Reflecting Teams

FAQ

• What is the history of Reflecting Team Work?
• What is the process of Reflecting Team Work?
• What are the Primary Therapeutic Approaches that inform our work in the QUT Reflecting Teams?
• What do people find particularly helpful about the Reflecting Team Approach?
• Do people feel uncertain or uncomfortable having people sitting behind a mirror listening to them speak about their concerns?
• How do I find out more about the Reflecting Teams or make an appointment?

What is the history of Reflecting Team Work?

The use of Therapist Teams and the one-way mirror have been a consistent and unique feature of Family Therapy practice throughout its history. Since Family Therapy's inception in the 1950s, the consultation team has been used in multiple ways, ranging from researching communication patterns in families, the provision of a "meta" or outsider perspective to inform therapist intervention, therapist training and Supervision and today as a collaborative consultation team which offers multiple perspectives and ideas from which the client can choose.

The practice and theoretical positioning that underlies the use of the mirror and teams has evolved and changed as family therapy itself has developed, moving from what was a more expert-driven, pathologising and directive approach in the early days of family therapy to the more collaborative, supportive and competency-based approach of today.

Therapeutic teams have been and continue to be used for both training and therapy in Individual, Couple and Family Therapy as this offers some significant advantages to both client and therapist.

What is the process of Reflecting Team Work?

• When you choose to work with a reflecting team you will essentially be given a team of between 5 and 8 therapists who will work with you regarding your concerns. On arrival, you will be met by your primary therapist who will introduce themselves and go over the reflecting team process, ensuring that you understand the process and are feeling comfortable.
• Following this your primary therapist will take you to meet with the team who will introduce themselves so you have a sense of who they are. This is extremely important as you must know who it is that is participating in your session.
• Following this you will enter into the main therapy room with the primary therapist and the reflecting team will go behind the observation mirror, so they can observe and listen to the conversation that you have with the primary therapist.
• Generally, clients will speak with the primary therapist for around 35-40 minutes, and then the primary therapist will ask you whether you want to bring in the team. If this is suitable for you then you and the primary therapist will get up and exchange places with the reflecting team, as they enter into the main room and you and the primary therapist move behind the one-way mirror.
• At this point the reflecting team will have a conversation for around 10 minutes to which you will listen, regarding what they have heard you and the primary therapist discuss, questions they have for you, ways they have been moved by your story, ideas that have come into their mind as they were listening to your conversation, and a multiplicity of ways of seeing your situation.
• In the next stage, the reflecting team return behind the mirror and you and the primary therapist will re-enter the main therapy room, where the primary therapist will ask you what you have heard that stood out to you as important, relevant or useful. Following a brief conversation around this the session will come to an end, hopefully having provided some new perspective, ideas and possibilities for you to take back into your life.

What are the Primary Therapeutic Approaches that inform our work in the QUT Reflecting Teams?

There are a number of therapeutic approaches that inform the work of our reflecting teams, however the most salient are those approaches that fall within what is generically known as the postmodern and systemic therapies. These include the following approaches, all of which have emerged in the context of Couple and Family Therapy:

• Family Systems Therapy
• Narrative Therapy
• Solution Focused Therapy
• the Collaborative Language systems approach.

At the core of all of these approaches is a commitment to a strong therapeutic alliance, to engaging collaboratively and in a way that privileges our client's particular hopes, ideas and knowledge about the concerns that they bring, while focusing on their particular goals for change and existing individual, relational and contextual resources.

What do people find particularly helpful about the Reflecting Team Approach?

Reflecting team practice is described by Hoffman (2007) as not simply a new approach to using a therapeutic team in family therapy but rather reflecting team practices entailing an entirely different therapeutic Stance or Posture. While in many traditional forms of Couple and Family Therapy a focus is placed on identifying and developing a hypothesis regarding the 'problem' and its resolution through the provision of expert therapist knowledge; the reflecting team approach is grounded in differing assumptions and practices which highlight,  privilege and utilise the client (individual, couple or family)'s language, knowledge and expertise to offer multiple perspectives, ideas and possibilities, from which the client can select those that appear most salient and useful, providing alternative perspectives, views of self, and plans for action.

Fundamental to the approach is not only a dedication and commitment to speaking in respectful, non-pathologising and tentative ways regarding our clients but also an absolute commitment to transparency and openness so at no time our clients are left in the dark as to what the team or therapist are thinking. Additionally, core to the philosophy that drives this approach to therapy is a deep respect and belief in our clients' existing resources, skills, knowledges and potential and the idea that when this is heard, witnessed and valued by a community of others, it provides an experience that deeply affirms & regards one's capacities to make changes and a preferred sense of who we are and wish to become.

According to Barbara Myerhoff (1986, p.267):
"definitional ceremonies (such as reflecting team practices) provide opportunities for being seen, and in one's own terms, garnering witnesses to one's own worth, vitality & being"

Reflecting team practices provide an opportunity for individuals, couples and families to experience a unique and creative therapeutic approach while acknowledging the challenges and pain that many bring to therapy. It also makes sure it pays attention to what is working in our clients' lives and the hopes they hold for the future.

Do people feel uncertain or uncomfortable having people sitting behind a mirror listening to them speak about their concerns?

This is a common question we are asked about the Reflecting Team Process and in many ways an understandable one, as it takes much courage to attend Counselling and Psychotherapy and often even more to make oneself vulnerable before a group of people. Often this concern is based in a real and reasonable fear of being judged and evaluated which is unfortunately a common experience for many in our dominant culture. In the reflecting team process we endeavour to make sure that the opposite of this is experienced. We do this via the following:

• On arrival, you will be introduced to your primary therapist and the entire team.
• You have complete control over what you speak about, when and in what detail.
• You can utilise the team in the way that best works for you; we are open to creative and client-driven ideas.
• The team does not speak or listen in terms of pathology, deficit or evaluation - their focus is to support, collaborate and listen for the untold or alternative and preferred stories in your life. The only evaluation that matters to us is your own.
• The team may speak about the way they have been moved and changed by hearing your story, and share ideas about ways in which they have been able to make changes in their life.
• After each session you will be given the opportunity to provide feedback in terms of the process and alterations and course corrections made in alignment with your wishes for the process.

According to Michael White (Workshop Notes, Sept 21, 2005, published by the Dulwich Centre), Definitional ceremonies (which include reflecting team practices) are:
"Practices that structure the therapeutic arena as a context for the rich description of people's lives, identities and relationships. This metaphor structures rituals that are acknowledging of and 'regrading' of people's lives, in contrast to many of the common rituals of modern culture that are judging of and 'degrading' of lives."

How do I find out more about the Reflecting Teams or make an appointment?

Our staff at the QUT Psychology and Counselling Clinic are more than happy to speak with you further about the services that the reflecting teams can offer, and look forward to answering any queries that you may have.

You may contact the Clinic reception and ask to speak with the Clinic Coordinator or the Director of Counselling and Family Therapy Services and they will return your call at their earliest convenience.

Phone: 07 3138 9777
Email: qhcpsych@qut.edu.au

References

White, M. (2005) Workshop Notes. p. 15. Published by the Dulwich Centre, Adelaide, Australia.

Myerhoff, B. (1986) 'Life not death in Venice: Its second life.' In Turner, V. & Bruner, E. (eds): The Anthropology of Experience. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Hoffman, L. (2007). Practising "withness": A human art. In H. Anderson & P. Jensen (eds), Systematic thinking and practice series. Innovations in the reflecting process (pp. 3-15). London: Karnac Books.