle of promoting dialogue can be a difficult concept to teach and apply. In addition, there is a wide range of authors and articles about Open Dialogue and dialogical approaches creating a potentially overwhelming number of sources for clinicians to consider. In this narrative review, we describe and synthesise the wide range of writings on how dialogue may be promoted in family therapy. This article covers the various uses of the term ‘dialogue,’ the dialogical mindset of the therapist, recommendations on how to respond to clients during meetings, the involvement of the therapist’s ‘self’ in meetings, and the use of reflecting teams. We present a concise list of recommendations to aid clinicians and to promote further discussion about dialogical practices.
... These visions in turn must be attuned to those to whom they have obligations: their trainees, of course, but also to the units of the larger training system and communities in which they and their trainees are situated. Rober (2010) suggested a process whereby new trainees attend to their "polyphony of inner voices" (pp. 158-159). ...
... Los modelos preferidos por los autores del capítulo son dos, por una parte el modelo de supervisión en el contexto del equipo reflexivo (Andersen, 1990;Montalvo y Espinosa, 2011), por otra el orientado a los supuestos básicos del supervisado y la coherencia. Este estilo de supervisión se esfuerza por dilucidar los modelos internos, los supuestos subyacentes a la práctica expuesta por el terapeuta, el conocimiento tácito del terapeuta (Mutchler y Anderson, 2010;Rober, 2010;Schön, 1998;Senge, 1992;Vírseda, 2010). La retroalimentación positiva, el enfoque grupal y constructivo, la narrativa, recalcar los recursos propios del terapeuta juegan un papel importante para la mejora del desempeño del terapeuta en estos dos modelos (Neal, 1996). ...
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Un grupo de especialistas latinoamericanos, miembros de la Asociación Latinoamericana para la formación y la enseñanza de la Psicología, reunidos bajo la coordinación de Bárbara Zas, nos entregan sus reflexiones y experiencias sobre un tema de gran importancia y actualidad: La Supervisión Psicológica. Diez escritos de alto valor para el mejoramiento de la práctica profesional de la Psicología.
... This inner conversation has been found to be rich and complex (Rober et al., 2008aRober et al., , 2008b) including " different kinds of reflections: observations and evaluations of the client's process, reflections about trying to make sense out of the client's story, reflections dealing with the therapist's own experiencing, and finally reflections about how the therapist can be helpful to the client " (Rober, 2010, p. 159). Rober (2010) suggests, that the therapist appears to constantly ask himself questions such as ''What will I say?'' ''What will I ask?'' ''What will I do next?'' ...
Article
The notion of therapist inner dialogue is currently the focus of much research and clinical attention. In the present qualitative study we were interested in ways that the therapist's inner dialogue, as performed in various therapy acts, may shape the client's and observer's own inner dialogues, and therefore help or hinder the therapeutic process and outcome of the first session. We used written material from the training activity " Inner Dialogues-Therapist Observer Client (ID-TOC), which is introduced to trainees of a professional program in systemic psychotherapy. The inner dialogues were recorded in writing by participants during specific pauses, and were analyzed as structured narratives leading to a resolution. Four types of first session resolutions were identified: (1) connection, (2) unacknowledged connection, (3) misconnection and (4) no connection. The results of the analysis emphasized the importance of therapists' inner dialogue, as performed in various therapy acts, in shaping both clients' and observers' inner dialogues. Implications for training and practice are discussed.
... In this article we utilise a dialogical perspective, as we have found it particularly helpful in our work. This article adds to the existing literature (e.g., Rober, 2010Rober, , 2016 by contributing options for teaching these ideas experientially within a short timeframe. ...
Article
The dialogical notion of vertical polyphony, referring to multiple internal voices, is explored in relation to clinicians’ professional and personal selves. We describe an experiential training exercise developed to enhance clinicians’ awareness and understanding of their inner dialogue, and create space to practice what Schön terms ‘reflecting-in-action’ and ‘knowing-in-action.’ The exercise involves stages of personal reflection, discussion in groups of two or three, and shared learning by the group. A number of variations of the exercise are described. The invited commentaries following the article provide a sense of participants’ reactions to the exercises. Readers are invited to adapt the exercise to suit their own setting and to enhance reflective practice.
... The Complexity of the Task and Training/Supervision While dual process theories and the concept of the therapist's inner dialogue offer the conceptual tools to think and talk about the complexity of the therapist's involvement in the therapeutic process, an additional task is to prepare young family therapists through training and supervision for the challenge of family therapy practice. Different authors have presented valuable ideas and tools that might be useful in this context (e.g., Aponte & Kissil, 2014;Aponte et al., 2009;Lowe, 2000;Rober, 2010Rober, , 2016. ...
... There are many examples of experiential training activities in the literature (e.g., Helmeke & Prouty, 2001;Rober, 2010;Winston & Piercy, 2010). Perhaps one of the challenges is to plan to use these activities in ways that bring theory alive, and not as replacements for sufficient attention to theory. ...
