Virginia Satir’s Transformational Systemic Therapy: A Transpersonal Approach to Family Therapy
April 1, 2020 DOI: 10.32031/itibte_itj_14-kk-ls4 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
Virginia Satir's family therapy model aligns with transpersonal psychology, which addresses spiritual and transcendent aspects of human experience. Her concepts of grounding, centering, congruence, and the Self/I AM in the iceberg model offer ways to integrate transpersonal perspectives into family therapy. Creating a transpersonal space of trust strengthens the therapeutic alliance, and nondual psychotherapeutic approaches can enhance the therapist's use of self. The paper recommends Satir family therapy as a suitable modality for transpersonally-oriented psychotherapists.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Satir family therapy is consistent with transpersonal psychotherapeutic perspectives and is recommended as a prospective family therapy modality for the transpersonally-oriented psychotherapist. |
Abstract
The work of Virginia Satir, a pioneer family therapist, is examined as a transpersonal approach to family therapy. Ways in which transpersonal perspectives may be applied in family therapy are explored in Satir’s notions of grounding and centering, the evolving and transcending concept of congruence using the Self/I AM concept in the Satir iceberg model, as well as the Satir conceptualization of the therapist’s use of self. Aspects of transpersonal psychotherapy relevant to the practice of family therapy are examined, including the creation of a transpersonal space of trust in order to strengthen the therapeutic alliance, going beyond meaning in working with the family system to apply transpersonal (e.g. nondual psychotherapeutic) approaches to the therapist’s use of self in therapy. A discussion of intersubjectivity and the role of the beingness of the family therapist in promoting transcendence, awareness, and healing for the family is included. Satir family therapy is consistent with transpersonal psychotherapeutic perspectives and is therefore recommended as a prospective family therapy modality for the transpersonally-oriented psychotherapist. KEYWORDS Satir, Family Therapy, Transpersonal Psychology, Transpersonal Psychotherapy, Transcendence, Consciousness, Transformation, Intersubjectivity, Nondual Psychotherapy.