VT101: Blended Family With a Troubled Boy (Order)
The Family- This is a blended family composed of the mother, age 34 and her two children from a previous marriage: a son, 16, and daughter 12. The husband and stepfather, age 46, married his present wife 6 years ago and made a valiant effort to parent these two children. The daughter responded with appropriate behavior, but the son withdrew verbally and rebelled behaviorally by refusing to study. A year prior to this interview, the family decided to send the son to live with his biological father. His situation deteriorated to the point where he got all F's academically. The parents decided to bring the son back to this family unit. At the time of the interview, the new school year had been in progress for a month and a half. The boy refused to go to school or, when forcibly dropped at school, he refused to stay. The family was in the early stages of therapy at the time Virginia saw them.
The Interview- The tape offers one the opportunity to observe Virginia engage the family with precise and relevant information-gathering questions respectful of the family system, and based on sensory feedback. Rapid joining of the family members occurs, including a very gradual, gentle indirect contact with the "reluctant" son. We see a nonverbal restructuring of the family system through visual, kinesthetic sculpting, and there is a skillful flushing out of one of the major family rules. This prepares the family for elaboration of that rule, and then allows testing the family capacity to change by asking each member to participate in a situation that clearly violates the erstwhile limiting rule.
VT102: A Family At The Point of Growth (Order)
The Family: A two-parent family with two late adolescent children and two young school-age children. The older children, a boy 17 and a girl 15 1/2, are mother's by a previous marriage. They were physically abused by their biological father while still in their preschool years. The two younger children, both girls, age 9 and 6 are children of the current marriage. A year prior to this interview, the boy physically abused his 6 year old sister. He was placed in a residential treatment center. The whole family participated in treatment with two therapists in a mental health center. At the time of this interview, the boy had just returned to the family residence. Virginia realizes the family has gone through many changes in the last year but senses that the system is in the beginning phase of a very significant transition.
The Interview- Some key features of this session are the skillful and sensitive handling of two young children who are showing shy behavior by letting their parents talk for them, and a reframing of the stepfather's behavior and strengthening his usefulness in the family structure. There is an effective handling of the "intelligence" issue by presupposing that everyone learns well. The issue then becomes the interesting, varied ways that members learn (e.g. hearing, reading, watching). The session has a great deal of material on "fathers and sons." Virginia helps the boy and stepfather come to a new level of contact. The marital relationship is gently but rapidly allowed to extend its edges. Virginia offers this couple some ways of extending their relationship repertoire, utilizing logical and analogical ways of teaching.
VT103: A Step Along the Way
(A Family With a Drug Problem) (Order)
The Family: The identified concern of this family revolves around the drug problem of the 29-yearold son. He receives significant financial support from the parents. His mother, despite her pain, remains his strongest ally; his father feels severely displaced in relation to this strong mother-son bond. There are six living children in this family. a daughter, 34, a son, 32, a daughter, 3 1, a son, 29,
(the identified problem), a daughter 24, and the youngest, a son 23. Present at this particular interview are father, mother, the problem son, and his two older sisters. The family members confront the son with his drug use and struggle with how best to help him.
The Interview. This one-hour videotape shows quite graphically Virginia's very systemic way of working with families. She weaves through the main triads with great skill. And while she faces the issues of chemical dependency head on, she never separates those issues from the dyadic and triadic patterns of the family process.
In the latter part of the tape, Virginia discusses her impressions of the interview.
VT104: Of Rocks and Flowers
(Dealing with the Abuse of Children) (Order)
The Family: The couple in this family were married a year prior to this interview. The wife is in her second trimester of pregnancy. This husband has custody of his two sons from his previous marriage. Father reports that his two sons, ages 4 and 3, were severely and repeatedly abused physically by their biological mother.
The family faces a very difficult dilemma. The wife is acutely afraid that her soon-to-be-born child might be abused by her husband's two boys who are reportedly abusive towards property, pets and children. She would rather be separated than risk this. Her husband, however, has vowed never to lose his children. Yet neither spouse wishes to be separated from the other.
The Interview This interview opens immediately with the main issue at hand. Virginia takes a very dear, direct look at the problems while she builds a foundation of trust with the parents and the two young boys.
Virginia masterfully leads and follows the action to the point of demarcating each spouses "bottom line" for negotiation. She uses touch to reach the children, to begin the process of re-educating their skin, and to demonstrate more useful ways of relating. In the latter part of the tape, Virginia discusses her impressions of the interview.
VT105: The Essence of Change (Order)
For many decades now, therapists and educators all over the world have marveled at the artistry of Virginia Satir's work with individuals and families. Many have wondered whether her artistry was mainly a function of intuition and charisma or whether there are patterns in her work that are teachable. This is an important question.
