The extended therapy room

Abstract

Family Care Foundation was created in 1987 as a reaction towards a system which far too often seems to forget it is real people involved, both those called clients and professional helpers. It is as if knowledge from ordinary life often is put aside when entering a professional context. Manuals and specific methods have increased steadily over the years as also psychiatric diagnosis and prescription of pharmaceuticals. It is argued here that regardless of whether we are called therapists, family homes or clients, we are affected by each other and the situations we find ourselves in. We bear with us our personal history while we are also part of a larger context. Those of us working as psychotherapists have a potential to contribute with knowledge regarding human beings and human life conditions. This paper describes and discusses some central themes found in practice and through research. In psychotherapy, as in life, there are moments and situations that can’t be proven or verbally explained, which perhaps can’t be completely understood. Our shared work in the Extended Therapy Room entails, as in life, moments of deepest fear as well as moments of wonderful joy.