Sibling Therapy: Hidden Resource for Family Therapists - 2024 Conference

Session Description

Family therapists may see the entire nuclear family, a subset of the family, or even one individual. Regardless who is in the office, when working from a systemic perspective, it is crucial to see the larger picture. Yet a larger picture often overlooked in helping your clients is the adult siblings – even when they are not in the room.

Why talk about siblings when you are not working with them? Because your clients’ early childhood experiences, their first peer love relationships, are often where they learn or don’t learn skills for dealing in adulthood with lovers, co-workers, friends.

This workshop will help participants understand how the early childhood relationship can be considered a laboratory, or “first marriage,” for adult love relationships. Then, through the process of “sibling transference,” your clients may recreate their early relationships -- falling back on what is familiar, from their first marriage. By…