Experiential Family Therapy and Personal Integration Summary - Research Paper Example

? ­­­­­­­­­Experiential Family Therapy and Personal Integration Summary Affiliation This paper consists of two parts. The first is a literature review, describing Experiential Therapy, particularly in its application to family counseling. Descriptions of various specific and integrative applications of Experiential Therapy are reviewed with an aim to understand its diverse range of suitability as a counseling approach. The second part of this paper is a reflection on personal faith integration with this preferred approach. ­­­­­­­­­Experiential Family Therapy and Personal Integration Summary This paper reviews the literature on Experiential Therapy, specifically as applied to guiding families to more authentic and empathetic communication, greater emotional wellbeing, and radical transformation. Several approaches are introduced in an effort to exemplify the wide applicability of this therapy. Following the literature review, there is reflection on the integration of Researcher’s Christian faith perspective with the Experiential Therapy approach. Experiential Therapy grew out of the writings of Virginia Satir, Carl Whittaker, and Alvin Mahrer, existential and humanistic philosophy, and the Encounter Group movement. Satir and Whittaker noted that family members with transitional and behavior issues can benefit from the honest expressions of all family members, and that through guided experiential activities, negative behaviors can be changed and emotional relationships can be improved. Whittaker thought it therapeutically important for family members to share the symbolic meanings of their expressions with each other (R-G, n.d.). Literature Review Describing Experiential Psychotherapy, Mahrer refers to “models of usefulness” rather than a model of scientific truth. He refers to two basic goals. The first is a deep-seated, far-reaching, long-lasting total transformational change in the person or group. The other is to eliminate the painful feelings that are in the way and to resolve the immediate associated situation that is present (Mahrer, 1983). Human personality is seen as being comprised of potentials for interacting, in relationship. When hateful, antagonistic, negative and disintegrative potentials in relationship are experienced, pain and suffering result. There are two ways to achieve a radical, transformation of the personality: integration and actualization. Integration refers to a more positive relationship among the potentials. Actualization refers to accessing and sustaining deeper potentials which come to the surface (Mahrer, 1983). There are many techniques for doing Experiential Therapy: Gestalt Empty Chair technique, painting, sculpture, drawing, nature-connection adventures, role-play, therapist participating in normal family activities, playing with animals, equine therapy, storytelling, monologue and dialogue, the use of co-therapists and reflecting teams, emotional assessments, games, dance and movement, non-verbal cooperative projects, etc. Although Experiential Therapy researchers are more discovery-oriented than proof and truth-oriented, there is research evidence for the efficacy of many of the techniques and approaches used. An example of the former includes, research comparing the Empty-Chair technique with a control group. Findings indicated significant improvement by the end of therapy, and significantly sustained improvement in two follow-up assessments within a year (Paivio & Greenberg, June 1995). Various specialty approaches to Experiential Therapy are used with families, with variations in emphasis. Process Experiential Therapy (PE) is one approach. The focus is on helping people to identify and use their emotions in a productive way, constructing meaning, life direction, and self-growth by nurturing their emotional intelligence. This involves a complexity of symbolic meaning in verbal expression and in concepts and identities; interpretation of situations, consisting of a primary appraisal and the memories formed of an episode; body expressions, both sensations and non-verbal body language; motivation and behavior, both desire and action tendencies (Ellison, 2008). These are all parts of the system of experienced emotion. The therapist’s role is to guide the client through tasks, in session, and any immediate client experience, and to adapt the therapeutic approach to the client’s problems, task and experience (Ellison, 2008). As with all humanistic and neo-humanistic approaches to therapy, it is a person-centered approach in which the client is valued by an empathetic therapist, so that the client feels safe to explore and to restructure emotions in a productive way. An approach to couple’s therapy is Pragmatic/Experiential Therapy (PET-C). It was developed by Brent Atkinson. The basic concept is that long-term successfully married couples are distinct from unsuccessfully married couples primarily because they are able to communicate in a way that elicits respect and receptivity in partners, during any situations in which they feel upset. The unsuccessfully married couples, when upset, communicate in ways that close their partners down emotionally, making it impossible for the partner to really respect