Article
Marriage and family therapy educators increasingly emphasize training competencies. What we know less about is what makes family therapy education meaningful to marriage and family therapy ( MFT ) graduate students and what does not. In this study, through an Internet survey, we explored the most and least meaningful learning experiences of 68 MFT graduate students and recent graduates of Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education—accredited programs. We used thematic analysis to identify and illustrate resulting themes, which included the importance of experiential and personal components to learning, the professor‐student alliance, tying theory to practice, and the experiences of students with their clients, among others. We discuss the implications of these findings to support family therapy education and offer tentative suggestions for formative discussions both within and across programs. Video Abstract is found in the online version of the article .
... Boston, 2015;Newns et al., 2015;Sude, 2015). Experiential self of the therapist (SOT) training exercises can help MFT students become more culturally aware and sensitive (Laszloffy and Habekost, 2010), stimulate dialogue and reflection about a case where one feels 'stuck' (Rober, 2010), and facilitate students' connection to research (Stratton, 2007). This SOT exercise is unique in helping trainees have a felt experience of the differences between individual and relational therapy. ...
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This article describes an experiential self of the therapist exercise for use in family therapy training. It provides guidelines for instructors to integrate the activity into their courses including step‐by‐step directions, examples of processing questions, and potential readings to accompany the activity. The Talking About Versus Talking With exercise was designed to help family therapy students have a felt sense of some of the differences between individual and relational therapy. It provides trainers with a way to teach therapists in training about clients’ experiences in relational therapy where they talk about relational difficulties directly with someone, as opposed to talking about those same difficulties in individual therapy. The exercise also offers an opportunity for students to do self of the therapist work with a strained relationship in their personal lives, and students report that it is both rewarding and emotionally intense. Practitioner points Differences between individual and relational therapy may not be easily understood by family therapy students Self of the therapist work, including working with difficult personal relationships, is a vital component of family therapy training The experiential nature of the exercise provides students with a felt sense of some differences between individual and relational therapy
... Within cognitive analytical psychotherapy, Leiman (1997Leiman ( , 2012 and Pollard (2011) have contributed to the approach through Bakhtinian perspectives. Within family therapy, Bakhtin has inspired the emphasis on the multi-voiced (polyphonic) aspect of therapeutic meetings (Anderson & Gehart, 2007;Rober, 2005Rober, , 2010. In the Open Dialogue Approach we find a social network-oriented approach focusing on a multi-voiced, transdisciplinary collaboration involving those concerned by the crises (Holmesland, Seikkula, Nilsen, Hopfenbeck & Arnkil, 2010;Seikkula, 2011a;Seikkula & Arnkil, 2006). ...
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In this article, we use the intersubjective ethics of Bakhtin and Levinas and a case illustration to explore change in therapy as an ethical phenomenon. We follow Lakoff and Johnson in their emphasis on the way our conceptions of change seem permeated by metaphors. Bakhtin and Levinas both suggest through a language in which metaphors play a crucial role, that human existence—the consciousness and the subject—emerge within the dialogue of the encounter. They both describe the dynamics of human existence as ethical in their origin. Following this, we argue that change may be seen as an ongoing ethical event and that the dynamics of change are found in the ways we constantly become in this event. We investigate the ethical dynamics of this ongoing event through three themes illuminating the contributions of both Bakhtin and Levinas: (1) we become as responsible, (2) we become in speaking, (3) we become in answering the unknown. We explore these themes through a case illustration. Finally, we briefly point out some possible implications for mental health practice.
... Training, Supervision, and Asessment I have pointed to the importance of self-awareness, and the difficulty of combining selfawareness with the outer dialogue. This suggests a focus on awareness at an early stage of training, for example by using the kind of training group proposed in Rober (2008) in which the students divide the roles of outer conversation with the client and inner conversation with themselves. ...
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The article describes an investigation into dialogues between native Swedish psychotherapists and refugee families. Dialogue is needed to establish the therapeutic alliance, which is ultimately important for healing, whether of individual sickness or family crisis. However the development of dialogue is hindered by cross-cultural and language barriers. We concentrate on one aspect of research originally presented in a Doctoral Thesis by the first author, asking how culture and power differences, together with their resettlement in a strange country, affected meetings with refugee families, and how these problems were overcome; language and the presence of an interpreter are not discussed. A multi-perspective methodology was used in the original research, combining text analysis, review of video-recordings by the participating therapists, and interviews with the families. All these forms of investigation are drawn on here, but particularly text analysis. Significant hindrances to dialogue turn out to be differences in cultural values between refugee and therapist, their different power positions, and the refugee’s weariness and distrust of meetings. Strategies to minimise power differences are an essential aspect of the Finnish open dialogue approach, which turns out to be particularly relevant to such refugee meetings.
