Papers by Athena Androutsopoulou
Psychosomatic Medicine, 2000
International Review of Psychiatry
Handbook of Systemic Approaches to Psychotherapy Manuals, 2021
Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts
The authors of this paper are among the increasing number of systemic therapists and supervisors ... more The authors of this paper are among the increasing number of systemic therapists and supervisors that have come to realize that humans organise their experiences by storytelling, and see therapy as a dialogue for forming coherent and meaningful narratives. Joining others in the field, the authors have additionally informed their work by findings from attachment and neuroscience research. The authors will here present the basic theoretical formulations of their enriched systemic perspective SANE-System Attachment Narrative Encephalon ® that guide training and supervision of mental health professionals at the Training and Research Institute for Systemic Psychotherapy, Athens, Greece. They will present some basic training guidelines which include: (i) stages and goals of the therapy process stated in parallel from four interrelated perspectives, (ii) a concise list of guiding questions for clinical practice that trainees learn to ask themselves, again phrased from a multiplicity of int...
New Trends in Psychobiography
Narrative Inquiry
This psychobiography study looks into one aspect of Frida Kahlo’s life, her relationship with Die... more This psychobiography study looks into one aspect of Frida Kahlo’s life, her relationship with Diego Rivera. It attempts to solve the puzzle of how Frida managed to reconcile her dedication to Diego, whose behavior was hurtful, with her rebellious character and ideology. Adopting a narrative/dialogical theoretical lens and employing the narrative inquiry method of languages of the unsayable that analyses narrative form, we examined her essay Portrait of Diego. We triangulated findings with letters, diary and paintings. We found that Frida used languages of the unsayable as narrative strategies to manage inner conflict and reconcile dedication with character and ideology. She kept voices of anger and resentment from gaining strength, and downplayed their emotional impact in favor of voices of devotion and despair. The findings point to the importance of looking into both the form and content of autobiographical narratives. Limitations and clinical implications of the study are discussed.
Journal of Systemic Therapies, 2005
Abstract This paper presents an example of clinical practice using a family-oriented approach whi... more Abstract This paper presents an example of clinical practice using a family-oriented approach which allows for a personal—but guided synthesis—of theoretical ideas, interventions, types of sessions (individual, family and group), and contracts (short and long). The approach is re-conceptualized in narrative terms. Therapy phases are marked by a process of collaboratively revising a central theme. All story types are seen as “nested” one within another, an idea which helps organize a vast amount of therapy material. The case presented provides an illustration of these ideas and follows the progress of a woman and her family who struggle to change a central theme from one that excludes loved ones to one which includes loved ones and many others. We conclude by summarizing key issues and pointing out how the approach helps make a distinction between drop-out and termination in the various phases of short and long term therapy.
Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 2011
In this article, dreams are seen as stories within a self-narrative. Dream stories, like all othe... more In this article, dreams are seen as stories within a self-narrative. Dream stories, like all other stories, are told in an effort to make sense of experiences. Here, dream content is linked to current concerns, some aspects of which are not given voice in waking. Dreams depict restricting themes but also openings in self-narratives. Several examples are provided of how dreams can be linked to early, middle, and late therapy phases associated with recognizing, challenging, revising, and maintaining a revising stance. It is further suggested that dream stories can be used to trace, facilitate, and evaluate the process of reconstructing selfnarratives. Finally, a number of therapeutic interventions are briefly presented to facilitate the work of narrative-informed family therapists working with individuals, families, and groups. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Father: Well-dreams are bits and pieces of the stuff of which we are made. .. Or something like it. Daughter: All right. But how are dreams put together? (Bateson, 2000, p. 50) Dreams in Systemic and Family Therapy Approaches Early in her therapy, a young woman dreamed that she was holding on to the rope of a red balloon together with a group of other people, each holding on to a separate rope. She enjoyed the whole experience, but was thinking that she could not hold on to her rope anymore and would be the first to fall into the sea underneath. She fell and all the ropes appeared around her body in knots. She was trying to free herself. The unknotted edges of the ropes could be seen reaching far to the horizon. Systemic and family therapy approaches have no theory of dreams and do not suggest their own ways of working with dream material. With the exception of psychoanalytic family therapists who apply dream analysis to couples and families (see Buchholz, 1990; Scharff, 1992), other therapists in the family therapy tradition unavoidably borrow ideas and techniques from various approaches. For instance, Feixas, Cunillera, and Mateu (1990) take the constructivist perspective of George Kelly as their theoretical background for the therapeutic use of dreams. Andrews, Clark, and Zinker (1988) use techniques from gestalt, and Sanders (1994) takes a pragmatic perspective that sees dream content in relation to family problems. Kaplan, Saayman, and Faber (1981) adopt a Jungian rationale for their empirical study associating the content of family dreams with the degree of functionality in families. In this article, dreams are seen as stories within a self-narrative aiming, like all stories of the kind, to organize and make sense of personal experiences (see also Knudson, Adame, & Finocan, 2006). This view offers a theoretical background to the use of dreams that is compatible with the narrative turn in the field of family therapy (see Hoffman, 2002).
