A Mini Ethnography of the Family Therapy of Adolescent Drug Abuse:

The reciprocal exchange of information between a therapist and his or her client(s) is considered a key component of systemic therapy. Yet, while feedback is often considered part of the practice of therapy as it happens "in the room," the generation of feedback from clients using a structured research methodology has virtually been ignored. This paper describes client's perceptions of the family therapy experience which emerged from interviews conducted and analyzed using an ehnographic interview methodology. Four primary domains or categories of meaning, emerged from the interviews which are discussed as important areas of feedback for therapists. These include (1) "expectations of therapy," (2) "types of psychos and shrinks," (3) the setting, and (4) individual versus family therapy. These domains highlight areas of interaction between clients and therapists where the potential for unvoiced misunderstanding appears to be high. The presentation of this study is discussed in terms of postmodern anthropology and radical constructivism. These two schools of thought consider the "realities" of the world as more imagined than real. The objective scientist creates or constructs theories out of his fertile imagination only to confuse his-her process of creation with discovery.