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The development of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a major global disaster. Compared with the panic and trauma experienced during SARS, Taiwan has been more prepared and responding to the impact of COVID-19. The Chinese culture has always said that a crisis is a turning point. Western history has also proved there must be a Renaissance after a primary plague. What have we done as mental health and counseling professionals while experiencing Taiwan’s uninterrupted disaster test? What did you learn? The experience of suffering in the disaster and trauma brought deep learning and professional growth to consulting professionals. The 921 earthquakes in 1999, the SARS in 2003, the August 8 floods in 2009, the Kaohsiung explosion in 2014, and Eight Immortals Paradise Dust Burst Incident in 2015, the Mino earthquake in 2016, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019…. In addition to these significant disasters that everyone is deeply impressed by, many disasters have not been absent in Taiwan. How can Taiwanese people, including counseling professionals, grow resilience from experiencing trauma? How to develop professional strength and effectiveness from responding to trauma. As humans interact with nature to open up territories and search for resources, natural disasters and human-made disasters seem to be an inevitable challenge. The Chinese culture emphasizes the unity of nature and man, which contains the wisdom of symbiosis with nature. In this extreme climate and frequent disasters of the earth’s environmental predicament, seeking a feasible path for humankind is something that all people in the world should be concerned about. It is also a concern for counseling professionals. The way of counseling is to find a way out for change and improvement. There is the principle of three changes in the Classics of Change and the three medicines in the Huangdi Neijing. The counseling profession helps people face crises, and they may also have a whole-person point of view. It is not only to use variant methods to help people solve problems but also to use simple Principles to help people develop a way of life that coexists with the system and environment in which they are located. It is also necessary to uphold the spirit of not helping people realize their lives meaning and survival value. Disasters will cross the world; the profession should include culture in counseling. Professionals should reflect and integrate foreign professional knowledge and local cultural experience in disasters with mindful thinking and create disaster response theories and techniques that can be applied locally and shared with other places.
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Couple, Marriage, and Family Therapy (CMFT) and other psychotherapy literature acknowledge the importance of therapist self-awareness and self-knowledge and discuss many potential different ways to train the self of the therapist. However, there is no collective expert guidance in the current literature for self of the therapist training. Using a modified Delphi method, this study involved systematically surveying a panel of experts to gain consensus on some of the most important concepts, methods, benefits, and risks of self of the therapist training. The panel endorsed 112 items that focused on specific elements of self of the therapist work, benefits and risks of self of the therapist training, structure and setting of self of the therapist training, expectations for supervisors and trainers, and recommendations for ongoing self of the therapist work. Clinical implications for trainers and training programs are discussed.
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Internationaal is er de laatste tijd toenemende belangstelling voor de Open dialoogbenadering, die is ontstaan in Finland. Maar het kernprincipe ervan, dialoog bevorderen, kan lastig te onderwijzen en toe te passen zijn. Bovendien zijn er zoveel verschillende publicaties over de Open dialoog en dialogische benaderingen beschikbaar dat hulpverleners misschien niet weten waar te beginnen met het raadplegen ervan. In dit narratieve literatuuroverzicht geven we een beschrijving en samenvatting van het brede palet aan publicaties die gaan over hoe in gezinstherapie een dialoog op gang kan worden gebracht. Dit artikel behandelt de diverse interpretaties van de term ‘dialoog’, de dialogische mindset van de therapeut, aanbevelingen over mogelijke reacties op cliënten tijdens sessies, de betrokkenheid van het ‘zelf’ van de therapeut tijdens die ontmoetingen en de inzet van reflectieteams. Verder presenteren we een bondig lijstje met aanbevelingen, als hulpmiddel voor hulpverleners en ter bevordering van het gesprek over dialogische manieren van werken.
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Peter Rober's work (2005a) on the therapist’s inner conversation (TIC) has been a significant contribution to understanding the therapist's 'here and now' experience that focuses on the emergence of different voices responding to what is said in the therapy session. Frediani and Rober (2016) conducted an investigation into the experience and TIC of novice therapists concerning emotions aroused and how they deal with them during family therapy. Their research prompted us to ask how this methodology could work with recent graduates and those in the last year of their undergraduate training. This was addressed in the adolescent psychotherapy team that is part of the Equipo de Trabajo y Asesoría Sistémica (Systemic Counselling and Teamwork) (eQtasis) of the Psychology Department of the University of Chile. An important characteristic has been developing an ethics for clinical practice and generating a collaborative reflexive approach as a central aspect of the clinical training. The paper aims to promote the legitimacy of the experience of novice therapists who despite limited professional experience have many stories that connect with what is said in therapy.
