StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Experiential Family Therapy - Research Paper Example

Cite this document
Summary
Experiential Therapy Author’s Name Institutional Affiliation Abstract The mission of family therapy is to help families to be able to maintain a sense of togetherness, along with the sense of healthy separation and self reliance. In as much as family roles are determined by generation, they should remain flexible and families should be encouraged to explore and at times, exchange roles within the family…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.1% of users find it useful
Experiential Family Therapy
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Experiential Family Therapy"

Download file to see previous pages

Families should also realize that if a family member is affected by any atrocity, this does not only affect the individual, but rather the whole family institution. For this reason, family therapists need to put all members of a family into account when administering their services. Keywords: Experiential Therapy, Therapist, Family, Roles, Role Playing Introduction As the name suggests, experiential therapy involves actions, movements, and activities. This therapy is actually a category involving a couple of therapies; it does not involve one specific type of therapy.

Examples of therapies that fall under experiential therapy include recreational therapy, expressive arts therapy, and music therapy among others. The therapists who use this approach have the view that experiences form the core of this process. Experiential therapy in general has been a very important component of comprehensive treatment for persons struggling with a variety of problems. These include problems of trauma, hardships such as depression, after issues like divorce, substance abuse, addiction, eating disorders among other problems.

These therapies have been used to treat the young and old from all walks of life (Hurst, 2011) What does the experimental therapy mean? According to Keitner, Heru and Glick, “experiential therapy involves a search for meaning through mutually shared experience on the part of the therapist and family” (2009, p. 158). There are two therapists that were best known in using this model; they were Carl Whitaker and Virginia Satir (Keitner, Heru & Glick, 2009). Their main aim was to increase the capacity of family members’ to experience and understand their lives more thoroughly by sharing their present struggles with the therapist.

In his views on experiential therapy, Whitaker called his process the symbolic experiential therapy, where he had the view that the therapy was aimed at strengthening the unconscious symbolic process that will help the maturation of the process. Whitaker also argued that the growth in families usually occurred with the successive developmental tasks. Therapy now comes in to speed up this growth and not to impose an already determined structure. In other words, this therapy starts from the experience.

This shows that experience is the foundation of the therapy. Satir’s model deals much more on the here and now. The two therapies have been used as a clear indication there are many ways of solving problems (Keitner, Heru & Glick, 2009). Experiential Family Therapy This therapy is an outgrowth of the phenomenological techniques like the gestalt therapy among others. The experiential family therapists focus on current rather than uncovering the past, or what they call the here and now emotionality.

They emphasize on emotional engagement between partners in identifying the feelings that define the quality of their relationship. Rather than endorsing one technique as earlier seen, experiential therapy applies different techniques in dealing with an individual client or family, in a setup where therapists are personally involved in the process. Therefore, for the effectiveness of this therapy, a therapist should be personally involved and there should be mutual sharing of information between him or her and the client or family

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Experiential Family Therapy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/psychology/1486516-experiential-family-therapy
(Experiential Family Therapy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
https://studentshare.org/psychology/1486516-experiential-family-therapy.
“Experiential Family Therapy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/psychology/1486516-experiential-family-therapy.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Experiential Family Therapy

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.... 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....
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Paper

Family Therapy (Case Study Assessment and Intervention)

Experiential Family Therapy aims at helping individual family members to experience self-actualization and develop levels of cooperation and intimacy within the family... This includes family therapy covering counseling and mediation.... family therapy also comprises different strategies such as experiential and structural family therapy.... This movie revolves around one major family.... Shi and Yilan are the only family members....
9 Pages (2250 words) Research Paper

The Narrative Family Therapy by Michael White

The author of the paper compares and contrasts narrative family therapy, which is defined as a therapy that binds our identities that had previously been shaped on the stories or narratives of our lives, multigenerational family therapy, Experiential Family Therapy, and structural family therapy.... nbsp;… The Narrative therapy was gradually developed between the 1970s and 1980s basically by Michael White an Australian and his colleague and friend David Epston from New Zealand....
8 Pages (2000 words) Assignment

Reciprocity in Intergenerational Family Therapy

The paper “Reciprocity in Intergenerational Family Therapy” discusses symbolic-Experiential Family Therapy, which is actually grounded within an existential perception associated with individuals' progression that highlights that tendencies are unable to end up.... Va Satir is regarded as the creator and contributing driver within the developments associated with experiential family Therapies.... Many experts have belittled this because of its reliance upon therapists' creativeness, charisma and character, minimal research on its applications, and its presumption that all of the human beings grow along with families (Satir, 1988)Emotionally Focused therapy is an approach to work with couples and families....
4 Pages (1000 words) Research Proposal

A therapy Model in Study

One of the potential benefits of using Experiential Family Therapy in solving Lowndes family case is that it allows the therapist to observe each of the family members when they are not thinking of the therapy session and this can help unmask their inner feelings and emotions.... One the other hand, Experiential Family Therapy primarily focuses on the expression of feelings and emotions.... Using this model, the dynamics of their family problems can be best understood using… Generally this family therapy model not only focuses on the emotions and feelings of the members of Lowndes family but also the environmental influences A therapy Model in Study A therapy Model in Study Dynamics of the Lowndes familyThe dynamics of the Lowndes family can be best explained using experiential therapy model....
2 Pages (500 words) Case Study

Family Therapy and Methods

To begin, the narrative aspect of Narrative Family Therapy can be compatible with Experiential Family Therapy.... This relates to the fact that Experiential Family Therapy focuses on encouraging individual family members to communicate their emotions freely and honestly.... The paper 'family therapy and Methods' concerns the Solution-Focused and Narrative Family Therapies which are other approaches to treating family problems.... Certain techniques of Solution-Focused and Narrative Therapies can incorporate with other types of family therapy....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Structural Family Therapy

Experiential Family Therapy views family problems as associated with emotions that members confide within themselves.... The following paper 'Structural family therapy' focuses on the current American families which are facing serious challenges and stressful times.... Among the family therapy concepts that therapists can use to treat the stresses faced by American families include structural, strategic.... As explained by Nichols (2013), Structural family therapy holds that families are structures made of subsystems regulated by boundaries defining interpersonal relationships....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Analysis of Counseling and Therapy in One Family

… The paper "Analysis of Counseling and therapy in One Family" is a good example of a case study on psychology.... The paper "Analysis of Counseling and therapy in One Family" is a good example of a case study on psychology.... Therefore, the goal is to provide a condensed snapshot of what therapy might look like over three sessions during the beginning, middle, and ending stages of therapy.... The T-family has come into therapy because Jennifer, the mother is concerned about her marriage to Craig....
13 Pages (3250 words) Case Study
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us