2005 Conference Report
Therapist on a Tightrope
On May 28th 2005 around 60 people gathered together
on a cold but sunny Saturday to explore the therapist's own family
with a particular focus on the reciprocal pattern of over functioning
/ under functioning. After some early hiccups with our phone connection we managed
to chat live to Elliott Rosen about his presentation on grief and loss
in our own families as well as some stories about the history of the
development of the Family Institute of Westchester.
We were stirred by a moving case excerpt that demonstrated
the use of Gestalt techniques to revisit unresolved grief from the family
of origin. Elliott reminded us that a necessary ingredient to avoiding
therapist over responsibility is experience. He also demonstrated the role
of humor in preventing therapists taking themselves and their work too seriously.
A huge thank you to Elliott and our other guest presenters for
their generous sharing in our 2nd annual conference.
To our panelists and to Dr Megan Chambers, we say thanks for
your willingness to share your own family of origin stories to make sense
of the counter transference snares we get into in both our therapy and workplaces.
The goal of the annual conference is to make complex theoretical
principles accessible through their application to the lives and families
of therapists. Applying the concepts to our own families helps
prevent the emotional cut off of intellectualizing about client families
while keeping our own vulnerabilities at a distance
We concur with Murray Bowen's view that our clients exhibit
the very same patterns as found in our own families.
The degrees of severity may sometimes be different but the
patterns of relationships under stress are observable and predictable
in all emotional systems.
Our early plan for next year is to focus on learning to see
in triplicate: uncovering our triangle dances. Please let us know what you think.
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The majority of respondents are eldest or eldest of their gender (more than double the other positions).
This was followed by youngest and then 2nd eldest.)
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