Student Therapists Grapple with Modern and Postmodern Ideas: One Program’s Approach to Training

Abstract

Postmodern ideas have significantly challenged and expanded the marriage and family therapy field. Students in many training programs must grapple with models and training experiences influenced by both postmodern and modern orientations. The authors describe a particular program’s training process and focus on the ways past students reflect on their professional development guided by the postmodernist-based perspective of Narrative Therapy and the modernist-based perspective of Bowen Family Systems Theory, two of the models emphasized by this program. The authors propose that these divergent philosophical orientations can interact together to support meaningful development in trainees’ experiences.