■ Erosion of boundaries
o Schools of therapy are becoming less divided; therapists are borrowing techniques from almost all areas.
o Therapists have seen the need to adjust their therapy to fit the specific client.
■ Postmodernism
o Contemporary anti-positivism
o Viewing knowledge as relative and context dependent
o Questions assumptions of objectivity that characterize modern science
o In family therapy, challenging the idea of scientific certainty, and linked to method of deconstruction
o Most accepted practices were deconstructed- shown to be social conventions developed by people with their own agendas.
■ The Feminist Critique
o Exposed gender bias in existing models and advocated a style of therapy that called into question systems theory itself.
o Feminists stated that therapist failed to see that the archetypal family case of the over involved mother and peripheral father is best understood not as a clinical problem but as a product of a historical process hundreds of years in the making.
o Belief that gender inequality should be primary concern for family therapists
■ Social Constructionism and the Narrative Revolution
o Constructivism
◆ A relativistic point of view that emphasizes the subjective construction of reality.
◆ Implies that what we see in families may be based as much on our preconceptions as on what’s actually going on.
o Collaborative Model
◆ A more egalitarian view of the therapist’s role.
◆ A stance advocated by critics of what they see as the authoritarianism in traditional approaches to family therapy
o Reflecting team
◆ Tom Anderson’s technique of having the observing team share their reactions with the family at the end of a session.
◆ Observers will come out from behind a one way mirror to discuss their impressions with the therapist and family.
o It was thought that therapist were doing therapy TO the client as opposed to WITH the client.
o A therapist should take a not-knowing stance which leads to genuineness.
o This therapy came from the biblical study called hermeneutics= the art of analyzing literary texts or human experience, understood as fundamentally ambiguous, by interpreting levels of meaning.
o Social constructionism
◆ Like constructivism, challenges the notion of an objective basis for knowledge.
◆ Knowledge and meaning are shaped by culturally shared assumptions.
o Schools of therapy are becoming less divided; therapists are borrowing techniques from almost all areas.
o Therapists have seen the need to adjust their therapy to fit the specific client.
■ Postmodernism
o Contemporary anti-positivism
o Viewing knowledge as relative and context dependent
o Questions assumptions of objectivity that characterize modern science
o In family therapy, challenging the idea of scientific certainty, and linked to method of deconstruction
o Most accepted practices were deconstructed- shown to be social conventions developed by people with their own agendas.
■ The Feminist Critique
o Exposed gender bias in existing models and advocated a style of therapy that called into question systems theory itself.
o Feminists stated that therapist failed to see that the archetypal family case of the over involved mother and peripheral father is best understood not as a clinical problem but as a product of a historical process hundreds of years in the making.
o Belief that gender inequality should be primary concern for family therapists
■ Social Constructionism and the Narrative Revolution
o Constructivism
◆ A relativistic point of view that emphasizes the subjective construction of reality.
◆ Implies that what we see in families may be based as much on our preconceptions as on what’s actually going on.
o Collaborative Model
◆ A more egalitarian view of the therapist’s role.
◆ A stance advocated by critics of what they see as the authoritarianism in traditional approaches to family therapy
o Reflecting team
◆ Tom Anderson’s technique of having the observing team share their reactions with the family at the end of a session.
◆ Observers will come out from behind a one way mirror to discuss their impressions with the therapist and family.
o It was thought that therapist were doing therapy TO the client as opposed to WITH the client.
o A therapist should take a not-knowing stance which leads to genuineness.
o This therapy came from the biblical study called hermeneutics= the art of analyzing literary texts or human experience, understood as fundamentally ambiguous, by interpreting levels of meaning.
o Social constructionism
◆ Like constructivism, challenges the notion of an objective basis for knowledge.
◆ Knowledge and meaning are shaped by culturally shared assumptions.