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The reflecting team is a well-known and frequently used approach in the systemic supervision of groups. Such supervision can be facilitated both as live supervision and (retrospective) group supervision. This chapter will explore different uses of the reflecting team, both in pre-qualification and post-qualification supervision of family therapy and systemic practice. For example, the supervision group can be allocated different perspectives and roles, (for example, in family therapy, the perspective of the mother and the daughter; or in supervision of team process, the perspective of the psychologist and the manager, and so on) or different theoretical perspectives (for example, structural, narrative or solution focused, and so on) in the process of supervision. The supervisor can choose between many different positions both in live and in retrospective group supervision. Different positions will be described and discussed in relation to training and the development of students and qualified family therapists, the ethical issues and the impact for clients and on the therapy process. The chapter contains suggestions for exercises and activities and examples from practice will be given to illustrate the ideas and how they can be useful.
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The present text introduces the dialogical paradigm (dialogism) as a framework for research on psychotherapeutic process. First, basic assumptions of dialogism and related terminology are described. Then, two identified research directions are introduced. The first one focuses on research of therapeutic dyads and is connected to the Dialogical Self Theory and Dialogical Sequence Analysis (DSA) in the context of Assimilation Model. Analysis of dialogical relationship patterns and DSA are described in detail. The other direction is focused on sessions with multiple actors and is grounded in a normative assumption of usefulness of polyphony in psychotherapy. Dialogical Investigations method is described in detail. Dialogism and related methods are discussed regarding limits and potential usefulness for psychotherapy process research.
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Small group supervision is a powerful venue for generative conversations because of the multiplicity of perspectives available and the potential for an appreciative audience to a practitioner's work. At the same time, the well-intentioned reflections by a few practitioners in a room can inadvertently duplicate normative discourses that circulate in the wider culture and the profession. This article explores the use of narrative practices for benefiting from the advantages of group supervision while mindful of the vulnerability that comes with sharing one's work among colleagues. The reflective group supervision processes described were modified from the work of Tom Andersen and Michael White to provide a venue that encourages the creative multiplicity of group conversation while discouraging unhelpful discourses which constrain generative conversation.
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In recent years several authors have made a beginning in describing therapeutic conversations from a dialogical perspective. Training and supervision, however, have not yet been addressed from a dialogical perspective. In this article, an experiential training exercise is described that is focused on the basic dialogical skills of the trainee: respectful inquiry and constructive reflecting. Rather than teaching and instructing, this training exercise is aimed at staging a dialogue. The trainees are invited to take part in this dialogue, as they are encouraged to experiment with new positions and new ways of encountering others, and as their different voices tell of their experiences, of the things they have learned, and of the new perspectives that have opened up for them. Leaning on ideas about the therapist's inner conversation (Rober, 1999, 2005b) and stressing the importance of polyphony, dialogism, and tolerance for uncertainty, the training exercise described in this article is consistent with a dialogical and postmodernist frame, as described by Seikkula and Olson (2003).
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The therapist’s inner conversation and the use of metaphoric images : a training exercise In recent years several authors have made a beginning in describing therapeutic conversations from a dialogical perspective. Training and supervision, however, have not yet been addressed from a dialogical perspective. In this article, an experiential training exercise is described that is focused on the basic dialogical skills of the trainee : respectful inquiry and constructive reflecting. Rather than teaching and instructing, this training exercise is aimed at staging a dialogue. The trainees are invited to take part in this dialogue, as they are encouraged to experiment with new positions and new ways of encountering others, and as their different voices tell of their experiences, of the things they have learned, and of the new perspectives that have opened up for them. Leaning on ideas about the therapist’s inner conversation (Rober, 1999, 2005b) and stressing the importance of polyphony, dialogism, and tolerance for uncertainty, the training exercise described in this article is consistent with a dialogical and postmodernist frame, as described by Seikkula and Olson (2003).
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Using a discursive therapy approach that draws heavily from collaborative therapy, the author of this article demonstrates how the therapist (author) used the interdependent philosophical assumptions of not-knowing, being public, and honoring a client's story as a means to counteracting social inequalities experienced by a biracial, court-directed couple presenting for therapy. This therapeutic approach is demonstrated within the context of four different dialogical interplays that occurred during the couple's second therapy session. The implications of clinical work with marginalized couples and families and for the family therapy profession are discussed.
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There are certain special kinds of involved, reciprocally responsive, meetings with others which, when they occur, can give rise to special and distinctive feelings in us, feelings which can ‘tell’ us something about the unique nature of an other’s ‘inner world’, and which can thus shape our responses to them in ways that matter to them. In a moment, below, we would like to try to describe the special nature of such meetings or engagements, and also, to spend some time outlining some of the prior attitudes and expectations that can prevent such engaged meetings from ever taking place. For it seems to us that certain orientations—often to do with demands made on us by our training as professionals—can lead us to impose already existing demands and requirements on all our meetings, externally,and it is just these external impositions that can prevent these special kinds of involvement from ever emerging.
