ABSTRACT
When working with families, especially those with younger children, new family therapists may have a tendency to try to fix the problems they see in the family, even taking over the functions of parenting within the therapy room. This then disempowers the parents and does not enable the family system to organize in a functional manner without the therapist present. This chapter provides an opportunity for the reader to think about the style and roles of the family therapist and how they might think about what position they want to take with their client families. Utilizing actual supervisory transcript between Dr. Minuchin and a family therapist trainee, the reader is brought into a supervision group led by one of the most influential family therapists. Commentary by the authors helps to explicate how the supervisor challenges the supervisee to explore their own certainties and develop new competencies in their role as a family therapist.
