EP95 Workshop 34 - Supervision in Family Therapy - Salvador Minuchin, MD

Description:

This workshop is a consideration of the need and methods to expand a therapist's available range.

Educational Objectives:

1. To describe the foundations that every therapist has, and the idiosyncratic styles that constrain their interventions.
2.  To describe a form of supervision that, accepting the therapist's baselines, moves toward an expansion on the repertory of therapeutic possibilities.
3. To describe the process of the relationship between supervisor and supervisee. 

*Sessions may be edited for content and to preserve confidentiality*

Outline:

Evolution of Psychotherapy Workshop Introduction

• Presenter describes exhaustion from repeated sessions and engages participants who haven't seen them yet

• Participants and facilitators introduce backgrounds in existential psychotherapy, family therapy supervision, NLP, hypnosis, and recent licensure

Participant Backgrounds and Expectations

• Several newly licensed therapists express tension between broad training vs. deepening focus

• Speaker highlights importance of experiential supervision and self-aware therapeutic instruments

• Introduction of 12 foundational family therapy concepts, best learned through practical experience

Family Therapy Concepts and Transformation

• Families tend to marginalize alternative relational patterns, leading to under-functioning

• Discussion on accessing clients’ richer selves from work into family contexts

• Skillful correction of client beliefs discussed as part of family transformation

• Therapist’s role framed as unlocking hidden relational potentials in families

Therapist as Catalyst and Shaman

• Therapist described as catalyst who introduces new family patterns

• Comparison to shaman: facilitator of unseen processes and relational evolution

• Emphasis on observing family “ordinary life” and bringing it into therapeutic context

• Therapist as polyglot: fluent in multiple relational and cultural “languages”

Supervision and Therapist Development

• Supervision format includes live case review and reflection on intentions vs. outcomes

• Goal: build therapist self-awareness and flexibility in accessing different “selves”

• Spontaneity balanced with planfulness in developing therapist skill

• Observing ego discussed as tool for real-time reflection and intervention

Case Study: Wei Yang Lee and Family

• Case involves family with Down Syndrome child; therapist moves from intellectual stance to embodied presence

• Supervision highlights working with aggression and emotional intensity

• Therapist evolves from detached teacher to active relational participant

• Focus on enactment and embodied responsiveness in therapy

Case Study: Andy and Family Therapy

• Andy, a doctoral social worker, begins as competent but rigid therapist

• Supervision develops his complexity, emotional range, and personhood in therapy

• Observing ego integrated into practice with attention to timing and client needs

• Evolution from narrow to nuanced therapist who uses self effectively

Elders and Political Influence

• Discussion on elder therapists' role in advocacy and public impact

• Family Impact Seminar highlighted as policy-shaping initiative

• Testifying to Congress proposed as potential elder role

• Challenges include sustaining political energy and effectiveness

Narrative Therapy and System Thinking

• Comparison of Michael White’s narrative therapy with speaker’s systemic model

• Critique of narrative therapy: downplays therapist presence, risks individualism

• Speaker advocates for therapist’s embodied presence and systemic lens

• Emphasis on working across diverse cultural and relational contexts

Supervision and Developmental Stages

• Early supervision: teaching structure, technique, and basic skills

• Advanced supervision: cultivating therapist complexity and nuance

• Development requires awareness of one’s own operations and relational effects

• Goal: therapists who think systemically and act authentically

Final Thoughts and Questions

• Info shared about Minuchin Family Center and training resources

• Anecdote of feminist therapist who grew through initially resistant supervision

• Therapists must develop capacity for intensity, authority, and flexibility

• Closing message: effective therapy requires using the therapist’s full self with awareness and skill