and care about the other’s feelings or message (GoodTherapy.org, 2013). It becomes the therapist’s task to teach more effective communication and more flexibility in emotional reaction. Through role play, ineffective reaction patterns are identified. The therapist employs techniques for increasing partner receptivity (GoodTherapy.org, 2013). The client couple is instructed to act like a people who usually get what they need and want, rather than communicating from a hurt and deprived stance that engenders blame and defensiveness. The therapist is clear about changes required for success, and the couple is helped toward accepting responsibility on both sides for the reactions that have contributed to their lack of marital success. The brain has intrinsic motivational states that help to foster intimacy. The therapist guides the couple toward re-wiring internal states that block intimacy, and cultivating behavior routines that maximize those internal states which foster intimacy (GoodTherapy.org, 2013). Another specialty area of Experiential Therapy is Adventure Therapy for couples and families. Outward Bound and Project Adventure have used this approach to therapy with troubled adolescents for many years. Now it is finding wider application (Gillis & Gass, 1993). Adventure Therapy is structured for action learning in an unfamiliar, success and solution-focused environment, where positive stress can encourage adaptive dissonance, and where the small group allows for individual and group needs to conflict and re-balance. Therapists assess projected behavior and actively target behavior with specific activities to bring about change (Gillis & Gass, 1993). Deal investigated a weekend adventure therapy program for alcoholic couples, and noted how the ropes course was used to symbolize the steps in recovery (Deal, 1983). Bandoroff implemented a post wilderness adventure experiential for the families of adjudicated teen participants. His findings indicated that the activities in repair, trust, communication, and negotiation had a strong impact on the families (Banoroff & Scherer, 1994). His program, known as “Family Wheel”, placed troubled adolescents and their parents into a four day therapeutic camping and trekking program, together, in the high desert, and reported positive outcomes (Banoroff & Scherer, 1994) Concepts and techniques that work in a wilderness or ropes course environment are also adapted for use in a therapist office, For example, safety and support statements can be used to build a healthier relationship, based on trust and understanding. Metaphoric transfer is relied upon to integrate long-term change and future application of learned skills (Gillis & Gass, 1993). Experiential Therapy rests on an assumption that there is no single truth, no single technique that is right, while others are wrong, but rather that techniques should be client-centered and used appropriately. Kaslow argues for specific model transcendence. He calls for recognition of therapist intuition in the artistry of healing and the selective support of science, spontaneously and responsively to the client’s need (Kaslow, 1981). So perhaps the most exciting development of Experiential Therapy is the integrative approach of using Experiential Therapy techniques to support other approaches, and to combine techniques from other approaches for use in Experiential Therapy sessions and programs. Adventure Therapy programs are perhaps the best known example of this integrative approach. Faddis and Bettmann, wilderness therapists, documented the successful integration of reflecting teams, from Narrative Therapy, and family sculpting technique, from Experiential Therapy, in a Wilderness Therapy setting (Faddis & Bettmann, 2004). Narrative Therapy involves identifying out-moded, negative stories by which one has defined self, and being therapeutically guided to a more positive story, which is witnessed by an audience (Faddis & Bettmann, 2004). The reflecting team technique generally involves a team of professionals who observe the therapist and client interactions, and an ensuing, non-hierarchical alternating dialogue between the observers and the observed. Family sculpting is a technique in which family members rearrange the position of the family, physically, to reflect the member’s perception of family roles and dynamics. Faddis and Bettmann use a reflecting team, comprised of non-sculptured families and therapeutic staff, to provide insights based on the family sculpture exercise. They have found it to be very effective (Faddis & Bettmann, 2004). Experiential Family Therapy has been integrated into Genetic Counseling, for resolution of family conflicts. Tuttle describes, in particular, a case in which the conflictive parents of a disabled child wanted genetic testing to be sure there was no genetic blame or concern. Experiential therapeutic exercises brought the family into a mutually supportive position in which everyone’s emotional reactions to the situation were acknowledged (Tuttle, April 1998). Experiential Family Therapy has also been integrated into Solution-Focused brief therapy, in the form of experiential and non-verbal exercises, where it apparently relieved some of the limitations typically found in brief therapy (Bischof, 1993). Leijssen