Stories and utilization

Years ago, as a beginning therapist, I worked with a family

whose 14 year old daughter had been placed in state's

custody due to incorrigibility. Her father had been killed

in an accident after abusing his wife and children for many

years. The mother had accepted a lover who moved into the

family home. The girl was low functioning (full scale

about 68). I was reading Erikson at the time. I had some

Playdough (clay) in my office, and during a session with

the family, handed it out to all the kids, partly as a way

to occupy them while we adults and older teens talked,

partly as a response to my sense that they needed a

concrete and tangible way to express their feelings. I was

pushing them to define new roles and expectations in their

family. The teenage brother said it: "even though Mom has

changed her shape (holding up a ball of clay), now that

she's with X, she's still the same mom. And even though our

family has changed shape, we are still a family." Something

shifted. We all breathed easier. The girl went back home

and stopped opposing everything. I thought Erikson would

have been pleased.

Was this Utilization? I felt as though the family had found

the problem and the solution in their own way, with some

(not so) subtle nudging from me.

The demise of family therapy? I can't imagine having

worked only with that girl, and not her family. I could

have talked with her till I was blue in the face and the

cows came home. I would have wasted my time and hers.

Managed care would have been pleased (if they'd been around

back then) because the total treatment was only 5 or 6

sessions. (Milton would have done it in one...)

Replies:

Ain't it the way sometimes!, by Dave Pakenham, 9/12/97 strange thing that Milt did, by Mark Ashby, 9/15/97 To Emily and Mark, by Jeffrey Zeig, 9/17/97 My voice will go with you, he said, by Mark Ashby, 9/20/97 Erickson's Voice, by Jeffrey Zeig, 9/27/97 Re:Erickson's Voice, by , 08/15/02 Sound clips on the Erickson Foundation web site, by Stephen Lankton, 10/4/97 Sound clips on the Erickson Foundation web site -- Excellent, by , 02/07/01 Re:Sound clips on the Erickson Foundation web site -- Excellent, by Jim Lowry, 12/10/02 Re:Sound clips on the Erickson Foundation web site -- Excellent, by Miriam, 12/31/03 That strange thing that Milt did, by Robin Allenson, 4/8/98 Referencing Erickson, by Stephen Lankton, 4/12/98

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