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Family Emotions: The Helicopter Parents Essay

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Experiential family therapy is one that believes the root cause of the problems in the families is a result of emotional suppression. This theory is focused on freedom experiencing emotions in the here-and-now. Experiential family therapists believe clients should seek self-fulfillment and focus on individual’s roles in the family rather than on the family as a whole. In order to promote growth, the individual and family must both grow. Once families are emotionally healthy, healthy attachments can then be made. I am drawn to this approach because of its focus on the individual. I believe that if individuals are healthy, family roles will become clearer and the system as a whole will become healthier. It is similar to when a spoiled piece …show more content…

There is no special technique for this therapy, except for the personality of the therapist and the assessment is done by the therapist getting to know the family (Nichols, 2014, p. 134). From this, the therapist would then be able to determine what the next steps to assisting the family would be. Carl Whitaker is another prominent figure in experiential family therapy, and he believed in having a co-therapist minimize countertransference (Nichols, 2014, p. 137). For both Whitaker and Satir, there are a number of expressive techniques to do with a family; including, family sculpting, family puppet interviews, family art therapy, conjoint family drawings, and Gestalt therapy techniques, all with toys, doll houses, stuffed animals, clay, batacca bats, and art supplies (Nichols, 2014, p. 137). I feel the best option for my family is to have each member engage with family puppet interviews. With this technique, one family member is asked to make up a story using puppets and this well help to highlight any conflicts and alliances within the family (Nichols, 2014, p. 139). I envision each of my family members explaining many different shows with the same characters. How each member in my family views our structure are completely different, and I believe that part of the conflict is a result of not being able to communicate to each other what we are seeing and how we are feeling. Each member could benefit from family puppet

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