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Mother had contacted me because she was concerned about the behavioral problems of her 8-year-old daughter Elly. The family was gathered in the session: the mother, Elly and the 2 year old Art. It was the second session with this family. At a certain moment mother started talking about the possibility of having some time to talk with me individually about her painful childhood. At that moment Elly playfully gave mother an injection with a toy hypodermic needle. Mother interrupted what she was saying and we all looked at Elly. When this sequence happened the therapist was confronted with the question what he 2 would do next. Would he ignore Elly' s action and go on listening to the story of mother? Would he ask the child what she meant? Would he ask mother what she thinks Elly meant? Would he act on some idea that popped up 1 I want to thank Lois Shawver and everybody at the PMTH discussion list on the internet. Furthermore, I also thank Craig Smith, Tom Strong and Lynn Hoffman for their comments on this manuscript. I also want to thank my colleagues who have helped me in discussing the case: Sara Keymolen, An Nijsmans, Karin Tilmans, An Luyten, An Vanhimbeek, Mich Vanwayenbergh, Lieven Migerode. 2 In order to avoid the discriminating use of the generic masculine, the client and the therapist are referred to with a feminine pronoun, except when there is an explicit reference to a man.
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importance of starting supervision well offers clinical supervisors a series of conceptual overlays and pragmatic, skill-focused guidelines, with particular emphasis on beginning the supervision process details what the supervisor needs to keep in mind before and during supervision articulates how a supervisor can proceed at the outset of and throughout supervision, to prevent unnecessary problems and to keep supervision on track defines the preeminent factors constituting and influencing the successful formation of the supervisory system stages of training supervisory attitude / supervisor development / relationship factors and interpersonal skills / supervisors supervise / clear thinking and the capacity to communicate a coherent model of therapy (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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This article situates family therapy in the politics of evidence‐based practice. While there is a wealth of outcome research showing that family therapy works, it remains on the margin of mainstream therapy and mental health practice. Until recently it has been difficult to satisfy ‘gold standards’ of randomized control research which require manualization and controlled replication by independent investigators. This is because systemic family therapy is language‐based, client‐directed and focused on relational process rather than step‐by‐step operational techniques. As a consequence family therapy is an empirically supported treatment unable to join the evidence‐based club. The politics here concerns what is ‘evidence’, who defines it and the limitations of a scientist‐practitioner model. Therapy is art and science and its research needs to be grounded in real‐life clinical practice. Common factors such as personal hope and resourcefulness and the therapeutic relationship contribute more to change than technique or model. While arguing for a wider definition of science and evidence it is politic to seek evidence‐based status for family therapy. Family therapy is a best practice approach for all therapists where systemic wisdom helps to decide what to do with whom when . A systemic‐practitioner model is informed by quantitative and qualitative research and holds modern and postmodern perspectives in tension, a stance I call paramodern . Family therapy is both scientific and systemic; it is a science of context, narrative and relationship.
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The authors used a videotape-assisted recall procedure to study the content of family therapists' inner conversations during individual sessions with a standardized client. Grounded theory was used to analyze therapists' reflections, resulting in a taxonomy of 282 different codes in a hierarchical tree structure of six levels, organized into four general domains: attending to client process; processing the client's story; focusing on therapists' own experience; and managing the therapeutic process. In addition to providing a descriptive model of therapists' inner conversation, this research led to an appreciation of the wealth of therapists' inner conversation. In particular, the authors found that therapists work hard to create an intersubjective space within which to talk by trying to be in tune with their clients and by using clients as a guide.
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In recent years, a dialogical perspective has emerged in the family therapy field in which the therapist's inner conversation is conceptualized as a dialogical self. In this study, we analyze the data of a grounded theory study of therapist reflections and we portray the therapist's self as a dynamic multiplicity of inner positions embodied as voices, having dialogical relationships in terms of questions and answers or agreement and disagreement. We propose a descriptive model of the therapist's inner conversation with four positions. In this model, each of the four positions represents a concern of the therapist: attending to the client's process, processing the client's story, focusing on the therapist's own experience, and managing the therapeutic process. Detailed analyses of vignettes of therapist reflections illustrate the model, and implications of this model for training and supervision are considered.
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This article discusses the role of empirically supported treatments (ESTs) in the training of clinical psychologists. Training in ESTs can be integrated in ways that vary depending on the level of training and setting. Predoctoral programs, internships, postdoctoral programs, and continuing education are discussed in regard to special challenges and sequencing of training. A preliminary set of guidelines for training in ESTs is suggested.
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This study describes what occurs when trainees and supervisors encounter a lack of consensus in supervision. We identified 120 episodes indicating a lack of consensus between a supervisor and a trainee during 23 hr of supervision. Qualitative analysis of the episodes described 10 supervisor responses, characterized as influence and evaluation, and eight trainee responses, characterized as cooperation and deference. The pattern of supervisor-trainee interaction was characterized by negotiation and collaboration. Supervisors and trainees collaborate to produce a presentation of the trainee as a competent clinician and a cooperative trainee. Supervisors identify deficiencies and offer requests in a subtle manner that appears open to modification, thus cooperating with the trainee's competent and cooperative image.
