EP00 Supervision Panel 3 - Eugene Gendlin, PhD; Harriet Lerner, PhD; Salvador Minuchin, MD
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- Not yet rated
- Topic Areas:
- State of the Art Address | Supervision Panels | Supervision | Psychotherapy | Family Therapy | Feminism | Therapist Development
- Categories:
- Evolution of Psychotherapy | Evolution of Psychotherapy 2000 | Pioneers in Couples and Family Therapy
- Faculty:
- Eugene Gendlin, PhD | Harriet Lerner, PhD | Salvador Minuchin, MD
- Duration:
- 1:05:36
- Format:
- Audio Only
- Original Program Date:
- May 27, 2000
- License:
- Never Expires.
Description
Description:
Educational Objectives:
- To compare and contrast clinical and philosophical perspectives of experts.
*Sessions may be edited for content and to preserve confidentiality*
Outline:
Introduction and Purpose of the Panel
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Michael Yapko introduces the Evolution of Psychotherapy panel hosted by the Milton H. Erickson Foundation in Anaheim.
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Panelists: Dr. Harriet Lerner, Dr. Eugene Gendlin, and Dr. Salvador Minuchin.
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Purpose: offer supervision and feedback; participants are encouraged to present clinical cases.
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Each faculty member shares key therapeutic principles before opening to audience cases.
Dr. Eugene Gendlin’s Approach
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Combines techniques with somatic focus (e.g., discomfort in the body) to guide therapy.
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Supervision includes clinical strategy and addressing therapist's personal responses to clients.
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Advocates for safe, supportive supervision where vulnerability is welcomed.
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Supervisors must be clear and compassionate to facilitate therapist growth.
Dr. Harriet Lerner’s Framework
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Draws from feminism and family systems theory; rooted in her work at the Menninger Clinic.
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Stresses the social construction of gender and relational interdependence.
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Uses peer supervision; prioritizes creating emotional safety.
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Encourages therapists to bring both competence and vulnerability into the work.
Dr. Salvador Minuchin’s Supervision Style
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Developed techniques using live observation and video (e.g., one-way mirror).
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Uses group supervision to help therapists understand their personal style and limitations.
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Balances supportive guidance with constructive challenge.
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Encourages complexity in therapists by having them operate within their current limits.
Case: 14-Year-Old Withdrawn Girl
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Non-verbal, overweight teen; resistant to engagement despite use of games and toys.
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Family involved—controlling mother, aloof father.
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Minuchin recommends family lunch sessions to observe dynamics and address mutism.
Case: 17-Year-Old Post-Divorce Adjustment
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High-functioning girl navigating her parents’ divorce.
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Therapist’s goal: help her understand family dynamics and prepare for future changes.
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Lerner advises clarifying her goals and assessing therapy’s effectiveness.
Case: Family Coping After Daughter’s Amputation
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Daughter adjusting well after traumatic train accident; mother severely depressed and silent.
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Father withholds information to protect mother.
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Minuchin advises using family support, not just therapist intervention, to help mother process trauma.
Discussion: Therapist’s Emotions and Technique
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Minuchin stresses the therapist’s emotional behavior matters in supervision.
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Gendlin: therapists must address their emotional reactions to avoid getting stuck in clients’ emotional fields.
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Lerner: therapy should prioritize direction over speed; patience is critical.
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All agree: avoid being swayed by family dynamics and treat all parents (especially mothers) with equal respect.
Credits
Faculty
Eugene Gendlin, PhD Related Seminars and Products
Eugene T. Gendlin, PhD, is an American philosopher and psychotherapist who developed ways of thinking about and working with living process, the bodily felt sense and the 'philosophy of the implicit'. Gendlin received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1958 from the University of Chicago where he became an Associate Professor in the departments of Philosophy and Psychology.
His philosophical work is concerned especially with the relationship between logic and experiential explication. Implicit intricacy cannot be represented, but functions in certain ways in relation to philosophical discourse. The applications of this "Philosophy of the Implicit" have been important in many fields.
His philosophical books and articles are listed and some of them are available from this web site. They include Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning, (in paperback) and Language Beyond Post-Modernism: Saying and Thinking In Gendlin's Philosophy (edited by David Levin) , both from Northwestern University Press, l997 and A Process Model.
Harriet Lerner, PhD Related Seminars and Products
Harriet Lerner, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and a contributor to feminist theory and therapy. From 1972 to 2001, she was a staff psychologist at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas and a faculty member and supervisor in the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry. During this time she published extensively on the psychology of women and family relationships, revising traditional psychoanalytic concepts to reflect feminist and family systems perspectives.
Salvador Minuchin, MD Related Seminars and Products
Salvador Minuchin, MD, developed Structural Family Therapy, which addresses problems within a family by charting the relationships between family members, or between subsets of family. He was Director of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic. Although it was minimally staffed when he began, under his tutelage the Clinic grew to become one of the most modeled and respected child guidance facilities in the world. In 1981, Minuchin began his own family therapy center in New York. After his retirement in 1996, the center was renamed the Minuchin Center. Dr. Minuchin is the author of many notable books, including many classics. His latest is Mastering Family Therapy: Journeys of Growth and Transformation. In 2007, a survey of 2,600 practitioners named Minuchin as one of the ten most influential therapists of the past quarter-century.