Collaborative Therapy Approach: Implications for Working With Afro-Caribbean Families Coping With Infidelity

Abstract

This article illustrates the use of collaborative language systems (CLS) therapy with an Afro-Caribbean family. This manuscript uses a case study to implement the collaborative processes of (1) inner and outer talk and being public, (2) mutual puzzling, (3) appropriately unusual comments, and (4) reflecting team with a mother-daughter dyad confronting their family's infidelity issues. Although collaborative therapy is not prescriptive, these four techniques allowed for the therapist to engage in CLS conversations with the mother and daughter to hear their story and honor their cultural context. The CLS conversations are dialogic processes that are a catalyst for transformation for client and therapist alike. The unique issues that arose while performing therapy with the family are explored to provide clinicians with recommendations for practice with this population while using this modality. For systemic therapists, immigrant families present theoretical and therapeutic challenges that demand a closer look (Falicov, 2005). One way to examine the unique cultural presentation of immigrant families is through the collaborative language system approach, also called collaborative therapy (Anderson, 1997; Anderson,