Imaginary Team Members: A Couples Counseling Perspective

Abstract

The postmodern counseling literature contains numerous interventions that may help to create a neutral place for client reflection. Andersen suggested the use of “reflecting teams” for helping clients become more reflective in their thinking. A reflecting team is made up of individuals (usually other counselors) who observe and reflect on the therapeutic process that they are witnessing. Clients, in turn, then discuss their reflections of the reflecting team’s conversation. According to Freedman and Combs, an extension of the reflecting teams technique may include persons not actually present in the counseling session. Later, these team members may be invited to future sessions, and eventually the couple may be instructed to use this exercise at home to help them create alternative meanings and behaviors. In this article, the authors present a technique loosely based on the reflective team approach for use with couples.