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Book synopsis: Collaborative Practice in Psychology and Therapy provides mainstream academics and practitioners with easy access to cutting-edge thinking in social constructionist psychology and therapy. This unique book is geared to readers who may not be familiar with narrative, social constructionist, or critical psychology and therapy, presenting contemporary theory and practice with a minimum of jargon. The field's leading practitioners and theorists demonstrate, through a collaborative and relational focus, how to work with people, rather than on them in a mutual, co-constructive exchange. Collaborative Practice in Psychology and Therapy bridges the gap between modern and postmodern theory, providing a well-rounded view that enables readers to see how contemporary theory can be applied in various subdisciplines. Each “user-friendly” chapter is virtually free of technical terms, beginning with a readable thumbnail summary of the practical, accessible material that follows. The book includes case studies and examples, illustrations, tables, a brief glossary of the few terms that do need explaining, and suggestions for additional readings. Collaborative Practice in Psychology and Therapy includes easy-to-apply ideas on: theory therapeutic practice teaching/supervision research and much more! Collaborative Practice in Psychology and Therapy is a practical, accessible resource for psychology and therapy students and practitioners, academics working in psychotherapy training and supervision, critical psychology, and psychological research. The book provides vital information for theorists and professionals interested in relational and collaborative practice on psychology and therapy, including clinical psychologists, individual, couple, and family therapists, school counselors, and social workers.
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This study describes what occurs when trainees and supervisors encounter a lack of consensus in supervison. We identified 120 episodes indicating a lack of consensus between a supervisor and a trainee during 23 hr of supervison. Qualitative analysis of teh episodes described 10 supervisor responses, characterized as influence and evaluation, and eight trainee responses, characterized as cooperation and deference. The pattern of supervisor‐trainee interaction wa characterized by negotation and collaboration. Supervisors and trainees collaborate to produce a presentation of the rtrainee as a competent clinician and a copperative trainee. Supervisors identify deficiencies and offer requests in a subtle manner that appears open to modification, this cooperating with the trainee's competent and cooperative image.
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convey some of the challenges involved in and amplified by practicing psychotherapy from a constructivist perspective / remarks are organized around 4 interdependent themes: (a) epistemological and ontological issues; (b) phenomenological and existential challenges; (c) issues of strategy, technique, and praxis; and (d) ethical issues (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
When people seek therapy they have stories to tell. In the course of the therapeutic conversation the clients continually make selections about what they want to tell, and what they want to keep silent. In this article the author focuses on the border zone between the said and the not-yet-said, and proposes three hypotheses about the client's hesitations about speaking in the family therapy session. In these hypotheses ‘hesitation’ is used as a metaphor to give meaning to some nonverbal utterances of clients in such a way that space is opened up in a respectful way for as-yet untold stories. I suggest that it is fruitful to think of certain nonverbal utterances of the clients as hesitations to proceed with the conversation, and to use these nonverbal utterances, in the line of Tom Andersen's thinking (1995), as a starting point for a respectful dialogue with the family about the good reasons they might have not to speak. Not only can this open up space for as-yet unspoken stories, it can also help the therapist to establish a collaborative therapeutic relationship with the family. These ideas are illustrated with several case studies.
Article
Although a large number of publications in the family therapy field stress the importance of children in family therapy, some authors report that, in practice, many family therapists do not actively involve children in their therapies. In this article, I reflect on the experiential reasons for this exclusion of children. I will consider the importance of the use of the self of the therapist and of the creation of a safe therapeutic culture for the child. Practical suggestions are made of ways to involve children in family therapy. Finally, these ideas are illustrated in a case example of a family therapy with an adoptive family.
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The development of self-supervision has been suggested as a universal supervisory goal. However, the principle of isomorphism suggests that supervisors from different orientations will view this practice quite differently. This article elaborates an approach to self-supervision that is consistent with constructive therapies, though the intention is to provide flexible guidelines that can accommodate a range of supervisory activities. Case consultation is viewed as an “embedded narrative” involving the case story, the therapist story, and the supervision story. A process of “constructive inquiry” is used to connect these stories in order to construct the identity of a self-sustaining therapist. This process requires a conceptual shift from supervising practice to supervising self-supervision.
Article
In this article, a distinction is made between the outer therapeutic conversation and the therapist's inner conversation. The therapeutic conversation is a circle of meaning in which both the therapist and the clients play a part. The therapist's inner conversation is described as a negotiation between the self of the therapist and his role. In this process of negotiation the therapist has to take seriously, not only his observations, but also what is evoked in him by these observations, that is, images, moods, emotions, associations, memories, and so on. Furthermore, therapeutic impasse is conceptualized as a paralysis of the circle of meaning and of the therapist's inner conversation. A process of reflection is proposed as a way out of the impasse. In that process, the inner conversation of the therapist is externalized with the help of an outsider. In the final part of this article, a case study illustrates the importance of these ideas for the family therapy practice.
