Satir family therapy assumes that all people have the potential for positive growth through their relationships and interactions. The therapist views the client as the expert and aims to disrupt the status quo by introducing foreign elements to initiate change. Through normalizing feelings and examining family rules, new possibilities for growth and improved relationships can emerge as unexpected changes are practiced and new understandings develop, leading to a new status quo with equal capacity for all family members to thrive.

1. Satir Family Therapy

2. Assumptions
-Tend toward positive growth - actualize one’s potential, pain symbolizes the
need for growth
-All people have what it takes to achieve positive growth
-Everything is connected - Gregory Bateson; reciprocity; growth is the result of
relationships and interactions
-Client as the expert - each person responsible for themselves; all relationships
are equal

3. Parent Parent
Child
Child

4. Body, Mind, Feelings
The second Triad

5. Communication

6. Self-Worth

7. Survival Stances

8. Placater
Blamer
Superreasonable
Irrelevant
Congruence

9. Goals of Therapy

10. Assessment

11. Therapeutic Structure

12. Status Quo
• A family with one acting out member
• How do family members maintain the status
quo?

13. Intro of Foreign Elements
• Tragedy, crisis, off-balance system
• You disrupt the status-quo

14. Chaos
• Things feel uncomfortable - change is initiated -
what do we do?
• Therapist over functions; normalizes feelings;
examines FOO, family rules (games)

15. New Possibilities
• Interprets change in a way that makes sense to
the family/couple/individual
• Dormant resources (hidden empathies - mom
plays the role of “observer”) What change is
possible?

16. Practice
• Can each person grow? Are symptoms
improving?
• Unexpected
• Implementing new changes and practicing
those changes; enactments; how has awareness
changed?

17. New Status Quo
• No symptomatic member - all have the same
capacity to grow and thrive.

18. Iceberg

19. Worth and Esteem
• Esteem can be artificially high
• Self-Compassion: acceptance of limitations and
value
• esteem: perception of qualities/characteristics
• worth: perception of inherent value

21. Ingredients of an Interaction
• Facts
• Meanings
• Feelings
• Feelings of feelings
• Defenses
• FOO Rules or Beliefs/Myths
• Reactions/Responses

22. Satir Video