Tales Full of Sound and Fury: A Cultural Approach to Family Therapeutic Work and Research in Rural Scandinavia*

Seltzer, Michael; Seltzer, Wencke J.; Homb, Nils; Midtstigen, Per; Vik, Geir

doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.2000.39303.x

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…For some time now we have been arguing for a view of therapy as a dialogical one where family members and therapists together contribute to the therapeutic conversation, and where therapists are open to the family's feedback about the therapeutic process ( Seltzer, 2004;Rober, 2005;Seltzer et al, 2000Seltzer et al, , 2001. Within this dialogical framing, we view the therapist's positioning as crucial in relating to and being respectful of the family's own resources and sensitivities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avoiding Colonizer Positions in the Therapy Room: Some Ideas About the Challenges of Dealing with the Dialectic of Misery and Resources in Families

Rober

Seltzer

2010

Family Process

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Some authors have argued that certain acts of family therapists-despite their best intentions-may represent a form of colonizing the family. When acting as a colonizer, a therapist is understood as becoming overly responsible for the family and focusing too strongly on change. In so doing, the therapist disrespects the family's pace, and neglects their own resources for change. This paper aims to highlight the need for therapists to be hypersensitive both to the resources of families entering therapy as well as to the impact of prevailing ideologies on their own positioning in the session. The kind of sensitivity advocated here is dialectical in the sense that every family is understood as having potentials promoting dynamism, happiness, and well-being as well as potentials contributing to stagnation, unhappiness, and misery. In this article, using illustrations from clinical practice, we present some ideas for resisting the tendency by the therapist to assume a colonizing position as a professional solver of problems for families. Our main aim here is to redirect the therapist toward connecting with the family's suffering, as well as with the resource repertoire it has developed for navigating and negotiating its way through life.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avoiding Colonizer Positions in the Therapy Room: Some Ideas About the Challenges of Dealing with the Dialectic of Misery and Resources in Families

Rober

Seltzer

2010

Family Process

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“…Working with such families is considered challenging for the therapist (Krause, 2012). Throughout the history of family therapy, dealing with cultural differences has been an important issue in the field (Seltzer et al, 2000). For instance, one of the roots of the family therapy field lies in anthropology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intercultural therapy and the limitations of a cultural competency framework: about cultural differences, universalities and the unresolvable tensions between them

Rober¹,

Haene²

2013

Journal of Family Therapy

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Working with a family from a cultural background other than one's own is considered to be challenging for the therapist. Influenced by social constructionism, the family therapy field highlights the importance of contingency and cultural differences and therapists are encouraged to develop their cultural competency in order to deal with these differences. In this article, starting from contemporary critiques of notions of Western societies' cultural diversity, we address the way in which the cultural competency framework, by highlighting the importance of cultural differences and the therapist's culture‐specific knowledge, may underestimate the importance of the social dimensions of the issues involved. Furthermore, highlighting cultural differences may obscure the shared humanity present in a transcultural encounter. In this article, as an alternative to the cultural competency framework, we propose a view of intercultural family therapy in which the unresolvable dialectical tension between differences and universalities is central. Practitioner points The article addresses the challenge of working with families from diverse cultural backgrounds. The traditional framework of cultural competence is critically reviewed. Family therapists should not only be open for cultural differences, but also for universalities and especially for the never‐ending tension between differences and universalities.

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“…On such set of constructions lending themselves to understandings of how women deal with these dilemmas may be dealt with are concepts of navigation and negotiation (Seltzer et al 2000). These are notions developed for describing how space for change may be opened in the cultural landscape dominated by differing and often conflicting sets of norms.…”

Section: Theoretical Analysis-violating Cultural Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

If I Am Not Straight or Gay, Who Am I?

Ohnstad

2009

Clin Soc Work J

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Women that are violating heterosexual norms for sexual desire will run into issues about identity. This study explores ways of dealing with sexual identities that seems to provide a workable solution for women when they navigate and negotiate their lives as lesbians in a society dominated by heterosexual norms. The data sources are therapeutic conversations and followed-up interviews with ten women. The stories told by these women fail to fit the phases and the categorizations of the traditional coming out model. In handling dilemmas, ambiguity seems to be a resource to them. Their efforts and solutions are more in accordance with queer theory, when they navigate between dichotomies of homosexual/heterosexual, feminine/masculine, normality/deviance and personal responsibility/ coincidence.

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Tales Full of Sound and Fury: A Cultural Approach to Family Therapeutic Work and Research in Rural Scandinavia*

Cited by 10 publications

References 26 publications

Avoiding Colonizer Positions in the Therapy Room: Some Ideas About the Challenges of Dealing with the Dialectic of Misery and Resources in Families

Avoiding Colonizer Positions in the Therapy Room: Some Ideas About the Challenges of Dealing with the Dialectic of Misery and Resources in Families

Intercultural therapy and the limitations of a cultural competency framework: about cultural differences, universalities and the unresolvable tensions between them

If I Am Not Straight or Gay, Who Am I?

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