Collaborative Therapy: Relationships And Conversations That Make a Difference [Paperback]

This is a big book -- more than 400 pages! And while I have yet to read through all of it, I have read enough to recommend it. It's a collection of essays by 20 or so authors. Reading it has been, for me, like eating a box of fine chocolates. I eat a few, but savor the fact that there are more in the box for later. I know these authors, and for me its a handy collection, so I highly recommend it. Yet I am not one of them exactly. I'm a kindred spirit (see their page 1), with different roots in my background. However, I think that might make me a better reviewer. It's good to have people outside the clique to review books for the wider audience.

What is especially clear to me when I read this particular book is that Harlene Anderson and her colleagues are what I call "visionary postmoderns". I find that most postmodern therapists are either "nostalgic" or "visionary". Nostalgic postmodern therapists are focused on their disappointment in lost dreams, dreams that no longer inspire their therapy craft, typically the lost dream that therapy is, or soon will be, scientifically based. . Visionary postmoderns, in contrast, while they might be equally disillusioned with the lost dreams, are often simply soaring with a creative spirit and eager to share their ideas with their colleagues.

And before you get too worried that these authors will steal your creativity, creating just another school of therapy to also be lost in the wake of time, let me remind you, that in the realm of the postmodern, you can use the elements of postmodern authors to seed your own own innovations. This is not cookie-cutter therapy, one size fits all. While "[t]here [may be] a strong tendency to view collaboration [in therapy] as a unified or social process, one that can be transposed from one situation to another [, in] contrast, we find it more useful to think of the particular conditions confronting us in the moment and then to consider what kind of skills or moves are essential to bring about a positive end." (Gergen & Gergen, p.399).

Still, these particular authors do make some recommendations. What they recommend is the creation of a listening culture. This is done in part by us therapists suspending our usual sense of certainty (see, the Anderson chapters, and chapter 16 by London and Tarragona). Suspending a sense of certainty is much like what happens when a patron walks into a movie house. Before watching the movie the patron is certain there are no "spider men" hopping from building to building. But to understand and appreciate the movie, the patron suspends this certainty -- for a while. Similarly, a therapist can suspend disbelief in the client's stories, no matter how strange they may seem initially. And in doing so, therapy can awaken their clients' latent ability to talk through their problems, to discover solutions that simply had not previously occurred to them.

And you and I know such a listening culture can be therapeutic. Haven't you ever had someone who listened to you so well that you found yourself digging more deeply into your own ideas, and discovering solutions and promising paths that you had never quite recognized before?

But, of course, we should ask: How does a therapist suspend certainty? There are many ways. One might do it, for example, by using an "as if" model (Anderson, p.247). Or just by reflecting on the fact that we view the world through an "art of lenses" (Lynn Hoffman p.70) or just by "creating space" for people to talk (cf. Gehart, p.183).

In summary, then, all the pages in this large book are in service of the client "moving forward" but doing so without a map provided by us therapists to guide them. And since we therapists don't actually have such a map, not a good and validated one, anyway, it is wonderful, so I think, that people are now thinking and writing about how this might be done.

That's what I try to do, too. And, if this suits you as well, then you might also find this book like a box of fine chocolates -- so I highly recommend it to all potentially visionary postmodern therapists.

..Lois Shawver
author of
Nostalgic Postmodernism: Postmodern Therapyscript writer for
When Wittgenstein and Lyotard Talked with Jack and Jill

A new book written by the well known family therapist Harlene Anderson together with a number of colleagues is bound to be a unique reading experience. The vast diversity of situations in clinical work, teaching, and consultation, gave me a fascinating reading. The diversity also corresponds to the multifaceted cultural circumstances that we these days have to face in meeting people in difficult life situations. As our traditional ways of meeting people in the helping professions do not always work in these changing situations, the experiences that speak through this book give opportunities to rewrite the map of the professional territory.

The commonality between the different authors was not immediately visible to me. It took a while before I sensed their shared interest in collaborative work and their deep respect for the people they meet in their practice. I think that family therapy historian Lynn Hoffman gave words to their approaches in her contribution to the book: "The art of `Withness'".

This is a book that I have waited for! In impressive ways the editors provides us with other practitioners practices and intriguing thoughts on therapy and how to collaborate with clients. Its an outstanding book that I suggest that should be on any psychotherapy educational program. In addition the book would enhance experienced therapists ideas and practices as well. The book is very well written and the chapters are not to long - but they are informative and provides challenging ideas that you can use in your practice immediately! Enjoy reading this intriguing and important book!