Posted by: ellynb
on Aug 17, 2010
For this month’s blog/newsletter, I am giving you part of a transcript from an Initiator-Inquirer session. It is about working with control struggles, improving couple’s communication, and what that means on a deeper level. This session was very rich in learning, so I am going to break it down into several posts. I’d like you to comment on what you see me doing and on anything you learn from reading this portion of the session. Then in a few weeks I will give you the next section.
Vicky and Tom have been married for eight years and in business together for two years. He is 36 and she is 37. They came to therapy because they had been fighting, power struggling and getting nowhere on their own. This session began with Tom being very angry. I listened to each of them for a few minutes and then asked them to move into the Initiator-Inquirer process, which I had taught them recently.
Initiator-Inquirer session begins with Tom as an Initiator feeling very angry with Vicky.
Posted by: ellyn
on Jul 12, 2010
When I mentioned the Paper Exercise in last month’s newsletter, many of you wrote back and asked for more information about it.
The Paper Exercise is an exercise that Pete and I adapted from Susan Campbell’s book, The Couples Journey. The exercise sounds a bit contrived, but it is so revealing of couples’ dynamics that it is worthwhile learning to use it. It can be used either diagnostically or as an intervention into the couples’ system.
Setting up the exercise
Posted by: ellyn
on Jul 1, 2010
Tagged in: Untagged
Dear Therapists,
I am writing this month's newsletter as I fly home from two weeks in Russia. What an adventure! I went with my good friend Ruth McClendon to teach Couples and Family Therapy in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. It was such a rich cultural experience that it will take many months to digest all of it.
After a delayed 20 hour trip, we landed in Moscow and assumed that getting to our hotel would take just a short while longer. But even with a very savvy Moscow driver, it took almost another 3 hours. Traffic is a constant challenge in Moscow.
