Family Counseling Approach: Experiential Therapy …show more content…
Whitaker was a 20th century family therapist who founded the field of experiential family therapy approach, in which the role of the family is recognized as having an effect on the patient. While studying at the Syracuse Psychopathic Hospital with schizophrenic patients, he noticed that once these patients were sent home they returned to the hospital having relapsed and experiencing symptoms. Whitaker started to explore a family therapy approach rather than treating just the schizophrenic patient. In 1955 Whitaker founded the Atlanta Psychiatric Clinic where he continued to improve upon his family therapy techniques. Rather than blaming one family member or even a specific family problem, experiential family therapy looks at the entire family system. “Whitaker’s utilized a humanistic approach by focusing on getting at the heart of the feelings experienced by all members of a family. Several other approaches to family therapy have drawn heavily from Whitaker 's theories (Family Therapy, …show more content…
(Mahrer, 2001)” Mahrer also noted that the field of experiential therapies had grown with the word “experiential” being interchanged with the words “feeling” and “emotion” so that any therapies that highlight the role of feeling and emotions are