Creative maps for training systemic psychotherapists

Abstract

In this study psychotherapy training is described from a new epistemological perspective. This perspective, based upon new science and physics and Batesonian evolution, embodies elements of holism, reciprocity, circularity and a both/and view of the universe. From a new epistemological perspective understandings of psychotherapy training are constructed, not discovered. By precluding the notion of absolute truth, an infinite variety of alternative constructions of training becomes possible. The conceptual map constructed in this study incorporates a process model for the training of systemic psychotherapists. In terms of this model, training should be a context where various orders of learning are encountered by student and trainer. In particular, the trainees must learn how to differentiate from each other and how to separate from the trainer. Three evolutionary stages of training are identified to describe how an emancipatory learning context may be created. It is suggested that training may never be concluded.