Week 2 6650

Running head: Week 3 assignment

Week 3 assignment 4

Week 3 assignment

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Experiential Family Therapy

Experiential family therapy is an instinctive tactic that uses active and multisensory practice such as drawing and role play. Experiential family therapy has two main goals;

· To establish individual autonomy and ensure the family members have a sense of belonging or inter-connection or belonging.

· To encourage family members to encourage each other to attain individuation

In incidences related to drug addiction, the therapist must ensure that more members, if not all, participate because the chances of the client becoming sober depend on a health and functional family. Since the effectiveness of experiential family therapy relies on joining, empathy, and interactions, the therapist’s must be authentic and actively participate in the therapy sessions. Experiential techniques are useful in cases where verbal based communication or traditional therapies have failed.

Narrative Family Therapy

The practice of narrative family therapy is based on the idea that people classify their lives through narratives or stories. Narrative family therapy indicates that individuals make meaning of their lives based on the people who are close to them and prevailing cultural practices (Suddeath et al., 2017). As a result, narrative therapists believe that their clients are not solely responsible for the problems they are experiencing. The main objective of narrative family therapy is to;

· Change the midget of people who are dominated with feelings of “I am depressed or anxious” to view their problem as something that they possess but does not define who they are.

Compare experiential family therapy and narrative family therapy noting their strengths and weaknesses

A major difference between experiential family therapy and narrative family therapy is that the former relies on “experiencing” while the latter focuses on the importance of narratives in peoples’ lives. Experiencing enables a person to become the kind of individual he/she wants to be rather than a resource that helps to minimize the effects of the problem (Thomas & Krum, 2014). On the other hand, narrative family therapy emphasizes stories because stories originate from events people experience and those events influence how they see the world.

Advantages

Experiential family therapy has the following advantages;

· Emphasis on experiencing allows clients to discover inner feeling, fears, and thoughts by identifying emotional issues

· Experiencing feelings helps family members to talk about them rather than adopt a defensive approach

· Help families to commit to emotional well being and re-connect on a genuine level.

Narrative family therapy has the following advantages;

· Helps people to re-write their stories by promoting self-development and enabling them to be more constructive.

· Recognizes the importance of family, culture, and historic events in the lives of people

Disadvantages

Experiential Family therapy has the following drawbacks;

· Has a limited appreciation for the role of family structures in the lives of people

· The approach is less concerned with problem-solving

Narrative family therapy has the following limitations;

· The approach places the burden of the therapy on the client through narrations

· The effectiveness of this therapy is likely to be undermined by the inability of the client to communicate due to lack of confidence

· The approach is complex because it is solely based on philosophy and lacks a specific formula or criteria

Description of a family that can use experiential family therapy

Parents (Dan and Sarah) have a teenage daughter (Mary, 13 years) who uses drugs. Her parents have tried to talk to her but have failed. However, the parents are busy with their jobs and mostly leave Mary alone. Despite using drugs, Mary likes drawing.

In this scenario, experiential family therapy will be useful because drawing will be used to help Mary talk about her drug problems. The parents and the therapist will also engage in drawing to fully understand Mary’s problem. The drawing can be used to develop a way through which Mary will establish her life path.

References

Suddeath, E. G., Kerwin, A. K., & Dugger, S. M. (2017). Narrative family therapy: Practical techniques for more effective work with couples and families. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 39(2), 116-131.

Thomas, V., & Krum, T. (2014). Experiential approaches to family therapy. In An introduction to marriage and family therapy (pp. 249-278). Routledge.