Experiential Family Therapy

Introduction
Experiential family counseling focuses on role playing and other multisensory techniques, allowing members of the family to step into the shoes of one another through role play exercises to better understand one another, develop empathy and work out issues together (Tuttle, 1998). This paper will identify leading figures in experiential family counseling, historical and current events, assumptions, development of the theory, concepts, and techniques that relate to my own approach to counseling. Similarities and dissimilarities between the experiential family counseling and other leading theories will be explored and the paper will conclude with a discussion of what new knowledge I acquired.
Leading Figures
Carl Whitaker helped to found experiential family therapy in the 20th century. Whitaker emphasized the role of the family in the therapeutic process and showed that the humanistic approach could be used to involve all members of the family and allow them to come together to understand the issues impacting them all (Neil & Kniskern 1982). The Family Crucible was a major work written by Whitaker along with Augustus Napier and it focused on the emotional lives of the family and how the family dynamic was such that it often needed to be shocked out of its complacency to address its inner dysfunction (Napier & Whitaker, 2011). Thus, Whitaker was sometimes accused of being rude, abrupt and inappropriate with clients—it was all deliberate on his part, however; his aim was to get the family members thinking about that which they were glossing over and discussing those things—the thoughts and feelings—that so often went unsaid in their interactions with one another.
Walter Kempler was another leading figure in experiential family therapy. He emphasized a need to discern the emotions that often go unsaid and unexpressed but that exist behind the words and expressions that family members use in their interactions. He posited that so long as these feelings go uncommunicated they will fester and create problems and tensions within the family that can spill out and affect other areas of one’s life (Kempler, 1965). Kempler founded the Kempler Institute in 1979 with Morgens Lund, Lis Keisler and Jesper Juul, with the intention of training professionals on focusing on experiential psychotherapy for families in need of counseling (About Kempler Institute, 2019).
Historical and Current Events
With the death of Carl Whitaker in 1995, experiential family therapy was left without one of its leading figures (Smith, 1998). However, as Smith (1998) points out, family therapy was poised to go in new directions following the death of Whitaker, as the field was expanding to consider gender issues and stereotypes, which Whitaker was often accused of perpetuating. Nonetheless, a generational gap had developed in the field and Whitaker represented the older generation’s views. With his passing in the 1990s, it opened up the field to younger researchers and professionals to take experiential family therapy in alternate directions. The idea of experiential family counseling has always been, however, to promote creativity within the family and to use the character of the counselor to facilitate this process. Avoiding a need to always emphasize the rational and the objective is key (Carson, 1999). This was one reason Whitaker promoted a post-modern approach and why that approach is still more or less appreciated by counselors who adopt this method (Cag & Voltan Acar, 2015).
Assumptions
The assumption at the heart of this theory is that the family really is the fundamental building block of society and that if there is a problem in society or that an individual is having it can ultimately be traced back to something going on in the family (Neil & Kniskern, 1982). Thus, the theory posits that the family is essential to resolving issues that an individual is having. Furthermore, the theory posits that if one individual in a family is having issues, it is more than likely that another individual or several others are as well (Whitaker & Blumberry, 1988). Thus, experiential family counseling allows multiple individuals in the family to come together and work on their issues as a single unit, with the intention being to get the family back to acting like a solid, positively contributing social unit.
Development of the Theory
Since Whitaker did not much care for theory and inherently mistrusted it in the development of a method, the theory at the foundation of experiential family counseling is rather obtuse (Smith, 1998). Many critics argue that it has no central theory at all (Smith, 1998), while others are drawn to it for precisely that point. As Smith (1998) notes. Whitaker believed that “theories are what therapists use to organize and control their environment,” while in reality an environment is not at the mercy of a theory (p. 151). Rather, in any given environment, any old theory may be applicable. Thus, he did not feel constrained or obliged to develop a theory for the application of experiential family counseling. He was convinced that by getting families talking, their issues would naturally resolve themselves. Says Smith (1998): “Whitaker transcended the need to theorize by recognizing that the unknowable is unknowable. He believed that theory could help therapists, but an over-reliance on theory would be more inhibiting than beneficial. To exemplify his ideas about theorizing, he believed that, in any given circumstance, his mother's theory might be just as useful as Freud's theory or that of any other social theorist” (p. 151). In other words, therapists who relied on theory were both over-thinking their practice and not directly dealing with reality.
Concepts
The underlying concept of Whitaker’s approach was that the therapist has to have mastery over his own self and must be in complete touch with himself so as to avoid being drawn into the family dynamic and the negative state. Instead, the therapist had to serve as a model for the family members of how they should act. The therapist was to be a leader, a person in a prominent position who could lead by way of authentic leadership, and bring the family out of its struggles by obliging them to confront them. However, to succeed at this, the therapist needed to be constantly learning about himself and growing all the while. A therapist that did not embark on lifelong learning was a therapist who would never make a good experiential family counselor (Smith, 1998).
