Waiting Without Purpose: A Discourse on The Tao of Pooh

Abstract

The following paper is a transcript of an address given at the Sixth Australian Family Therapy Conference. The author has for some time been exercised by the puzzle of how therapists still manage to Do Things despite the continuing elaboration of a corpus of elegant explanatory theories to account for their experiences with families. This issue is developed in the context of the conference theme.

Combining quantitative and qualitative methods in evaluating a course of family therapy

“…This suggests the necessity of It can be argued that the therapeutic phenomena outlined here are well described elsewhere (Minuchin, 1974) and this study merely confirms what has already been established. A further point is that the therapist may simply, as Birch (1987) suggests, 'know' when he/she is doing good therapy and detailed examination ofprocess is unnecessary. However, a more structured analysis, as presented here, with added therapist/family dimensions, allows more confidence in knowing when to introduce techniques and it provides a model for assessing new ways of working.…”