Article
In Finland, a network-based, language approach to psychiatric care has emerged, called “Open Dialogue.” It draws on Bakhtin's dialogical principles (Bakhtin, 1984) and is rooted in a Batesonian tradition. Two levels of analysis, the poetics and the micropolitics, are presented. The poetics include three principles: “tolerance of uncertainly,”“dialogism,” and “polyphony in social networks.” A treatment meeting shows how these poetics operate to generate a therapeutic a therapeutic dialogue. The micropolitics are the larger institutional practices that support this way of working and are part of Finnish Need-Adapted Treatment, Recent research suggests that Open Dialogue has improved outcomes for young people in a variety of acute, severe psychiatric crises, such as psychosis, as compared to treatment as-usual settings. In a nonrandomized, 2-year follow up of first-episode schizophrenia, hospitalization decreased to approximately 19 days; neuroleptic medication was needed in 35% of cases; 82% had no, or only mild psychotic symptoms remaining; and only 23% were on disability allowance.
Article
In dit artikel beschrijven wij een model van leertherapeutische opleiding waarin het leren hanteren van het zelf van de therapeut centraal staat. Zowel de doelstellingen van de opleiding als de werkwijze en de taken van de opleider worden uitgelegd. Wij beschrijven hoe de opleider aan zijn opleidelingen de kans geeft om hun kennis over zichzelf en menselijke systemen uit te breiden. Dit doet hij door analyse van relationele metaforische beelden en door de analyse van hun ervaringen in hun eigen gezin van oorsprong. Hij geeft hun een model van werken dat analoog is aan dat van het functioneren als gezinstherapeut. There are two ways to approach reality and its appearances intellectually and to grasp them: we call these two ways logical thinking and psychological understanding. When we think logically we place ourselves objectively and impersonally outside the matter and ask what is the strict truth about it; when we would understand a matter psychologically, we familiarize ourselves with it and through sympathetic pursuit of its development we try to grasp it as a necessity. Th. Boman (1960)
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This book is not only a major twentieth-century contribution to Dostoevsky's studies, but also one of the most important theories of the novel produced in our century. As a modern reinterpretation of poetics, it bears comparison with Aristotle. "Concentrating on the particular features of 'Dostoevskian discourse,' how Dostoevsky structures a hero and a plot, and what it means to write dialogically, Bakhtin concludes with a major theoretical statement on dialogue as a category of language. One of the most important theories of the novel in this century." —The Bloomsbury Review
Article
From our earliest practice of family therapy at medical schools, private family therapy institutes, and public agencies, our work with difficult populations that do not respond to current treatment technologies has reminded us of the inadequacies of our theoretical descriptions and the limitations of our expertise. This work has influenced our current, evolving clinical theory as we move from thinking of human systems as social systems defined by social organization (role and structure) to thinking of them as distinguished on the basis of linguistic and communicative markers. Hence, for us, the social unit we work with in therapy is a linguistic system distinguished by those who are "in language" about a problem, rather than by arbitrary and predetermined concepts of social organization. We call the therapy system a problem-organizing, problem-dis-solving system.
Article
The supervision techniques used in structural, strategic, family-of-origin, and experiential family therapy training are discussed and compared, with emphasis on the isomorphism between supervision and therapy in each school. The usefulness of each supervisory model is related to supervisees' needs at different levels of training. Recommendations are made about the sequence of family therapy training, including the utility of eclectic versus purist family therapy training programs for trainees at different levels of experience.
Article
This paper has described a format for treating couples using the technique of couples choreography to define the marital relationship in metaphorical terms. When the metaphors are acted out, the reciprocity in the relationship is translated into concrete images. These images provide the basis for systemic interventions aimed at disrupting the escalating reciprocity. Prechange tests are used to regulate the speed of change in relation to the reciprocal positions. Change is viewed as an unsettling phenomenon that temporarily unbalances the marital relationship. The group serves as a theatrical setting in which the marital relationships are "staged" and examined with humor and objectivity. An atmosphere of experimentation is created, which is necessary for carrying out the unconventional tasks.
Article
This article uses the ideas of social constructionism to explore how families change by investigating the way our perceptions of ourselves in relation to others are formed through language. The idea that language has the inherent potential to generate a reply has strongly influenced our thinking. We propose that the reply to others is shaped by our initial reply to ourselves in inner conversation. Interaction moves back and forth from inner conversation to conversation with others, from monologue to dialogue, becoming the "stuff" of new narratives. The particular focus on language in this article is on how adding writing to the session conversation produces a "participant text," a therapeutic narrative that is composed of the voices of the family and the therapists. These voices, often newly discovered or invented, allow our narrative discourse to expand and multiply. Using this approach with individuals, couples, and families from different socioeconomic levels, we have worked with mourning, divorcing couples, recovery from abuse, marital conflict, parenting dilemmas, and physical illness.