addresses how she responds to one of those limitations, which is enabling the client to cope with fear within the brief therapy model (Leijssen, 2007). She stresses, for example, the importance of client/therapist rapport, client trust and experience of safety, therapist empathy and authenticity, the therapist role as both mother and father (to provide expressive structure that is missing in clients with inadequate mothering and/or fathering), and the crucial necessity for body awareness and focusing, in order to gain information that is subconscious (Leijssen, 2007). Experiential Family Therapy has been integrated into an intensive residential program for people with bulimia, in the form of a two day multi-family experiential therapy program (Wooley & Lewis, 1987). Experiential Family Therapy has been integrated into grief counseling, with a belated mourning ritual for families, called “operational mourning”. The aim is to engage family members in a shared emotional experience of grief reactions, in order to free up relationship interactions and fixation (Paul & Grosser, 1965). A therapist requires resources for self-renewal, commitment sustenance, and stress management. Symbolic Experiential Family Therapy, developed by Carl Whittaker, provides that (Boylin & Briggie, 1987). Integration Discussion There is another aspect of my preferred therapeutic approach that will always relieve my stress and protect me from burnout, and that is the complementary nature and integration of this approach with my Christian faith. Experiential Therapy complements my faith in its methodology and its message. By this statement, I do not mean to imply that Experiential Therapy has a Christian bias or is inspired scripture. In fact, there are Christians who might balk at its humanistic and existential assumptions, and even at its lack of a gospel-like structure and claim to truth. From my Christian perspective, however, I prefer to see Jesus Christ, and draw closer to Him, in every aspect of my life, including my preferred therapeutic approach. The basis for Experiential Therapy is authentic emotional expression, transformation-inducing action, and life skill application. Jesus expressed His emotion. He wept when he found Lazarus was dead and felt the sorrow of Mary and Martha (John 11:35). He expressed outrage at the commercial activities that dominated temple experience (Matthew 21:12). He called out to His Father, during his ordeal on the cross, expressing his sense of overwhelming isolation and abandonment (Matthew 27:46). His emotion came from his deep self. He was empathetic. He understood that his crucifixion events and departure from earth would be difficult for the disciples, so he tried to prepare them gradually, to reduce trauma Mathew 15:21). He was empathetic in mundane family matters as well. At the wedding party, when he was informed by his mother that the wine was finished, he cared enough to turn water into wine, to offer abundance in the face of perceived scarcity (John 2:1-11). He did not do it to show off or to provide for His own needs, but because he was empathetic to the needs of others. In His ministry on earth, Jesus engaged people in therapeutic, transformation-inducing action, which He guided. He performed miracles, breaking up the self-righteous complacency of the worldviews of Jewish and Roman leadership. When zealots were about to stone an adulteress, Jesus said that whoever is without sin should cast the first stone (John 8:7). This brought the zealots face to face with themselves, so that they could not see her, the one they blamed, without seeing their own face as well. Jesus guided Peter in working with his impulsivity and trust issues. He invited Peter to focus on faith and walk on the water. He did so, and also experienced that when he was distracted by old programming of fear with wind, then he began to sink. Jesus saw who Peter was and what he could become, and he responded to that, in the immediate moment, reaching out his hand to help Peter (Matthew 14: 28-31). Jesus responded to the timidity and contamination cultural programming of a woman who had an issue of blood. Jesus was in a very crowded situation, and the woman quietly orked her way through the crowd, toward Him, and touched the hem of his garment, for healing. Jesus could have silently sent her healing energy, and remained silent, but He immediately asked to see her. He encouraged her to come into His full attention, with an audience and her fear, to be fully present in the moment, to put her emotions front and center (Luke 8:45-48). This is the approach used by Experiential Therapy, as well. There was an incident in which a woman, we infer to have been a prostitute, washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, applied alabaster, and kissed His feet. Jesus understood the symbolic meaning of this woman’s deep emotional expression and action. Jesus also understood the thoughts of Simon, who did not empathize with the woman or understand the symbolism of her emotional expression and action, thinking only of the costly ointment (Luke 7:36-48). Jesus used a strategy of silence, in this case, sometimes the most powerful response. Jesus taught through active experience. He instilled an abundance mentality by feeding 5000 people from a