Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T08:26:13.947Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Theory, practice and use of self in the open dialogues approach to family therapy: A simple complexity or a complex simplicity?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2013

Judith M. Brown
Judith M. Brown*
Affiliation:
Alternate Care Clinic, Redbank House, Westmead, Sydney NSWAustralia Relationships Australia (NSW), Sydney NSWAustralia
Get access

Abstract

In the family therapy literature there is increasing interest in the dialogical approach, particularly as it becomes well-grounded in psychotherapy research. One embodiment is ‘open dialogues’, which has developed over a 30-year period in Western Lapland, Finland. This paper outlines my experience of visiting Keropudas Hospital in Tornio, Finland, the birthplace of open dialogues. It explores the seven theoretical principles of open dialogues, associated elements of clinical practice, and the therapist use of self. The author utilises these aspects to reflect on dialogical moments through words and images based on three conceptual themes, which illustrate the relevance of open dialogues for family therapy practitioners and their contexts.

Keywords

open dialoguesfamily therapydialogicaltheorypracticeuse of self
Type
Articles
Information
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 266 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alakare, B. (2011). Interview at Keropudas Hospital, Tornio, Finland.Google Scholar
Andersen, T. (2008). Reflecting talks. In Jordan, K., The Quick Theory Reference Guide: A Resource for Expert and Novice Mental Health Professionals. New York: Nova Science Publishers. pp. 427–444.Google Scholar
Bakhtin, M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination. Austin TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. New Jersey: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Bertrando, P. (2007). Dialogical Therapist: Dialogue in Systemic Practice. London: Karnac Books.Google Scholar
Brown, J. M. (2010). The Milan principles of hypothesising, circularity and neutrality in dialogical family therapy: Extinction, evolution, eviction. . .or emergence? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 31 (3), 248–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J. M. (2011). Reflective journal, Finland.Google Scholar
Brown, J. M. (2012). Therapeutic moments are the key: Foster children give clues to their past infant experience of infant trauma and neglect. Journal of Family Therapy. doi: 10.1111/j.1467–6427.2012.00606.x.Google Scholar
Buber, M. (1937). I and Thou. Translated by Smith, Ronald Gregor. London: Continuum Books.Google Scholar
Flaskas, C. (2011). Frameworks for practice in the systemic field: Part 2 – Contemporary frameworks in family therapy. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 32 (2), 87–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haaraniemi, T. (2011). Interview at Keropudas Hospital, Tornio Finland.Google Scholar
Hoffman, L. (2009). The art of withness: A new bright edge. Uploaded to Scrib4.11.2009. www.scribd.com/doc/22086888/The-Art-of-Withness.Google Scholar
Inger, I. B. (1993). A dialogic perspective for family therapy: The contribution of Martin Buber and Gregory Bateson. The Association for Family Therapy, 15, 293–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordan, K. (2008). The Quick Theory Reference Guide: A resource for expert and novice mental health professionals. New York: Nova Science Publishers.Google Scholar
Kurtti, M. (2011). Interview at Keropudas Hospital, Tornio Finland.Google Scholar
Löhönen, E. (2011). Interview at Polyclinic, Kemi Finland.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, L. (1988). Openings: Using questions therapeutically. Dulwich Centre Newsletter, Winter, 15–18.Google Scholar
Näätsaari, A. (2011). Interview at Polyclinic, Kemi Finland. Network for Dialogical Practices http://www.dialogic.fi/network/index.htmlGoogle Scholar
Pönkänen, S. (2011). Conversation at Keropudas Hospital, Finland.Google Scholar
Rilke, R. M. (1993). Letters to a Young Poet, 1903–1908. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Rober, P. (2002). Constructive hypothesizing, dialogic understanding and the therapist's inner conversation: Some ideas about knowing and not knowing in the family therapy session. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 28, 467–478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rober, P. (2005a). The therapist's self in dialogical family therapy: Some ideas about not knowing and the therapist's inner conversation. Family Process, 44, 477–495.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rober, P. (2005b). Family therapy as a dialogue of living persons: A perspective inspired by Bakhtin, Voloshinov, and Shotter. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 31, 385–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rober, P. (2011). The therapist's experiencing in family therapy practice. Journal of Family Therapy, 33, 233–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rober, P., Elliott, R., Buysse, A., Loots, G., & De Corte, K. (2008). Positioning in the therapist's inner conversation: A dialogical model based on a grounded theory analysis of therapist reflections. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 34 (3), 406–421.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rogers, A. G. (2000). Voice, play and a practice of ordinary courage in girls’ and women's lives. In Brizuela, B. M., Carillo, R. G. & Berger, J. G. (Eds.) Acts of Inquiry in Qualitative Research. Harvard Education Review, Reprint Series No 34, p. 149–176.Google Scholar
Salo, T. (2011). Interview at Tornio Polyclinic, Finland.Google Scholar
Seikkula, J. (2002). Open dialogues with good and poor outcomes for psychotic crises: Examples from families with violence. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 28 (3), 263–274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seikkula, J. (2008). Inner and outer voices in the present moment of family and network therapy. Journal of Family Therapy, 30, 478–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seikkula, J. (2009) Dialogical and Narrative Processes in Couple Therapy for Depression. Two year follow-up study of the effectiveness and processes in couple therapy. Cochrane Collection CN 00756150.Google Scholar
Seikkula, J. (2010) in J. Seikkula & M. E. Olson, ‘Open Dialogue in Psychiatric Care’ Training, Vallecitos, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Seikkula, J. (2011). Becoming dialogical: Psychotherapy or a way of life? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 32 (3), 179–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seikkula, J., Alakare, B., & Aaltonen, J. (2001). Open dialogue in first-episode psychosis II: A comparison of good and poor outcome cases. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 14, 267–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seikkula, J., & Trimble, D. (2002). Listening with integrity: The dialogical stance of Jaakko Seikkula. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 28 (3), 275–277.Google Scholar
Seikkula, J., Arnkil, T. E., & Eriksson, M. A. (2003). Postmodern society and social networks: Open and anticipation dialogues in network meetings. Family Process, 42 (2), 185–203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seikkula, J., & Olson, M. E. (2003). The Open Dialogue approach to acute psychosis: Its poetics and micropolitics. Family Process, 42 (3), 403–418.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seikkula, J., & Trimble, D. (2005). Healing elements of therapeutic conversation: Dialogue as an embodiment of love. Family Process, 44 (4), 461–475.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seikkula, J., Aaltonen, J., Alakare, B., Haarakangas, K., Keranen, J., & Lehtinen, K. (2006). Five-year experience of first-episode nonaffective psychosis in open-dialogue approach: Treatment principles, follow up outcomes, and two case studies. Psychotherapy Research, 16 (2), 214–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seikkula, J., & Arnkil, T. (2006). Dialogical Meetings in Social Networks. New York: Karnac.Google Scholar
Seikkula, J., Laitila, A., & Rober, P. (2011). Making sense of multi-actor dialogues in family therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. Article first published online: 27 July 2011.Google ScholarPubMed
Shotter, J. (2007). Not to forget Tom Andersen's way of being Tom Andersen: The importance of what ‘just happens to us’. Human Systems: The Journal of Systemic Consultation and Management, 18, 15–28.Google Scholar
Simpson, J., & Weiner, E. (1989). The Oxford English Dictionary (Second ed., vol III). Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Stern, D. N. (2000). Putting time back into our considerations of infant experience: A microdiachronic view. Infant Mental Health Journal, 21 (1–2), 21–28.3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, D. N. (2004). The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life. New York: W.W. Norton and Co.Google Scholar
Sundet, R. (2011). Dialogical formats in supervision and family based therapy. Presentation at 1st International Congress of Dialogical Practices, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Trimble, D. (2002). Listening with integrity: The dialogical stance of Jaakko Seikkula. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 28 (3), 275–277.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vahtola, P. (2011). Interview at Keropudas Hospital, Tornio Finland.Google Scholar