Bringing the self into family therapy training: personal and professional consultations with trainee families

Abstract

The qualifying level of training in family therapy at Bristol University requires trainees to attend three ‘therapeutic consultations’ with their families with a recognized systemic practitioner, to consider issues pertinent to their development as therapists. This innovation is synchronic with the course philosophy which foregrounds the training in the development of ‘self’. Survey results on the consultations suggest that trainees report significant ‘news of difference’ and all recommend it as a mechanism for other trainees. The consultants also affirmed the value of the sessions they have facilitated. The paper describes the practicalities of how the consultations are organized.

The path towards a professional identity: An IPA study of Greek family therapy trainees

“…The study underlined how the ‘person of the therapist’ should be a focus of training. Therapists’ internal reactions and personal characteristics have a major impact on the therapy process (Hill et al, 2007; Orlinsky et al, 1999; Woodcock & Rivett, 2007) and trainees develop beyond ‘straight application of techniques’ (Pascual‐Leone et al, 2012, p. 154).…”

Second order change and evidence‐based practice

“…In addition to considerations of change, current trends in systemic practice also acknowledge the use of self, cultural competency and postmodern practice in addition to historical and modern founding principles of systemic change in family therapy. Use of self has received considerable attention over the past twenty years which emphasizes the importance of therapists intentionally using their 'whole self ' in order to be empathic healers (Aponte, 2007;Baldwin, 2000;Hardy, 1993;Woodcock and Rivett, 2007). Under this model, the primary aim in training therapists' use of self is to work actively to become aware of self and to use one's personal awareness as resources in therapy.…”

Thematic review of family therapy journals in 2007

“…The Journal of Family Therapy contained a special feature on innovative training practices edited by David Cottrell (2007). The papers contained creative training exercises on such topics as interdisciplinary and interagency learning (Aggett et al, 2007), identifying support systems (Dutta and Finlay-Musonda, 2007), exploring the position of the other (Partridge et al, 2007), polyphonic dialogue for introducing systemic-social constructionist ideas (Tseliou, 2007), meditation (Lord, 2007b), the use of self (Boston, 2007) and development of self in family therapy (Woodcock and Rivett, 2007), experiential learning of research skills (Stratton, 2007), family therapy and clinical psychology (Atkin, 2007;Carr, 2007), and diversity, race and culture (Ali, 2007;Mills-Powell and Worthington, 2007).…”