Assignment: Experiential Versus Narrative Family Therapies
NRNP 6650: Psychotherapy with Groups and Families
Walden University
Mary Ndungu
September 19 2020
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Introduction
In the decades after the humanistic psychology movement, experiential family therapy
developed. The designers of the method initially had a substantial degree of interest in
experiential care systems. Some experiential family therapy theorists, such as Carl Whitaker,
relied more on their personalities, imagination, and spontaneity to react quickly and efficiently in
their families' studies. Process facilitator and source person positions are the most critical roles of
the therapists (Thompson, Bender, Cardoso, & Flynn, 2011). Whitaker appreciates and adopts
the absurd aspects of life.
Approaches by experiential therapists focus on people and question personal protection to
allow family members to display genuine emotions (Madigan, 2011). The emphasis is on
subjective perception rather than interaction dynamism, which is the critical point of experiential
therapy. The weakness, therefore, is that the family is not very well active as a unit.
Family narrative therapy looks at how conflicts were perpetuated beyond individuals.
Both definitions focus on actions that include double binding, sequence management issues,
negative control, and triangles. Family narrative care is based on how the family members tell