Virginia Satir’s Transformational Systemic Therapy: A Transpersonal Approach to Family Therapy
Integral Transpersonal Journal April 1, 2020 K. Kilrea, Stéphanie Larrue
Virginia Satir's family therapy approach aligns with transpersonal psychology, which addresses spiritual and transcendent aspects of human experience. The paper explores how Satir's concepts—grounding, centering, congruence, the Self/I AM in the iceberg model, and the therapist's use of self—can incorporate transpersonal perspectives. It discusses creating a transpersonal space of trust to strengthen the therapeutic alliance and applying nondual psychotherapeutic approaches to the therapist's self in therapy. Intersubjectivity and the therapist's beingness are highlighted as promoting transcendence, awareness, and healing for the family. Satir family therapy is recommended as a modality for transpersonally-oriented psychotherapists.