Collaborative Family Therapy

Collaborative therapy comes from the postmodern view that a person’s reality and truth differs within individuals (Anderson, 2007, p. 8). A person constructs their reality based on their personal views, thoughts, feelings, and experiences. One important aspect of postmodern is language. Anderson adds that through language, one is able to make sense of the world therefore creating their reality (p. 9). In addition to the use of language, words have different meanings to each person.
Piercy and colleagues’ article, A Cross- National Study of Family Therapy Training a Collaborative Pilot Project, found that people learn about family therapy in different contexts and processes (2014). According to Victoria Dickerson’s article, “The Advance
21). MIT was a short, term family centered approach that was formed to treat adolescences with psychiatric problems that required a collaborative team. This type of intervention involved the adolescence’s family members in order for the therapist to grasp a better understanding of each family member’s realities. Therapists believed that once they collected and integrated the family members differing realities, they could then develop a better understanding of the reality of the problem. This would lead them to be better equipped in developing a more effective diagnosis and treatment plan (p.
Dialog is notably one of the most important tools in the collaborative approach, as it allows one to express their reality. Anderson describes dialog as a “dynamic form of talk in which participants engage with each other and with themselves to articulate, express, communicate”. She adds that through dialog, participants are able to examine, question, wonder, and reflect on the issues at hand. Her views of knowledge are that it is the combination of one’s wisdom, expertise, competencies, truths values, customs, and language that has been created and used within a person’s community. One’s language is influenced by their knowledge, which creates their