Symbolic Experiential Flashcards
Symbolic Experiential:
Main Ideas:
Audio File 16
Classical Schools of Family Therapy.
~ anxiety is a good thing and can be channeled
~individual health create system health
~emotional suppression causes many family problems
~ authentic therapists
~ therapist had ‘grandparent’role with children
~ responsibility to change lies with family
~ all family members including generations must be present
~most important aspect of therapy is therapists own personality ad psychological health.
~viewed therapists as healers and artists… Learn the education then be yourself and not stuck with using it.
~ abandoned structured therapy and relied on spontaneous therapist reactions
~ when therapist sets structure so all family is there when therapist said when it would work. Hypothesized that if the clients aren’t willing to meet the counselors requirements then they won’t likely be invested in therapy.
Primary Contributors
Carl Whitaker
Secondary Contributors
August Napier
David Keith
Walter Kempler Thomas Malone
Laura Roberto
Key Terms:
Primary Interventions:
Activating Constructive Anxiety:
Affective Confrontation:
Battle for Initiative:
Battle for Structure:
Bilateral Pseudo-Therapy:
Bilateral Transference:
Co-Therapist:
Craziness: Existential Encounter: Expanding Distress: Family Interaction: Fantasy Alternative: Flight Toward Health: Individuation: Person of the Therapist: Redefining Symptoms: Teaming Roles: Therapeutic Double Bind: . Therapy of the Absurd:
Affective Confrontation:
Symbolic Experiential:
The therapist’s intentional confrontation with the family where he or she will directly and openly share his or her subjective emotional experience of working with the family.
Activating Constructive Anxiety:
Symbolic Experiential:
A Symbolic-Experiential Therapist’s effort to reframe symptoms as efforts toward building competence by focusing on the positive attributes of anxiety as a means toward self-growth.
Battle for Initiative:
Symbolic Experiential:
After the therapist wins the battle for structure, the family must win the battle for initiative—that is, realize and demonstrate that they are responsible for change, not the therapist.
Battle for Structure:
Symbolic Experiential:
Whitaker stated that the therapist must first win the battle for structure if therapy is to be effective—this entails determining who attends the session, what time sessions are, how frequently sessions occur, and for how long. If the family is not willing to meet these expectations set by the therapist, then they are not prepared to invest in the growth-process and change would be unlikely.
Bilateral Pseudo-Therapy:
Symbolic Experiential:
Occurs when family members attempt to play therapist to one another—this is avoided.
Fantasy Alternative:
Symbolic Experiential:
Discussing problematic or stressful situations in fantasy based, “what if” terms or deemphasizing stressful situations by suggesting absurd fantasy alternatives (e.g. maybe if you medicated your husband, he wouldn’t be so emotional).
Person of the Therapist:
Symbolic-Experiential Therapy attributes the psychological health and authenticity of the therapist as a person being a primary factor in effective therapeutic outcomes. The therapist is encouraged to be authentic and real with his or her clients, relying on the spontaneity of their emotional responses as they remain present with the family.
Individuation:
Symbolic Experiential:
A primary goal in growth-oriented therapies, encouraging each individual family member in becoming more and more of who they are.
~ not differentiation as in MRI
but individuality and authenticity
Flight Toward Health:
Symbolic Experiential:
When a family would abruptly stop showing up for treatment, Whitaker would take this as a positive sign that the family experience profound growth and no longer requires therapeutic support. Whitaker would always be supportive of a family’s request to terminate therapy regardless of the phase of treatment.
Redefining Symptoms:
Symbolic-Experiential Therapists will often redefine symptoms from pathological to efforts toward growth.
Expanding Distress:
Symbolic Experiential:
This is a process of expanding the symptom to the system, that is, expanding the distress to include each member, shifting the nature of anxiety within the family and reducing blame and scapegoating.
Family Interaction:
Symbolic Experiential:
Healthy family interaction in Experiential Therapy is traditionally characterized through flexibility and openness to life experiences.
Existential Encounter:
Symbolic Experiential:
The therapist’s willingness to both receive the family’s reactions to him as well as disclose his or her own reactions toward the family.
Craziness:
Symbolic Experiential:
Falls into 3 categories of being driven crazy, going crazy, or acting crazy. Different orientations of craziness as exhibited in dysfunctional families.