small portion of bread and fish, offered by a child (Matthew 14:13-21). He illustrated bringing peace to chaos by calming the storm and speaking to it (Mark 4:35-41). He modeled non-hierarchical principles by teaching his elders in the temple when he was a young pre-teen (Luke 2:39-52). He re-scripted dependency stories by raising the lame (John 5:8) and restoring sight to the blind (Mark 8:22-26). He emphasized ongoing life application by commissioning His disciples to share what they had heard and seen (Matthew 28:16-20). Jesus made full use of metaphoric transfer. To the woman at the well, he spoke of living water that would quench her thirst forever (John 4: 1-26). He used the common substance with which she was immediately confronted, to represent something much deeper, something He hoped would lead her to seek a radical transformation of her life and her perception. Jesus often taught in parables, which were intended to bring about metaphoric transfer. After His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus joined His disciples for a meal in an upstairs room. The room can also be seen as a metaphor, representing His soon-to-be ascension back to \the Father. He showed his crucifixion wounds and he used a metaphor of the wine and bread to represent his shed blood and broken body (Luke 22:14-20). He gave them a concrete way to hold onto the truth of the message, and not be distracted by the pain of the trauma. Two thousand years later, I, also a disciple of His, take communion and remember. This was a powerful metaphor that transferred across time, to me personally, as though I too had been there. Another complementary aspect of Experiential Therapy and my Christian faith is the recognition of how powerful the message delivery can be when undertaken in a wilderness context. Jesus took his disciple and crowds of followers into the wilderness for teaching experiences (Luke 8:22). Jesus chose this context for his own self-reflection and personal renewal (Luke 5:16). One of the very powerful, emotion-laden actions in which Jesus engaged was His extended temptation by Satan on the mountain (Matthew 4). Satan tempted Him with greed, guilt, despair, mistrust, blasphemy, confusion, and other distractions, but Jesus prevailed and accessed His deepest authenticity. This still inspires Christians today, giving us power to stand, in our own vulnerability, and tell Satan to move out of our sight, just as Jesus did. A justification for using Experiential Therapy with families is that Jesus used these techniques in leading groups toward spiritual transformation. These groups included His disciples, the crowds that followed him, the families of ill or dead persons, His own family members, religious leaders, and those who witnessed His crucifixion and resurrection. The diversity of these groups speaks to the diverse application suitability of action-based guidance. A methodology that is preferred by Jesus, my model for living, is certainly good enough for me. Both experiential Therapy and the ministry of Jesus Christ have, as primary goals, the radical transformation of fractured perceptions and potentials into authentic and integrated wholeness. Both use similar methodologies and teaching/guidance styles to encourage this. From my perspective, the processes of Experiential Therapy serve as a metaphoric transfer model for the more perfect redemption of Jesus Christ. The saving grace of Jesus serves as a model to inspire me, as a therapist, who inspires clients toward greater wholeness. With Christian clients, sharing my personal perspective on Experiential Therapy and how I integrate it with my Christian faith, can support their commitment to using this approach. With non-Christian clients, I can point out that Jesus, the Buddha, and a variety of spiritual teachers have used a similar approach (action learning, metaphoric transfer, authentic emotional expression, and empathetic guidance) to bring about radical transformation in people’s perceptual framework and, consequently, in their lives. According to a 10 year review of the literature, avoidance, eradication, and integration are the three ways counselors can respond to a client’s religious faith (Presley, 1992). In integrating my own faith with my preferred counseling approach, I am in a better position to take an integration approach with my clients. Integration is always the goal in Experiential Therapy. References Banoroff, S., & Scherer, D. G. (1994). Wilderness family therapy: An innovative treatment approach for problem youth. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 3(2), 175-191. Bischof, G. P. (1993). Solution-focused brief therapy and experiential family therapy activities: An integration. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 12(3), 61-73. Deal, G. (1983). Ropes and recovery. In T. F. Stich, Outward Bound in alcohol treatment and mental health (pp. 30-69). Greenwich, CT: Outward Bound, Inc. Ellison, R. (2008). The Process-Experiential Therapy Website:. Retrieved May 4, 2013, from process-experiential.org: http://www.process-experiential.org. Faddis, T. J., & Bettmann, J. E. (2004). Reflecting teams and other innovative family therapy techniques adapted for outdoor behavioral healthcare. 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