UTILISATION OF ROLE ANALYSIS TO INFORM FAMILY THERAPY TRAINING CRAIG WHISKER 2007 A thesis presented to the Board of Examiners of the Australian and New Zealand Psychodrama Association Incorporated in partial fulfilment of the requirements toward certification as a Psychodramatist i This thesis has been completed in partial fulfilment of the requirements toward certification as a practitioner by the Board of Examiners of the Australian and New Zealand Psychodrama Association Incorporated. It represents a considerable body of work undertaken with extensive supervision. This knowledge and insight has been gained through hundreds of hours of experience, study and reflection. © Australian and New Zealand Psychodrama Association Incorporated 2007. Copyright is held by the author. The Australian and New Zealand Psychodrama Association Incorporated has the license to publish. All rights reserved. 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Enquiries: PO Box 232, Daw Park, South Australia 5041, Australia ii In memory of my mother, Cecelia Elizabeth Weeds (nee Morrison) (1931 – 2004) iii CONTENTS Abstract . (vi) Preface . (vii) Generating New Perspectives . 1 J. L. Moreno: Pioneering Systems Theorist and Family Therapy Practitioner . 3 Snapshot; to Vienna; spontaneity - creativity - conserve; pioneering family theorist; modern recognition of Moreno’s influence on the development of systems theory; the rise of systemic family therapy; summary. Reported Applications of Psychodrama in Family Therapy Training . 7 Snapshot; enlarging experience through psychodramatic enactment; empirical evidence for the effectiveness of psychodramatic enactment; the role of psychodrama in teaching family therapy; doubling; family sculpture; summary Functional Roles for Family Therapy . 11 Snapshot; reflections on the trainer’s interpretations of Sonya’s functioning; a preliminary role analysis is exploratory and provisional; the trainer’s interventions are informed by his preliminary role analysis; what role development is indicated for effective family therapy?; transcript from a family therapy session; descriptive role analysis of the family therapist in the transcript; possible roles in the progressive role system of the family therapist in the transcript; progressive functioning for family therapists inferred in literature; a broad schema of progressive functioning for family therapists; summary. Functional Role Development of Family Therapy Trainees . 18 Opening Remarks A Creative Lover of Self: Working with Lydia . 18 Description of Lydia at the beginning of the training group session; analysis of Lydia’s first two sentences; a strong warm-up to living; valuing new experience; learning by experimentation; a sense of beingness; balancing analysis; dependency on the group leader; loss of mutuality; central organising role elements in Lydia’s role system; implications from the role analysis for interventions with Lydia; further description of the group session; Lydia’s spontaneity increases; maintaining spontaneity in the unknown; iv enactment engages the training group; sociometric relationship between Lydia and the group members; implications for further work with Lydia and the group; further illustration of functional role development in a family therapy trainee. A Spontaneous Actor: Working with Michael . 26 A particular training session; description of Michael in the training session; discussion and analysis of Michael’s functioning as a family therapist to date; Michael functions on the basis of his motivating force; group members benefit from Michael's functioning; creative functioning is recognised and enhanced by the trainer; stillness at the beginning of the interview; constructing a skew in the therapist / client relationship; perceiving functioning as the presence of something rather than the absence of something; the role of reactive forces in relieving emotional discomfort experienced by the therapist; suggested role development to enable fuller expression of Michael’s motivating force; the trainer and Michael make an appraisal of Michael’s functioning; further discussion and analysis of Michael’s functioning; the trainer acts on the basis of his interpretation of Michael’s functioning; role analysis warms up the trainee to both motivating and reactive forces; the effect of utilising role analysis on the training group; role analysis identifies a wide range of functioning; the trainer functions as a double to Michael; the role of doubling in the development of self-acceptance; Michael does not function as a double with Liz and Mary; implications for further work with Michael and the training group; summary Concluding Remarks . 34 Bibliography . 35 v TABLES Table A: Progressive Role System of the Family Therapist in the Transcript (Provisional) . 15 Table B: Functioning of Central Importance to Effective Family Therapy and Associated Functioning . 16 Table C: Elements in Lydia’s Role System Based on an Analysis of Her First Two Sentences . 20 DIAGRAMS Diagram 1: Mother’s Continuum of ‘Who Holds the Power in this Family’ . 13 Diagram 2: Sociometric Relationship Between Lydia and the Group Members During the Enactment . 23 Diagram 3: Sociometric Relationship between Lydia and the Group Members After the Enactment . 24 KEY + Attraction ____________ Strong Connection - Rejection ……………… Weak Connection O Neutrality | Encounter symbol vi ABSTRACT The training of family therapists is a relevant response to the difficulties experienced by contemporary families. Several authors have discussed applications of Moreno’s psychodrama method in family therapy training, however, role analysis appears to be under-reported and under-utilised. This paper presents the point of view that role analysis aids both trainer and trainee. It magnifies the observable functioning of trainees, provides a readily comprehensible means of assessing their need for further progressive role development, and guides the refinement of a trainee’s efforts to acquire competence. It is hoped this paper will stimulate a wide range of readers to generate slightly different perspectives on whatever work they are engaged in and that this may in turn enlarge their skills. vii PREFACE Training in family therapy has been of interest to me since 1988. That year I uprooted a budding career in land surveying to swap theodolite for something more theologically inspired. What followed were short stints tethering disabled skiers to Mount Hutt, cooking square meals at the night shelter and discovering a knack for telephone counselling. Before long I sought a vacancy in a Child and Family Mental Health Service only to leave with their words, “You’ve come to the wrong interview”, ringing in my ears. I had forgotten the surveyor’s golden rule: ‘Always work from the whole to the part’. I would need specialised training at tertiary level before a family therapy employer would look at me twice. I began researching the state of family therapy in New Zealand to discover there is no national association for family therapists1 and no tertiary level training2. Most practitioners learn family therapy skills as an adjunct to their primary training in social work, psychology, psychiatry or counselling. This is largely exposure to theory only, the exceptions being specialist post-graduate programmes for clinical psychologists and psychiatrists or clinical placements for a handful of social work students who receive ‘on the job’ supervision and mentoring of their part-time work with client families. This contrasts with the Australian situation where training in family therapy is available from introductory certificate to doctoral level. Five of eight Australian States have their own family therapy associations who accredit individual practitioners and training programmes. Three of these associations are members of a national body, the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA). In short, the high professional standing of family therapy in Australia is unmatched in New Zealand. By 1991 I was a social work student on placement in a family therapy oriented Child and Family Mental Health Service in Wellington. Afterwards I gained employment in this field for several years and for the past five years I have been conducting family therapy training workshops in New Zealand. The aim of these workshops is to plant seeds for working with family systems in individuals, workplaces, communities and national organisations. To reach good soils the training must be integrated with the participants’ views on how the world works best. The central means employed to achieve this integration has been the use of psychodrama. 1 The Australia and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy Association Inc. has acted as a