A Contextual Therapy Framework for MFT Educators: Facilitating Trustworthy Asymmetrical Training Relationships

Abstract

This article provides a conceptual framework for asymmetrical relationships between family therapy educators and trainees. Our framework is based on contextual family therapy, and we apply the concepts of trust, entitlement, self-validation, and loyalty to training relationships. We highlight the value of educators modeling responsible uses of power in addition to teaching trainees clinical concepts and skills. We propose that training can be a process where trainers earn constructive entitlement through their interactions with trainees, who then give to future clients, supervisees, and trainees to continue the cycle of intergenerational trustworthiness. We also provide examples that illustrate the application of contextual therapy skills such as multidirected partiality, I-Thou relating, acknowledgment, validation, and accountability to family therapy training.

‘Who decided this?’: Negotiating epistemic and deontic authority in systemic family therapy training

“…Trainers are shown as engaging in more democratic styles by discursively relating with trainees in tentative, non-authoritarian ways, like in Hair and Fine (2012). However, power does not simply vanish from our working contexts and although the hierarchy between trainers and trainees can be softened it cannot vanish (Sude and Gambrel, 2017). Such softening could suggest a more efficient way to stick with the institutional order and agenda and manage trainees’ resistance (Benwell and Stokoe, 2002).…”

“…Training and supervision suggest inherently asymmetrical relationships between trainers and trainees regarding authority and knowledge, like all institutional settings (Craven and Potter, 2010). Trainers hold expert knowledge (Hair and Fine, 2012; Sude and Gambrel, 2017) and the power to exert influence (De Stefano et al, 2017). Specifically, they disseminate theoretical knowledge and evaluate trainees (De Stefano et al, 2017) or issue directives to trainees to engage in tasks.…”

“…Our article illustrates how trainers and trainees negotiate epistemic and deontic authority in naturally occurring discourse within systemic family therapy (SFT) training. The institutional setting of psychotherapeutic training suggests asymmetrical relationships between trainers and trainees (Hair and Fine, 2012; Sude and Gambrel, 2017). However, critical approaches forwarding self-directed learning in adult education (Mezirow, 1981) and postmodern proposals promoting a non-hierarchical, collaborative style in SFT and training (Ungar, 2006) challenge such an asymmetry.…”

What White Mental Health Professionals Need to Understand About Whiteness: A Delphi Study

“…Trainers can also utilize the results to guide their relationships with trainees. White trainers, particularly, can model responsible use of their social and contextual power in their relationships with trainees (Hernandez‐Wolf & McDowell, ; Hernandez‐Wolfe & McDowell, ; Sude, ; Sude & Gambrel, 2017). White trainers and trainees must also hold each other accountable and resist the urge to burden people of color with the stress they may feel in teaching them about privilege (Akamatsu, ).…”