Part 2 book “Family therapy - His tory, theory, and practice” has contents: Experiential family therapy, behavioral and cognitive – behavioral family therapies, family therapy - research and assessment, theory, treatments, and outcomes of structural family therapy, solution-focused brief therapy and narrative family therapy, and other contents. | CHAPTER 9 Experiential Family Therapy My father tells me my mother is slowing down. He talks deliberately and with deep feelings as stoop-shouldered he walks to his garden behind the garage. My mother informs me about my father’s failing health. “Not as robust as before,” she explains, “Lower energy than in his 50s.” Her concerns arise as she kneads dough for biscuits. Both express their fears to me as we view the present from the past. In love, and with measured anxiety, I move with them into new patterns. Gladding, 1992b Chapter Overview From reading this chapter, you will learn about n The importance of affect in experiential family therapy. n The major theorists, premises, techniques, roles of the therapist, processes, and outcomes of experiential family therapy. n The uniqueness of the experiential family therapy approach. 249 249 8/5/14 12:24 AM 250 Part 2 • Therapeutic Approaches to Working with Families As you read, consider n How comfortable you are with the expression of emotions and touch. n The active nature of experiential family therapists. n Whether the experiential approach to family therapy is as relevant now as it was 30 years ago and why that might be so. T he experiential branch of family therapy emerged out of the humanistic–existential psychology movement of the 1960s and was most popular when that movement was new. Some of its proponents and creators drew heavily from Gestalt therapy, psychodrama, client-centered therapy, and the encounter group movement of the time. The emphasis is on immediate, here-and-now, intrapsychic experiences of people as opposed to historical information. Concepts such as encounter, process, growth, spontaneity, and action are emphasized. Theory and abstract factors are minimized. The quality of ongoing experiences in the family is the criterion for measuring psychological health and deciding whether or not to make therapeutic .
