Experiential Family Therapy Key Points
Experiential family therapy is a therapeutic approach that utilizes activities and tools that encourage expression. This approach applies multisensory strategies such as acting, music, art, and guided imagery among others, to recreate and re-encounter emotional situations experienced in the past and current relationships (Reiter, 2017). The techniques used improves a family’s demonstration of effect and reveal new information. When affect increases and new information is revealed, change and growth in a family system are stimulated. The main proposition of experiential therapy is that a person’s perception determines how he/she behaves (Richardson & Gallus, 2017). By re-experiencing and letting out suppressed negative emotions carried from the past, a person can encounter positive emotions. This type of family therapy is, in most cases, applied when treating conditions such as trauma, anger control, and recovery from grief, among others. Also, experiential therapy is recommended for people who want freedom from pain, are not happy, or want to be free from negative emotions from the past to have better relationships in the present and future relationships.
Narrative Family Therapy Key Points
Narrative family therapy is based on how individuals organize their lives through narratives/stories ( Duvall & Young, 2019 ). This type of therapy’s main focus is on stories that people develop inside and carry throughout life. People give meaning to their encounters, and these developed meanings influence how a person views him/herself and the world around them. Narrative family therapy emphasizes people’s stories because it assumes that they influence thoughts and how people make decisions and behave (Dickerson, 2016). The principles of narrative family therapy include:
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Reality is created from a social perspective; hence how a person interacts with others determines how he /she experiences reality.
Individuals interpret different encounters through language, and they can develop different interpretations of an event.
Narratives help retain and organize reality (Dickerson, 2016).
Reality is not objective; hence people can develop different realities about the same encounter or event.
Comparison of Experiential Family Therapy to Narrative Family Therapy
Different from the narrative family therapy, which focuses on telling stories, experiential family therapy provides clients with different ways of expressing themselves during therapy. The clients chose the methods they like, and this can be music or psychodrama, among other techniques. The application of different techniques in family therapy is one of the strengths of experiential family therapy. This is because the techniques can help reduce problems such as a denial of one’s problems, increased motivation for therapy, and a more positive perspective on conventional therapies. In addition, experiential family therapy allows the development of a strong therapeutic alliance between the therapist and clients (Richardson & Gallus, 2017). This is important for the successful achievement of therapeutic outcomes. Another strength of experiential family therapy is that the approach focuses on the current, and clients have the ability to express their emotions based on what is happening to them in the present. However, a major weakness of experiential family therapy lies in the fact that clients may fail to connect the therapy experiences with their individual issues (Richardson & Gallus, 2017). Another weakness of this therapy is that the focus is on family members’ encounters to identify a solution. The therapist does not help clients identify solutions, but they are pushed towards confronting their problems and identifying solutions.
Narrative family therapy helps people view themselves as separate from their problems and apply their strengths to make changes in their lives. Its goal is to help clients rewrite their negative stories that have dominated their lives for a long time (Dickerson, 2016). As a result, clients learn not to view problems as who they are. This approach’s strengths include the fact that it helps families see their problems from an objective perspective (Dickerson, 2016). Being objective helps clients see other interpretations of their stories. This approach also focuses on the strengths, knowledge, and abilities of clients instead of focusing on their weaknesses or failures in the past. Moreover, narrative family therapy enables clients to engage openly and proactively throughout therapy. However, this approach to family therapy has several weaknesses, including the fact that the client is expected to be the expert during therapy, which can be problematic for less articulate clients (Dickerson, 2016). Narrative family therapy is not applicable to a wide range of clients compared to experiential family therapy. Clients with issues such as psychosis or limited language skills may not benefit from narrative therapy. Therefore, of the two approaches to family therapy, experiential family therapy is more effective.
Description of a Family Appropriate for Experiential Therapy
Experiential family therapy can be used in a family therapy session for a family that is experiencing problems related to grief as a result of losing a family member, and the family members feel that one of them is responsible for the loss and that he/she could have done something to prevent the death of their loved one. As a result of the loss, the family is becoming dysfunctional, and relationships are strained. Experiential therapy can help the grieving family members let out the suppressed emotions related to their loss so that they can focus on their current life. By doing so, such a family would be able to improve their relationships.
References
Dickerson, V. (2016). What is narrative therapy? Poststructural and narrative thinking in family therapy practice. Poststructural and Narrative Thinking in Family Therapy , 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31490-7_1
Duvall, J., & Young, K. (2019). Narrative family therapy. Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy , 2003-2011. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_241
Reiter, M. D. (2017). Experiential family therapies. Family Therapy , 167-179. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315110899-17
Richardson, N. M., & Gallus, K. L. (2017). Focusing in experiential therapy in couple and family therapy. Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy , 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_188-1