Virginia did not deny that intuition and charisma can play a very special role in one's therapeutic approach. She also maintained that there are patterns in her way of working with people that can be described, practiced, and eventually mastered to the point of appearing intuitive once again.
THE ESSENCE OF CHANGE is a videotape that addresses this very point. It is a major step in articulating Virginia's approach to treatment. Here she discusses and illustrates the essential patterns in the process of change.
Teaching Guides Each of the above films comes with a guide that is intended to help you facilitate discussion and analysis of the interview by providing basic information about the family, beginning interpretive comments and questions for discussion.
VT200: Virginia Satir Revisited
An Appreciation and Understanding of her work
By Ramon G. Corrales, Ph.D. (Order)
This videotape brings new insight to the "magic" of the work of Virginia Satir. Engaging his own integral approach to therapy (influenced by the contemporary philosopher, Ken Wilber), Ramon G. Corrales shows us how Satir's work always assumed a 4-quadrant view of life. Wilber refers to the Four Domains of Life. These four separate, yet mutually interpenetrating quadrants are:
- Internal individual awareness describes what is going on inside the individual: a person's thoughts, feelings, intentions, etc.
- External individual behavior describes what is being manifested by the individual - a person's behavior and actions.
- Internal group culture describes what is happening inside the group or organization: their collective norms, values, belief systems, worldview, etc.
- External group structure describes the external life of the group or organization: the patterns of behavior and interaction, the institutional forms of the community.
Wilber suggests the importance of addressing all four quadrants towards achieving a higher level of functioning.
Corrales reminds us that Virginia's work always captured her moving from individual to group, from objective to subjective realms, while putting these actions in the context of culture and structure. In brief she paid attention to the four quadrants as a seamless process. At the same time she was always assessing clients and intervening to help them to a higher level of functioning.
Drawing from the work of Kathy Kolbe, he adds another important dimension to our understanding. Although many philosphers and psychologists have acknowledged the conative or striving part of the mind(Carl Jung and Jean Piaget) Kathy Kolbe was the first to develop an instrument to measure the conative mind. She identified four clusters of problem solving behaviors. Each of us has a mix of these ingredients in varied portions or strengths which give each of us a special and separate identification as unique as fingerprints. The major Action Modes reflecting specific striving instincts are as follows:
- Fact Finder: the instinct to probe drives us to gather information, seek specificity, define objectives, establish priorities, and develop strategies
- Follow Thru: the instinct to pattern drives us to structure, organize, seek order, design systems, establish procedures, work sequentially, and plan.
- Quick Start: the instinct to innovate drives us to initiate change, seek challenges, discover alternatives, originate options, and act on intuition.
- Implementor: the instinct to demonstrate in the physical world drives us to create tangible goods, develop prototypes, approach solutions with concrete expressions, handle transporting, and seek quality materials.
Reflecting on his personal knowledge of Virginia, and supported by reports from other close friends, Corrales suggests that a Kolbe assessment of Virginia would have evidenced a modest to low level of insistency in the areas of Fact Finding and Follow Thru. It is postulated that she would have ranked at a high level of insistency in the areas of Quick Start (innovator) and Implementor. From this Corrales suggests Satir's personal genius was a particular combination of an intuitive, hands-on generalist, and she was able to bring this enrgy to an adaptive approach to therapy. She utilized theory as expounded by other therapists from the schools of Intergenerational, Structural, and Strategic Family Therapy. She was not bound or constrained by any particular theoretical approach.
With these referents to the Kolbe System, Dr. Corrales makes breakthrough observations about Satir's core personality that encourages a richer understanding of her work.
PLEASE NOTE: We are currently revisiting the four live interviews featuring Virginia Satir, VT 101, 102, 103 and 104. We will replace the summary comments with new summations related to each interview. The effort will be directed to highlighting Virginia's interventions in each interview. We believe this material will enrich these videos that have been widely distributed to universities and social agencies. We will be offering these films for marked discounts to any agency or university that provides any evidence of previous purchase of these films. We hope to have these available in the Fall 0f 2002. You may get on a list for early delivery and further information by submitting your name and organizational address at this time.
FOR WHOM? These excellent films are intended for family therapists and family life educators, especially for the purpose of training professionals in each of these fields. Virginia Satir was one of those truly rare professionals whose work is at once therapeutic and enriching. Recommended therefore to psychologists, psychiatrists, family therapists, family educators, social workers, psychiatric nurses, drug and alcohol counselors and trainers/teachers in these professions.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION: All of the Satir Series of films are approximately sixty minutes in length. They were produced and edited with professional video producers and technicians. They are technically outstanding.
STUDY GUIDES:
A Study Guide comes with the rental or purchase of any of the Satir or Aponte films, and with any of the Five Theories of Family Therapy Series.
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