Deck 7: Experiential Family Therapy

Question 1

Experiential family therapists believe ________ is/are the primary cause of dysfunction in families.

A) interlocking triangles
B) unexpressed emotion
C) cross-generational coalitions
D) poor problem-solving

Answer 1

unexpressed emotion

Question 2

Experiential therapy differs from most systems approaches with respect to its emphasis on ________ versus techniques that specifically facilitate interaction.

A) expanding experience
B) improving problem solving
C) restructuring the family hierarchy
D) metacommunication

Answer 2

expanding experience

Question 3

Laing's concept that many families distort their children's experience by denying or relabeling it is known as

A) introjection
B) metacommunication
C) reframing
D) mystification

Answer 3

mystification

Question 4

The goals of experiential family therapy would not include

A) increased personal integrity
B) greater freedom of choice
C) restructuring of the family system
D) increased sensitivity to one's needs and feelings

Question 5

Carl Whitaker, like Murray Bowen, believes that personal growth (i.e., individuation) also requires

A) rational thinking
B) family connectedness
C) problem-solving abilities
D) none of these choices

Question 6

A collection of beliefs based on a distortion of historical reality and shared by all family members, which help shape the rules governing family functioning are known as

A) family rules
B) invisible loyalties
C) family myths
D) none of these choices

Question 7

Within experiential therapy, the ________ is believed to be the essential healing force in the psychotherapeutic process, whereby the therapist establishes caring, person-to-person relationships with each family member while modeling openness, honesty, and spontaneity.

A) interpretation of unconscious conflict
B) existential encounter
C) therapeutic double-bind
D) paradoxical intervention

Question 8

A non-verbal experiential technique, in which family members position themselves in a tableau that reveals significant aspects of their perceptions and feelings, is known as

A) existential encounter
B) family sculpting
C) family ritual
D) conjoint family drawing

Question 9

An important concept in experiential family therapy--defined as the process of developing and fulfilling one's innate, positive potentialities.

A) differentiation of self
B) alienation from experience
C) constructivism
D) self-actualization

Question 10

Experiential family therapy is designed to

A) interpret and work through unconscious conflicts
B) increase family members' levels of differentiation of self
C) facilitate emotional experiencing in family members
D) none of these choices

Question 11

________ is considered more important by experiential therapists for healthy family functioning than either problem-solving skills or functional family structure.

A) open, spontaneous experiencing
B) insight
C) symptom relief
D) none of these choices

Question 12

The primary goals of family therapy included all except which of the following?

A) enhanced sensitivity
B) greater freedom of choice
C) expanded emotional experiencing
D) symptom relief

Question 13

Unlike Bowenians, experiential therapists will ________ then behave in alternately provocative and supportive ways in order to help families learn to express honest emotion.

A) encourage development of transference
B) discourage development of transference
C) raise the level of anxiety in the family
D) lower the level of anxiety in the family

Question 14

Experiential therapists typically use ________ to help minimize countertransference responses to family members in session.

A) live observation
B) co-therapists
C) reflecting teams
D) their own therapy

Question 15

Among experientialists, families are typically conceived of and treated as

A) groups of individuals
B) systems
C) parent and child subsystems
D) none of these choices

Question 16

Johnson and Greenberg have found that emotionally-focused couples therapy is more successful when the therapist first ________ and then ________, in that order.

A) softens the attacking spouse's stance; engages the withdrawn spouse
B) engages the withdrawn spouse; softens the attacking spouse's stance
C) facilitates an enactment; encourages expression of secondary emotions
D) encourages expression of secondary emotions; facilitates an enactment

Question 17

The goal of internal family systems therapy is to

A) experience unique outcomes
B) achieve self-leadership
C) de-triangulate
D) B and C

Question 18

Internal family systems theorists use techniques such as ________ from structural family therapy to help people get their polarized parts to deal with each other while blocking the interference of other parts.

A) joining
B) mapping interactions
C) boundary making
D) increasing intensity

Question 19

An essential role of an internal family systems therapist is to

A) educate family members about internal positive feedback loops
B) help family members notice when their parts have taken over
C) solve the family's presenting problem
D) reposition the family hierarchy

Question 20

The internal family systems therapist uses ________ or sense of when people are and are not leading with their Selves, to help family members maintain Self-leadership as they interact.

A) an analytic third ear
B) a parts detector
C) a quid pro quo
D) metacommunication

Question 21

Experiential therapists have downplayed the role of theory in psychotherapy. Describe the rationale offered by such people as Whitaker and Keith for using an atheoretical approach to treating families.

Question 22

What is an "existential encounter?"

Question 23

Describe the technique of "family sculpting."

Question 24

Experiential therapy derives from existential, humanistic, and phenomenological thought. Explain the general essence of these lines of thinking, and their implications for treatment. Contrast these existential ideas with the determinism inherent in psychoanalytic thinking.

Question 25

What evidence is there for the effectiveness of emotionally-focused couples therapy? Discuss the types of couple presenting problems that may be most amenable to change through use of an emotion-focused approach? For which types of presenting problems might it be least effective? How could you test your hypotheses regarding differential effectiveness?

Question 26

Compare and contrast Schwartz's notion of "Self leadership" and Bowen's construct, "differentiation of self."

Question 27

Schwartz's study of internal family systems (IFS) led him to group the roles that parts commonly adopt when a person has been hurt into 3 categories exiles, managers, and firefighters. Describe and give an example of each. How would an IFS therapist explain the notion of resistance?