Reflection Of Experiential Family Theory

The family system is founded on the notions that for change to occur in the life of an individual, the therapist must understand and work with the family as a whole. In working with the family, the therapist can understand how the individual in counseling functions within his family system and how the client’s behaviors connect to other people in the family. This theory also holds the perception that symptoms are a set of family habits and patterns passed down by generation and not a result of a psychological problem or an inability to change (Corey, 2017). Furthermore, the family system theory holds the idea that when a change occurs everyone in the unit is affected by the change.

Gladding, S. T. (2010). Family therapy: History, theory, and practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.

The basic concepts of this type of therapy are boundaries, subsystems, complementary and alignments which are easily applied and grasped. The most important aspect the therapist must keep in perspective is that every family is made up of structure and that these structures are seen only when the members of the family interact. If the therapist does not consider the entire structure of the family and intervene in only one of the many subsystems are most likely not to attain a lasting change.

Family is something that plays a tremendous role in our life. Even though the structure of families has changed over the years, it is important to acknowledge that there many families out there whether they are traditional families, nuclear family, stepfamilies or others which tend to have different types of problems in their families. Therefore, many families attempt to go to family therapy in order for them to obtain help in solving the different types of issues they might have at home. As stated in the book Family Therapy by Michael P. Nichols (2013), “The power of family therapy derives from bringing parents and children together to transform their interaction… What keeps people stuck in their inability to see their own participation in the problems that plague them. With eyes fixed firmly on what recalcitrant others are doing, it’s hard for most people to see the patterns that bind them together. The family therapist’s job is to give them a wake-up call” (2013).

Experiential family theory is about the experiences that a family goes through in therapy and what it symbolizes to them. Experiential family theory is also well known as symbolic experiential family theory because the theory is about what the family takes out of the experience and what they use to describe their family. According to Smith (1998), the founder, Carl Whitaker, felt that it was the therapist’s responsibility to create these experiences in the sessions to help the family grow. Carl Whitaker accomplished this with impulse and creativity. He understood the family unit and knew that families could be cruel, but he believed the family had the ability to restore their family unit (Percy, 1990). The theory is not a traditional one,

Marriage and family therapists believe that the family patterns may affect an individual’s psychological and physical well being and therefore need to be part of therapy. During a therapy session even if only one person is being interviewed, the therapists focuses on a set of relationships that the person is embedded in. The entire family is involved in solving clients problems regardless of whether the issue in individual or family.

My first assumption of family therapy was to involve the parents and the individual that had the problem. This book explored further what it

Family therapy is a technique that has many alternative approaches to every aspect of treatment which Nichols (2014), states may present a challenge when describing a basic technique. The two models of family therapy in which I feel that I would be most effective and comfortable with would be, experiential family therapy and solution-focused brief therapy. I feel most comfortable with these models because, I adapt to the role of the therapist of both therapies naturally. According to Nichols (2014), when families seek therapy they are stuck in a life-cycle transition, sometimes they are obvious and sometimes they are not obvious. I’ve found that during the first session an excellent question is to ask the client why now so that they can

I knew college was going to change me in many ways. Yet, after my family and I restructured our collective and individual emotional reactivity over the three years that I was away at school, I believed my work in that department was done. I thought transiting into college was difficult, however, I found myself once again unprepared for the aftershock that rocked my family once I return from school. I left college a strong, independent, mature, and differentiated person, or at least I kind of did.

therapy aims to improve family relations, and the family is encouraged to become a type of

Becvar, D. & Becvar R. (2009). Family therapy: a systemic integration. (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Approaches to Family Therapy: Minuchin, Haley, Bowen, & Whitaker Treating families in therapy can be a complex undertaking for a therapist, as they are dealing not only with a group of individuals but also with an overall system. Throughout history several key theorists have attempted to demystify the challenges families face and construct approaches to treatment. However, there have been key similarities and differences among the theoretical orientations along the way. While some have simply broadened or expanded from existing theories, others have stood in stark

Experiential family therapy (EFT) was first developed in the 1960’s by physician and psychotherapy pioneer Carl Whitaker and is aimed at helping individual family members feel fulfilled and self-actualized within the family unit by means of improving cooperation and intimacy among family members. Unlike other schools of family therapy, EFT does not focus on the perceived problems of individual family members but examines how family interactions and communications cause problems for the individual family members. It is important to remember that, due to the level of interpersonal involvement needed in this style of therapy it requires every family member involved to fully participate in the process. For optimum effectiveness, the family should already be relatively stable.</p> Whitaker’s approach to EFT is known as the symbolic-experiential model. This model emphasizes immediate, here-and-now experiences rather than the introspective methods of earlier theories and promotes emotional expression as a medium of shared experience and as a means of both personal and family fulfillment. Symbolic-experiential family therapy is predicated on the existential idea that there is a great deal more to a family’s dynamics and existence than is empirically observable; unconscious dynamics, histories of shared and individual experiences, secrets, etc. This model attempts to integrate two different aspects of human experience; experience and “symbols.” Experience is what is taken in

My theoretical approach to family therapy is very integrative as I believe families cannot be described nor treated from a single-school approach. I view humans through a humanistic and existential lens but am more technically structural and solution-based. With this integrative approach, I believe I will be the most effective in helping families grow and reach their goals.

3. Become aware of the “alive versus the inanimate” and “familiar versus unfamiliar” and develop rudimentary social interaction.