The other concept underlying the approach was the importance of intuition. The therapist must be able to intuit what is going on with the family dynamic and where the issues are stemming from. Therapists who distrust their own intuition and rely instead on theory do a disservice to the client (Neil & Kniskern, 1982). Whitaker’s own dislike for theory was summed up in what he called his own approach—“psychotherapy of absurdity” (Cag & Voltan Acar, 2015).
Techniques That Relate to My Own Approach
Whitaker did not greatly like technique or think it necessary in experiential family therapy; he asserted that it was primarily the tool of the beginning therapist (Smith, 1998). For that reason, technique was not much written about or explored by the experiential family therapists who pioneered the theory. The one staple of Whitaker’s method was a kind of “craziness” often exhibited in order to get family members to snap out of their state of denial and begin processing and addressing the unseen or unsaid feelings that were right there between the lines staring them in the face that they were not willing to address otherwise (Smith, 1998). Essentially, this was a willingness on the counselor’s part to provoke, to be provocative. This willingness to be provocative is similar to my own approach in that I find it helpful to provoke clients into thinking about what it is that they are feeling but not addressing. I do not like to pull punches. Rather, I want to see what is going on below the surface and the best way to help my client get there is just to reach down and begin shaking things up—rocking the boat as the expression goes. This was similar to Whitaker’s own method. One approach that Whitaker had was to give baby bottles to adults to help them get back in touch with their infantile state (Smith, 1998).
Similarities/Dissimilarities between Experiential Family Counseling and Other Theories
Other theories such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) rely on identifying helpful goals and assisting the individual in avoiding triggers that might cause one to suffer (Epstein & Baucom, 2002). Experiential family counseling, however, does not use the same approach, though it does fundamentally rely on the therapist to embody in his own person the necessary traits and principles that the family should seek to adopt in their own dynamic (Smith, 1998). Thus, as Thompson, Bender, Cardoso and Flynn (2011) point out, experiential family therapists have found that by using this approach it is a way to get their clients to actively engage in the therapeutic process—so it can be a way to spur them on to make necessary changes. The end goal is always the same, in other words: the counselors are just taking slightly different approaches to get there (Brown & Taghehchian, 2016). Though CBT is often recognized for its value and theoretical foundation, experiential family therapy is often criticized for its failures (Watson, 2011).
Conclusion: What I Learned
What I learned from this research is that experiential family therapy is not going to be for every counselor. Some counselor’s prefer a method that is more orthodox, that is based on theory, and that provides a sound technique that can be practiced and implemented with regularity. This was certainly not Whitaker’s approach, though not every experiential family therapist has followed in his exact footsteps. However, for authentic experiential family therapy, a counselor should mirror Whitaker’s method and not try to constrain it with formulaic techniques or theories that, as Whitaker felt, would only do a disservice to the client. That is what I found to be most interesting about this approach: its founder’s disregard for convention, theory, and technique. It was as though he wholly trusted himself to penetrate the veneer of the family and see what issues were causing the problems and then reach into his bag of tricks to provoke the family to its senses and start addressing their problems sensibly. This is why he said the therapist must have solid principles first and foremost before using this method.
References
About Kempler Institute. (2019). Retrieved from https://kempler.dk/om-kempler-instituttet/
Brown, K., & Taghehchian, R. (2016). Bottled up: An experiential intervention for emotional suppression. Journal of Family Psychotherapy, 27(4), 302-307. doi:10.1080/08975353.2016.1235435
Cag, P., & Voltan Acar, N. (2015). A View of the Symbolic-Experiential Family Therapy of Carl Whitaker through Movie Analysis. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 15(3), 575-586.
Carson, D. K. (1999). The importance of creativity in family therapy: A preliminary consideration. The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families, 7(4), 326-224. doi:10.1177/1066480799074002
Epstein, N. B., & Baucom, D. H. (2002). Enhanced cognitive-behavioral therapy for couples: A contextual approach. American Psychological Association.
Napier, A. Y., & Whitaker, C. A. (2011). The family crucible. Harper Collins.
Neil, J. & Kniskern, D. (1982). From psyche to system: The evolving therapy of Carl Whitaker. New York: Guilford Press.
Kempler, W. (1965). Experiential family therapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 15(1), 57.
Smith, G. L. (1998). The present state and future of symbolic-experiential family therapy: A post-modern analysis. Contemporary Family Therapy, 20(2), 147-161.
Thompson, S. J., Bender, K., Cardoso, J. B., & Flynn, P. M. (2011). Experiential activities in family therapy: Perceptions of caregivers and youth. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 20(5), 560-568. doi:10.1007/s10826-010-9428-x
Tuttle, L. C. (1998). Experiential family therapy: An innovative approach to the resolution of family conflict in genetic counseling. Journal of Genetic Counseling, 7(2), 167-186. doi:10.1023/A:1022802006630
Watson, J. C. (2011). Treatment failure in humanistic and experiential psychotherapy. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67(11), 1117-1128. doi:10.1002/jclp.20849
Whitaker, C.A. & Bumberry, W.A. (1988). Dancing With the Family: A Symbolic-experiential Approach. New York: Brunner/Mazel.