Deepening Understanding of Browning’s Strategy: Emergence of an Integrative Strategic Model for Family Therapy
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Abstract
Operationalization of strategic therapy remains something of a mystery. While numerous models utilize aspects of strategic therapy, or incorporate a few interventions that were articulated by the initial strategic thinkers, there is no single accepted version of strategic therapy.
Scott Browning was fortunate to be at the Kaiser Pleasanton Psychiatric Unit as an intern in 1985. Mental Research Institute (MRI) scholars, Dick Fisch and John Weakland, would come to the unit and participate in live supervision. This unit had the explicit mission of incorporating MRI treatment (possibly the purest strategic model) to the entire caseload of a large psychiatric practice.
Prior to working as an intern at Kaiser Pleasanton, Browning was a research therapist at the Redwood Center, where he was part of a Milan Systemic Therapy team. So, by the time Browning arrived at Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic for his post-doctoral fellowship, he was already steeped in two strategic models. While he enjoyed learning Structural Family Therapy at the clinic where it was created by Minuchin, he realized that he had already formed a very clear strategic approach to treatment.
This article is Hull’s1 extension of her article that began the process of elucidating Browning’s clinical approach with an emphasis on what makes his interventions strategic. At times in history, strategic therapy ventured too close to active manipulation with the use of directional paradox (see Browning et al.2), but that is not in the nature of the treatment itself. When therapists recognize that people are stuck and need a new perspective to move forward, strategic thinking is often at play.
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