FIXED ROLE IN A FISHBOWL: CONSULTATION-BASED FIXED ROLE THERAPY AS A PEDAGOGICAL TECHNIQUE
Title:
FIXED ROLE IN A FISHBOWL: CONSULTATION-BASED FIXED ROLE THERAPY AS A PEDAGOGICAL TECHNIQUE
Author:
Neimeyer, Robert A. Ray, Laura Hardison, Heather Raina, Karina Kelley, Rebecca Krantz, Janet
Appeared in:
Journal of constructivist psychology
Paging:
Volume 16 (2003) nr. 3 pages 249-271
Year:
2003-07
Contents:
Since Kelly's pioneering work on Fixed Role Therapy (FRT) in the late 1930s, this novel method for fostering experimentation with and performance of alternative identities has been adapted for use in a number of clinical contexts, as well as some pedagogical applications. Our intent was to blend these contexts by developing a fixed role enactment as a collective class exercise in a graduate seminar on personal construct psychology. This article details the procedures and safeguards by which the self-characterization of a class volunteer was written and analyzed by parallel consultation teams comprised of class members, who then drafted and negotiated an alternative role for the volunteer to enact over a two-week period. It further specifies the role of the volunteer herself and the course instructor as consultants to these teams, and describes the outcomes of the collective experiment viewed through the written reflections of multiple participants. The result was a moving, innovative, respectful, and often surprising process of experiential learning for the entire class, bringing to life many of the principles that animate constructivist therapy.