Navigating Critical Theory and Postmodernism: Social Justice and Therapist Power in Family Therapy

The family therapy field encourages commitment to diversity and social justice, but offers varying ideas about how to attentively consider these issues. Critical informed models advocate activism, whereas postmodern informed models encourage multiple perspectives. It is often not clear how activism and an emphasis on multiple perspectives connect, engendering the sense that critical and postmodern practices may be disparate. To understand how therapists negotiate these perspectives in practice, this qualitative grounded theory analysis drew on interviews with 11 therapists, each known for their work from both critical and postmodern perspectives. We found that these therapists generally engage in a set of shared constructionist practices while also demonstrating two distinct forms of activism: activism through countering and activism through collaborating. Ultimately, decisions made about how to navigate critical and postmodern influences were connected to how therapists viewed ethics and the ways they were comfortable using their therapeutic power. The findings illustrate practice strategies through which therapists apply each approach.

Social class in family therapy education: experiences of low SES students

In this article, we report the results of a national survey of students in COAMFTE-accredited family therapy programs who self-identify as coming from lower- or working-class backgrounds. Results of the study reveal opportunity and tension relative to family, friends, and community because of social mobility associated with graduate education. Participants describe family therapy education as middle-class centered, pointing to lack of attention to social class, marginalization, classism, and unacknowledged class barriers as salient experiences in their graduate programs. Finally, participants share a number of suggestions for program improvement.

Transformative learning through international immersion: building multicultural competence in family therapy and counseling

This study explores the experiences of graduate students who completed one of two international courses facilitated by family therapy faculty in a U.S. master's-level counseling psychology department. Participants reported that international courses were personally and professionally transformative. Spending time in a foreign country gave them opportunities to learn from cultural differences, ultimately increasing the social and global awareness required for multicultural sensitivity. Experiential learning, reflection, and dialogue resulted in raised critical consciousness among participants. In this article, we discuss the transformational learning processes embedded in international courses and the potential benefits of these experiences on the development of multicultural sensitivity in family therapists and counselors in training.

Using experiential tasks to enhance cultural sensitivity among MFT trainees

Approximately 60% of accredited MFT master's programs now offer a single course devoted to diversity and oppression, which is noteworthy given that this is not mandated by accreditation standards. For educators and trainers seeking guidance on how to most effectively teach diversity issues and train therapists who will be culturally competent, the MFT literature does an excellent job of providing support for enhancing cultural awareness, for example, cognizance of, insight into, and knowledge about diversity issues. However, far less attention is focused on assisting educators in how to enhance cultural sensitivity, for example, attunement to, emotional resonance with, and meaningful responsiveness to the needs and feelings of others. This article presents a model for how to teach about issues of diversity in ways that promote both cultural awareness and sensitivity but with emphasis on enhancing sensitivity through the use of a series of experiential tasks.

The interacting-reflecting training exercise: addressing the therapist's inner conversation in family therapy training

In recent years several authors have made a beginning in describing therapeutic conversations from a dialogical perspective. Training and supervision, however, have not yet been addressed from a dialogical perspective. In this article, an experiential training exercise is described that is focused on the basic dialogical skills of the trainee: respectful inquiry and constructive reflecting. Rather than teaching and instructing, this training exercise is aimed at staging a dialogue. The trainees are invited to take part in this dialogue, as they are encouraged to experiment with new positions and new ways of encountering others, and as their different voices tell of their experiences, of the things they have learned, and of the new perspectives that have opened up for them. Leaning on ideas about the therapist's inner conversation (Rober, 1999, 2005b) and stressing the importance of polyphony, dialogism, and tolerance for uncertainty, the training exercise described in this article is consistent with a dialogical and postmodernist frame, as described by Seikkula and Olson (2003).