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Do we really understand? An experientail exercise for training family therapists
Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Oct 2001 by Helmeke, Karen B, Prouty, Anne M
THE EXERCISE: "UNLEARNING" CERTAINTY
Therapists-in-training were asked to invite an individual or couple they knew who spoke a language that the therapist-in-training did not understand, and to role play a therapy session with them. (Hereafter the participants will be referred to as the therapist and the clients.) The clients could be fellow students, faculty, friends, or volunteers from the community, but not actual clients at the training site. Clients were not paid and were instructed that the interview would not be a real therapy session. It is important to discuss with the therapists the ethics of recruiting "clients"(American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, 1998; Reve & Larson, 1995). Just as in a research protocol, care must be taken to assure that the people who play the clients are not-and do not feel that they are-taken advantage of, and they know that they can withdraw from the role flav at any time.
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Mock therapy sessions lasted 20-30 min. The clients were asked to fabricate an issue to be discussed in the role play and asked not to inform the therapist of the general topic, or give any clues as to the subject that they would be discussing in therapy. Although the therapist could not understand what the clients were saying, the clients were able to understand what the therapist said. The therapist's assignment during the interview was to notice what they were able to discern from the nonverbal cues given by their clients, to be creative, and to provide the best therapy possible. At the end of the mock therapy session, the therapist was instructed to spend about 30 min debriefing with the clients in a language understood by both. As they talked, the therapist was to find out what the experience was like for the clients, when they felt the therapist was or was not tracking them well, and why. At this point, the clients revealed what presenting problem they had been discussing during the therapy session. This debriefing period assisted the therapist in checking out some of the assumptions he or she had made during the mock therapy session; for example, "I thought you seemed a little depressed when you were talking about those chiquitas, whatever those were. Was I picking up on that correctly?" Finally, therapists were asked to write a two-to-three page report of their experience. We left this assignment open ended, as it allowed students to construct their own experience, but others may want to add specific guidelines for the written report. We have also found that class discussions of their experiences, as well as the group training exercise variations (see below), have provided excellent pedagogical opportunities during which the trainer can facilitate reflection and discussion by using intentional and specific questions about the process.
VARIATIONS
This exercise was given as an optional assignment for students in an introductory MFT course. Four variations of this exercise have emerged over time. Although they were designed in an academic setting, they need not be used solely in a training program, as novice therapists can benefit by conducting such exercises on their own.
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