Journal of Family Therapy, 2004
Promoting self-narrative coherence is seen in this paper as one of the key tasks in therapy. In o... more Promoting self-narrative coherence is seen in this paper as one of the key tasks in therapy. In our narrative study, we attempted to form specific coding criteria for assessing coherence based on the intelligibility of 'life stories'. Thirty clients ('graduates' and beginners) in family-oriented group therapy took part. We conducted an informal autobiographical interview and asked clients to write a self-description. Our qualitative analysis focused mainly on narrative form. We created a coding system of four coding criteria, 'acknowledging/explaining contradictions', 'thinking in a relational manner', 'acknowledging/responding to the needs of the audience', and 'being in touch with emotions'. The latter criterion was further explored and a secondary coding system developed for the emotional assessment of narratives. Two case studies are used as exemplars. The variations as to the degree of self-narrative incoherence are discussed. Proposals are made for using the four coding criteria as a 'subjective' assessment tool for monitoring therapy progress.
Journal of Family Therapy, 2001
Journal of Creativity in Mental Health
ABSTRACT The guided imagery therapy activity Inner Dialogue-Child Adult Meeting (ID-CAM) is desig... more ABSTRACT The guided imagery therapy activity Inner Dialogue-Child Adult Meeting (ID-CAM) is designed to monitor inner child and adult parts or voices, and the quality of dialogue between them in an imaginary meeting. Dialogical Self Theory constitutes its theoretical background. In analyzing the material generated from this activity, emphasis is placed in the various “meeting resolutions” (“dialogue outcomes”): connection, disconnection, and forced connection between child and adult self. Case examples illustrate steps and applications to help therapists and clients: (a) deal with impasses; (b) understand the depth of current difficulties; (c) rethink case information and possible unsaid trauma; and (d) assess therapy progress. Additional therapy applications are discussed in connection to Dialogical Self Theory. The activity can be used in individual, group, and couples therapy by therapists interested in dialogic perspectives.
The European Journal of Counselling Psychology
The way homeless persons construct their self-narratives and shape their identities has recently ... more The way homeless persons construct their self-narratives and shape their identities has recently become the subject of narrative studies in the western world. The present inquiry adopts the theoretical notion that narration is the means by which the self-constructs and re-constructs her identity. This construction is organised around life’s perceived “turning points”. Eight interviews with homeless adults living in Athens, Greece were conducted. The main question guiding the interviews was: “How did you get at the present point in your life?” We focused on their past, present and future, with emphasis on possible turning points. The interviews were combined with a story-line graph which participants believed to be representative of their unfolding lives. The narrative analysis indicated that experiences of homelessness were not marked as turning points per se. Rather, four emerging themes describe other important turning points: repeated loss, (dis)connection, new “home”, freedom. H...
Journal of Constructivist Psychology
VIRGINIA WOOLF’S “22 HYDE PARK GATE”: A NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF HER AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SPEECH ON FAMI... more VIRGINIA WOOLF’S “22 HYDE PARK GATE”: A NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF HER AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SPEECH ON FAMILY SEXUAL ABUSE. Androutsopoulou, A., Moschona, A., Nioti, N., Rozou, E, Vakondiou, M., Yfanti,K., Zisi, O. Training and Research Institute for Systemic Psychotherapy (logopsychis.gr) Background. Clients’ aware or unaware use of narrative strategies when revealing abuse in therapy has not received enough research attention. Presented here is a preliminary narrative analysis of one of Virginia Woolf (VW)’s autobiographical texts presented at the Bloomsbury Memoir Club, an audience with some similarities to a therapy group. Our research team (six trainee therapists and their course supervisor) were intrigued by the apparently abrupt and unexpected revelation of VW’s sexual maltreatment by her elder half-brother George Duckworth at the last paragraph of the speech. Aim. We wished to explore the narrative processes/strategies in V.W.’s autobiographical storytelling in revealing her abuse to ...
The authors of this paper are among the increasing number of systemic therapists and supervisors ... more The authors of this paper are among the increasing number of systemic therapists and supervisors that have come to realize that humans organise their experiences by storytelling, and see therapy as a dialogue for forming coherent and meaningful narratives. Joining others in the field, the authors have additionally informed their work by findings from attachment and neuroscience research. The authors will here present the basic theoretical formulations of their enriched systemic perspective SANE-System Attachment Narrative Encephalon ® that guide training and supervision of mental health professionals at the Training and Research Institute for Systemic Psychotherapy, Athens, Greece. They will present some basic training guidelines which include: (i) stages and goals of the therapy process stated in parallel from four interrelated perspectives, (ii) a concise list of guiding questions for clinical practice that trainees learn to ask themselves, again phrased from a multiplicity of int...
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Papers by Athena Androutsopoulou