The Reflecting Team in Action
Collaborative Practice in Family Therapy
Edited by Steven Friedman
“A noteworthy collection of voices expressing the various ways that clinicians throughout the world have interpreted' and put into action' the stance and ethic of the reflecting team....This is an excellent book for anyone looking for wonderful and varied examples of the collaborative, language-based reflecting process.”
—The Illinois Family Therapist
“....one of the best practical guides to the reflecting team. ... presents, in both form and function, the brainstorming essence of an actual reflection team: it brings together multiple, international perspectives to generate new ideas about psychotherapy in its readers. Socialized medicine systems, community mental health centers and staff-model HMO's are all excellent breeding grounds for the development of reflecting teams, But even fee-for-service and private practitioners who engage in peer and/or intern supervision should consider transforming their supervision meetings into live reflecting teams. The results of simultaneously demystifying the experts and expanding therapeutic possibilities can be exhilarating to supervisors, trainees and patients alike. Steven Friedman's volume is a recommended springboard for team development.”
—Gloria Garfunkel, PhD. Peabody Medical Associates of HMO Blue and Family Institute of Cambridge and Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, Massachusetts Psych Association Quarterly
“....A noteworthy collection of voices expressing the various ways that clinicians throughout the world have 'interpreted' and 'put into action' the stance and ethic of the reflecting team....This is an excellent book for anyone looking for wonderful and varied examples of the collaborative, language-based reflecting process.”
—Dean Reschke, M.S. in The Illinois Family Therapist
“This book is a signpost of a timely and imperative revolution in the history of psychotherapy. It is a celebration of what could be classified as the postmodern era in therapy: letting go of many of our cherished ideas about pathology, psychology, and psychiatry and, instead, inviting members of the community to join forces with us in the search for a mutually acceptable way of conceiving and tackling those exciting challenges our clients continue to bring to our attention.”
—Ben Furman, M.D., Brief Therapy Institute of Helsinki, Finland
“An international cast of therapists share their creative applications of the premises of the collaborative, language-based reflecting process—and vividly show how a plurality of voices and a multiplicity of listening positions interact to enhance new possibilities for both the client and the therapist across clinical and cultural contexts.”
—Harlene Anderson, Ph.D., Director, Houston Galveston Institute
“At last, the reflecting team, the third and perhaps most original of the 'postmodern' contributions to the therapeutic process—alongside narrative and solution focus—gets the full treatment it deserves. It is very fitting that it take the form it has in this, Steven Friedman's second compilation of reports from the cutting edge. He has given us a rich and fascinating series of reflections on the innumerable ways multivoiced conversations can make space for people to change their stories. There is something here for everyone, from the beginner who has been wondering what it's all about to those of us who have benefited from the breath of air Tom Andersen and his team brought to systemic therapy several years ago.”
—Alan Parry, Ph.D., Family Therapy Program, The University of Calgary
“...a wonderful collection of postmodern practices from around the world. Both experienced and novice clinicians will find these accounts exciting and inspiring.”
—Marcia Sheinberg, MSW, Director of Training, Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy
Table of Contents
Foreword, Hoffman. Opening Reflections, Friedman.I. The Reflecting Process: Opening Dialogues.
1. Reflecting Processes: Acts of Informing and Forming, Andersen.
2. Using the Reflecting Process with Families Stuck in Violence and Child Abuse, Kjellberg, Edwardsson, Niemelä, and Öberg.
3. Treating Psychosis by Means of Open Dialogue, Seikkula, Aaltonen, Alakare, Haarakangas, Keränen, and Sutela.
4. When Patients Somatize and Clinicians Stigmatize: Opening Dialogue between Clinicians and the Medically Marginalized, Griffith and Griffith.
5. Reflective and Collaborative Voices in the School, Swim.
6. A Spell in the Fifth Province: It's between Meself, Herself, Yerself, and Yer Two Imaginary Friends, McCarthy
and Byrne.
II. The Reflecting Team: Hosting Collaborative Conversations.
7. Offering Reflections: Some Theoretical and Practical Considerations, Lax. 8. Through Susan's Eyes: Reflections on a Reflecting Team Experience, Janowsky, Dickerson, and Zimmerman.
9. Widening the Lens, Sharpening the Focus: The Reflecting Process in Managed Care, Friedman, Brecher, and Mittelmeier.
10. Rap Music with Wisdom: Peer Reflecting Teams with Tough Adolescents, Selekman.
III. The Community as Audience: Reauthoring Stories
11. Consulting Your Consultants: A Means to the Coconstruction of Alternative Knowledges, Epston, White, and "Ben."
12. From "Spy-chiatric Gaze" to Communities of Concern: From Professional Monologue to Dialogue, Madigan and Epston.
13. Public Practices: An Ethic of Circulation, Lobovits, Maisel, and Freeman. 14. Family Reunions: Communities Celebrate New Possibilities, Nichols
and Jacques.
15. A Journey of Change through Connection, Adams-Westcott and Isenbart. Closing Reflections: On Communities, Connections, and Conversations, Friedman.
Epilogue.
About the Editor
Steven Friedman, PhD, is a clinical psychologist at Atlantic Counseling & Consultation in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and a senior consultant at Beacon Health Strategies in Boston. An active presenter of workshops and seminars on time-effective therapy and family therapy, Dr. Friedman serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Systemic Therapies.Widely published, his edited volumes include The New Language of Change: Constructive Collaboration in Psychotherapy, and
Audience
Family therapists and students; other clinicians interested in innovative approaches to therapy.Serves as a text in advanced courses on family therapy.