The perils behind the post-modern approach
I did not really know about the post-modern approach to therapy until I came to the United States. I did not know that this theory existed. I was trained as a Systemic Therapist in Spain and that was modern for me coming from a Behavioral and Psychoanalytic approach. I came to Houston, Texas for personal reasons. I started the university to get my credentials and there in classes, I discovered that I was in the mecca of the post-modern approach.
It took me time to get into the postmodern ideas and becoming instead of just practicing in the therapy room.
I got intoxicated by these ideas. Make complete sense to me. The same way that the systemic theories caught me in 5 minutes about the relational aspect. These postmodern ideas caught me around the humility of the therapist and the respect for the client. I found myself in the perfect combination of systemic and theoretical knowledge, and relational and practical knowledge. It was not easy to integrate those. It took me time to get into the postmodern ideas and becoming instead of just practicing in the therapy room.
They share ideas, they provide me with books, they give me training, and they made me reflect on my own ideas. Every day was a unique experience. At the same time, I was learning, I was seeing others learning, I was seeing others practicing the ideas, I was seeing others saying that they were practicing the ideas and I started seeing the perils.
If any therapeutic approach required an ethical framework, I found that some ideas of the post-modern approach require a really personal commitment to ethics.
Do what the situation call? I got the sense behind this idea. The idea is that you prepare yourself without making a specific plan. The idea is that you stay aware of the situation’s uniqueness. The idea is that you leave space for flexibility. The idea is that you respect others. The problem appears when you forget the reason behind this idea and you start practicing “the expression” as an excuse to change everything without taking into consideration how your decisions affect others, and how your flexibility could be not respectful to others’ approach.