Article
We discuss the status of the scientist-practitioner model in marriage and family therapy (MFT) doctoral programs. Issues discussed include a lack of faculty research role models in doctoral programs, "farming out" the majority of research courses to other disciplines, problems with curriculum, and how the culture of MFT does not support research. We also present suggestions for improving doctoral research training. The goal is to improve the quality of research training in doctoral programs. We hope that this will help change the culture of MFT to include research as one of its primary goals and greatest assets.
Article
The primary tasks of the therapist can be described as listening to what the client says and making space for what the client has not yet said. According to Anderson and Goolishian, the therapist should take a not-knowing stance in this dialogic process. The question remains, however, what not-knowing exactly means. In this article, I will explore this question and I will propose the concept of constructive hypothesizing. Constructive hypothesizing is described as a process in which there is a movement back and forth between knowing and not knowing. Of central importance are creative and dialogic understanding, rather than knowledge. Recommendations are made to ensure the constructive and collaborative use of hypotheses in the therapeutic dialogue.
Article
There are not a lot of conceptual tools that can help a family therapy teacher to talk and teach about the importance of the therapeutic relationship in family therapy practice. The idea that family therapy can be conceived as a dialogue might offer a fresh and promising perspective. Mainly inspired by the work of Bakhtin, Voloshinov, and Shotter, the author considers if the concept of dialogue can help us to talk about something that is there all the time in our family therapeutic practices, although sometimes unnoticed, and that is hard to talk about because we lack the necessary conceptual tools. When we choose to conceptualize family therapy as dialogue, the focus of the therapist is not primarily on data collection, information processing or problem analysis. The therapist is not primarily concerned with knowing, or with not-knowing. Instead, the focus is on the idea that first and foremost therapy is a meeting of living persons, searching to find ways to share life together for a while. Clinical vignettes that feature children's drawings in family therapy are used as illustrations.
Article
In this article, the focus is on the therapist's self, which will be in line with Bakhtin's thinking, viewed as a dialogical self. First, the dialogical view of the self is situated in the context of psychology's traditional focus on the individual self. Then, leaning on Bakhtin and Volosinov, the self is described as a dialogue of multiple inner voices. Some of the implications of this concept for family therapy practice are examined, focusing especially on the therapist's participation in the therapeutic process and on the therapist's inner conversation. The author argues that not-knowing does not only refer to the therapist's receptivity and respect but also implies that the therapist is aware of his or her experience and reflects on how his or her inner conversation might inform and enrich the therapeutic conversation. Finally, these ideas are illustrated with a brief clinical vignette.
Article
In this article, we look at the development in family therapy of narratives about domestic violence. We report on microanalyses of a family therapy session, using narrative research methods, including some conversation analytic tools. The main questions posed in this investigation were: How does storytelling of a highly charged and delicate topic like domestic violence develop in the session?; how do the different actors in the therapy room contribute to telling such stories?; how do actors try to put forward domestic violence as a conversational topic? and how do different actors react to these attempts? Our research illustrates how the recounting of stories of violence seems to go hand in hand with modes of interaction that discourage the telling of these stories. In the back-and-forth process between voices of hesitation and voices of reassurance, the participants weigh the level of safety in the session. In as far as the voices of hesitation can be reassured of the safety, it becomes gradually possible to talk about delicate, problematic experiences, such as violence in the family.
Conversation, language and possibilities: A postmodern approach to therapy New York: Basic Books Human systems as linguistic systems
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The use of structured fantasy in couple therapy
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Papp, P. (1990). The use of structured fantasy in couple therapy. In R. Chasin, H. Grunebaum, & M. Herzig (Eds.), One couple, four realities: Perspectives on couple therapy (pp. 25–48). New York: Guilford Press.
Human systems as linguistic systems
  • Anderson
Anderson, H., & Goolishian, H. (1988). Human systems as linguistic systems. Family Process, 27, 371–393.
Reflecting processes: Acts of forming and informing The reflecting team in action
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Andersen, T. (1995). Reflecting processes: Acts of forming and informing. In S. Friedman (Ed.), The reflecting team in action (pp. 11–37). New York: Guilford.
Metaphor therapy: Using client-generated metaphors in psychotherapy
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Kopp, R. R. (1995). Metaphor therapy: Using client-generated metaphors in psychotherapy. New York: Brun-ner ⁄ Mazel.
The dialogic imagination Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics Speech genres & other late essays
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Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press. Bakhtin, M. (1984). Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minneapolis Press. Bakhtin, M. (1986). Speech genres & other late essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Storying counselors: Producing professional selves in supervision
  • K Crocket
Crocket, K. (2004). Storying counselors: Producing professional selves in supervision. In D. A. Pare´ (Eds.), Collaborative practice in psychology and therapy (pp. 171–182). New York: Haworth Press.
De voortgezette opleiding gezinstherapie: Een model van leertherapeutische opleiding voor gezinstherapeuten [The master class family therapy: A model of experiential training for experienced family therapists]
  • Tilmans-Ostyn