Training Marriage and Family Counselors: A Family‐of‐Origin Approach

Abstract

The authors describe a model in which family‐of‐origin work is used for personal growth training of marriage and family counselors.

Improving Awareness of Vulnerabilities to Ethical Challenges: A Family Systems Approach

“…Several writers acknowledge how familyof-origin dynamics may have an influence on a clinician's therapeutic practice (Braverman, 1984;Frankel, 1993;Frankel, Britton, Prosnick, & Zarski, 1999;Getz & Protinsky, 1994). Counselors may unwittingly play out their own old patterns when a client mirrors the clinician's family-of-origin (Frankel et al, 1999).…”

“…Three principles will be the focus of review: differentiation, the continuum of enmeshment/ disengagement, and triangulation. Developed and articulated by Kerr and Bowen (1988), these principles have already proven useful as tools for training therapists (Braverman, 1984;Kerr & Bowen, 1988;Getz & Protinsky, 1994).…”

“…Family-systems theory, with its description of how the family system shapes and is shaped by its members, is a particularly useful lens for counselors who are invested in acting on the insights of postmodernism and constructivism by investigating how their emotional responses have been conditioned by their family-of-origin (Braverman, 1984;Getz & Protinsky, 1994). Such an approach acknowledges the fact that inappropriate ethical judgments more frequently stem from emotional vulnerabilities than from a lack of knowledge about ethics or a flawed decision-making process.…”

The Sacred Circle: Using Mandalas in Counselor Supervision

“…Therapists also attempt to develop increasingly more advanced case conceptualization skills and to become more flexible in their interventions over time (Bernard & Goodyear, 1998). As supervisees develop in all of these areas, they must also work through their own experiences of role ambiguity and explore the evolution of their personal (Getz & Protinsky, 1994) and professional selves (Bernard & Downloaded by [Anadolu University] at 15:34 27 December 2014Goodyear, 1998Magnuson, 2000). Supervisors can use expressive art activities, such as mandala drawings, to accomplish many of these goals to help supervisees recognize personal and interpersonal dynamics existing for themselves and their clients.…”

“…(Bernard & Goodyear, 1998, p. 6) More specifically, supervision addresses the goals of learning how to conceptualize cases, utilize appropriate techniques, and develop a theoretical orientation (Bernard & Goodyear, 1998). Within these goals of supervision, therapists develop self-awareness (Bernard & Goodyear, 1998;Edwards, 1993;Lett, 1995), autonomy of action (Bernard & Goodyear, 1998), insight (Getz & Protinsky, 1994), and the ability to "relate therapeutically to clients" (Edwards, 1993, p. 214). Therapists also attempt to develop increasingly more advanced case conceptualization skills and to become more flexible in their interventions over time (Bernard & Goodyear, 1998).…”