post 13. Assignment finished. Circularity

Having written a 10 minute transcript (always takes much longer than you think), analysing it and placing it within a systemic orientation, it is now finished.


My broad take on circularity was exposed as I read in increasing detail the philosophical view of circularity. My usual style of 'circular questioning' succeeded in having family members comment on other relationships or action, but has not had the deeper understanding of a circular process. My aims are now to take this forward with gusto! I intend to sit back and have that circular posture, that there are moments of information that a therapist can spot and re-feedback in to the therapist/family system. These 'blips' as I refer them as, are moments of offerings the family give a therapist ("I think my son punches my daughter because....." and moments of offerings from a therapist to a family (" who would be able to make a best guess to why you punch your sister?". It is far more skill full than I have given it credit for. Having transcribed 10 minutes and spent up to 20 hours analysing it, I formed very creative questions....something I worry about as I need to do it almost immediately preceding a 'blip' within session.


The Milan team made a quick shift to social constructionism, something I was not familiar with. Particularly Cecchin (Cecchin, G. (1992). Constructing therapeutic possibilities. In Therapy as social construction(ed. S. McNamee, Gergen, K.J.), pp. 86-95. Sage: London). This chapter is well worth a read and I want to give it more time myself rather than taking key bits for the purpose of my assignment. Briefly, Cecchin described how the movement in to co-constructing different perspectives gradually occurred. Their adherence to systems theory and strategic interventions disappeared as they placed emphasis on content and communication.


Currently my knowledge of CMM is poor, but I guess the Cecchin paper is alluding to the higher levels of communication that occur in families. More to come on that...!


Another assignment down. Maybe a short weekend break then best keep on top of this work.

Post 12: Circularity - revisited

Thinking I'm hilarious by using 'revisited' like the Milan team. Anyway - a long day of catching up on the concept of circularity for the purpose of an essay. Far more in-depth as a concept that a technique as I came to realise.

Karl Tomm papers (Interventive Interviewing, Fam Proc 27:1-15, 1988) , looked at how the concept can be functional within session.

After reading these, I looked over Burnham AMT which has a similar statement - ie orientate yourself to a posture/intention. It's a really useful way to begin viewing your questions in the hope to refine, improve as, as Tomm says, the process becomes natural to the therapist.

As my confusion over collaborative approach continues I again ask, how does this fit in to collaborative work (less so Burnham, more so Tomm)?

Enough for tonight 1pm-8pm is a long days studying.

Post 11: Where's the technique in Collaborative

Firstly - It's been a while since I have written on here. The demands from the course has upped and increasingly I find myself preparing and analysing sessions, revising, re-reading, re-familiarising myself with literature, preparing presentations and completing research assignments. Time and space for sleeping eating and seeing people outside of the MSc and work is limited - time to blog is therefore much shorter!



Currently I have to analyse a ten-minute segment of video, transcript it, and focus upon techniques I have used within session. From my shift away from agency level interventions (using say, structural techniques), it has become necessary for me to use different approaches that cause to step blindly in to a session, and at this stage, still unclear what 'techniques' I have used. My past three sessions have been under the paradigm of collaborative but for the purpose of the assignment I have no idea what techniques I have used! Sure, I have formed my questions based upon the feedback of the family, and remained un-assuming (not knowing) and excluding any narrative techniques (social constructionist re hermeneutics) I may have added to a session I cannot write 2500 on collaborative techniques, even though my session was (based on supervisor feedback) a session with major collaborative intent!