“The Infamous Violet Crumble Incident”

Abstract

This article underlines the importance of clarifying unresolved issues from therapists' families of origin. A description of part of a family therapy course examining various approaches used to explore family of origin issues follows. Their comparative effectiveness from both a student's and lecturer's perspective are discussed. The importance of learning to approach family of origin issues in an oblique way is underlined.

Meeting Your Ghosts

“…It is clear that I allowed myself to be lured into content and affective issues. In an earlier paper, liThe Infamous Violet Crumble Incident" (Roberts, 1982), I briefly discussed the importance of exploring family of origin material as an integral part of family therapy training. A review of the literature conveys that limited attention has been given to the importance of family of origin experiences and their specific and direct effect on therapeutic interventions.…”

“…In the earlier paper (Roberts, 1982), I described my efforts to create an environment which would help the students connect the pragmatics and the aesthetics in family therapy. It is important to understand that while this and the former papersdo focus on family of origin material, this is not the prime focus of the course.…”