A Philosophic Stance, Ethics and Therapy An Interview with Harlene Anderson

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Harlene Anderson is director of the Houston Galveston Institute. With her late colleague Harry Goolishian she challenged family therapy theory, proposing that as therapists we consider theoretical metaphors based on language and social constructionism, and in effect has moved family therapy in a new direction.The physical and conversational context of interview was the Lofoten Islands, 300 km inside the Arctic circle, Far Northern Norway on the night after Mid Summer's Night, 24th June 1993. Tom Andersen was the host for several days to a gathering called Constructed Realities; Therapy Theory and Research. The aim of the gathering was to explore the concept of Knowledge in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, teaching and social work. The focus was to provide a bridge between the ‘practical’ and the ‘theoretical’ discourses around knowledge and the creation of the knowledge. There were eight main issues around which the conversations revolved — 1) Knowledge: One or Many? 2) Multiple Realities and the Therapeutic Process 3) Human Understanding 4) Language and the Construction of Self 5) Research Alternatives 6) Qualitative Research in Clinical Work 7) Feminist Issues in Theory and Research 8) Power, Ethics and Practice. Harlene Andersen has written extensively on many of these subjects taking a constructivist position and was central to the numerous conversations. She was also one of the prime movers in putting together such a challenging and multi‐disciplinary conversation.In conjunction with Harry Goolishian, Harlene Andersen has proposed that what we call ‘problems' are created in language and are dissolved in language. Her interests are in the multiple realities that come to an intersection in a therapeutic conversation and how a therapist can engage with a client to open the possibility for the client to create and find some changes in his/her life. She takes the position that in order for a therapist to be helpful to his/her client, conversational space needs to be created that makes room for the exploration of the client's beliefs and realities. An essential element in this process of creating conversational space is the therapist taking a position of not knowing, of uncertainty, of exploring and making room for the client to talk about what is important for him/her to talk about and not for the therapist to lead from a position of knowing what is best for the client.Harlene Andersen is regarded as a leading theorist and clinician in the therapeutic community who is exploring the broad concept of therapy as a collaborative process at many levels. She is one of the major presenters at the forthcoming New Voices in Human Systems conference hosted by Lynn Hoffman in Northampton, Massachusetts in October 1994.