Frank Farrelly Provocative Therapy

[Desiderato Chouinard]

Farrellyholds a master's degree in Social Work from The Catholic University Of America and is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers. For many years he was a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Social Work and an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.[citation needed] As a social worker in the 1960s he developed his "provocative" theory,[5][6] Provocative Therapy is a system of psychotherapy in which - having established a foundation of compassion, and with the client's permission - the therapist plays the devil's advocate. They will side with the negative half of the client's ambivalence toward his life's goals, his relationships, work, and the structures within which he lives. Client examples include working with obese patients with their weight and eating habits.[7] His methods, though controversial, have attracted worldwide attention.[8] In 2013 Frank Farrelly's son Tim Farrelly passed with Frank's instruction the Frank Farrelly archive to Nick Kemp who continues to promote Farrelly's classic Provocative Therapy as well as his own Provocative Change Works approach in the US, Asia and Europe.

See Frank Farrelly at his provocative best in these video recordings of the live Provocative Therapy Workshop in Perth Western Australia in 1999. There are theoretical presentations, demonstration "therapy" sessions with workshop participants, group discussions and exercises.

Expect to add powerful new options to your therapeutic/coaching repertoire, and learn some elegant skills for working with clients. And to laugh heartily, as you learn, in the comfort of your own home, from one of the world's most brilliant therapists.

Provocative Therapy is an unconventional therapeutic system developed by Frank Farrelly from his experiences in working with severely disturbed clients. This approach utilises the client's own self-defeating experiences in the service of change, deftly provoking the client to push through self-defeating patterns towards new options and growth experiences.

Frank Farrelly (1931 - 2013) is internationally recognised as a profoundly gifted therapist, who presented his unique style of therapy throughout the world, and co-authored the book Provocative Therapy with Jeff Brandsma. His expertise in working with severely disturbed clients makes him an especially interesting and important teacher. Frank held a Master's Degree in Social Work and for years was a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Social Work and an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

These are the original recordings from the Perth 1999 workshop, recorded onto videotape and now converted to digital format. They are "warts and all" and unedited as we didn't want any degradation in quality. The sound and vision is fine, it's not high definition, which wasn't available back then, but the sessions are surprisingly good quality. What they show is a master therapist in his prime and there is so much learning - and laughing - to be had from viewing these recordings.

"Gold, all gold! This is a great opportunity to see a Master in his prime at work - though I'm not sure one would call it work to watch these recordings. Suspend your 21st Century eyes of electronic judgment (yes, there are one or 2 technical glitches) and enter this workshop as though a participant.

This was my first time experiencing the work of Frank Farrelly, the originator of Provocative Therapy, and I was fascinated and very soon drawn into his world of acute perception, depth, warmth and laughter. Again and again the client (each a willing 'victim') has their fantasies deconstructed by Frank, only to then find an alternative way forward that could be infinitely less limiting and stressful. They are ok to be themselves, and Frank holds them safely whilst their world is unmade then remade.

"His core of lovingness is easily apparent and available... He is also a wizard at destroying the meta-communication bacterium 'why". A body free of this bug may never be the same again. You've read Groddeck, Eichorn, Redl, Laing, Kopp... Read Farrelly!" - Carl A Whitaker, MD

"...your demonstrations of therapy... were really great. I liked your style enormously. All of your expressions of yourself while here were a kind of enlarging and expanding experience, combined with a total buoyancy we all need. Meeting you was the best therapeutic experience I've had in a long time." - O. Spurgeon English, MD

"Frank Farrelly must be thought of with respect (perhaps even delight?) by his clients who have so far played the game of therapy with their therapists, but, I am afraid, also a shocking example for those therapists who, in Laing's words 'are playing at not playing a game'." - Paul Watzlawick, Ph.D. Mental Research Institute

"Those therapists recognized as being genius in their stature certainly display wide variability in their behaviour. Especially useful examples of the range of Milton Erickson's behaviour can be found in Haley's Uncommon Therapy and Advanced Techniques of Hypnotherapy... no less effective is Frank Farrelly whose unique style is presented in his book Provocative Therapy." - Leslie Cameron-Bandler

This Provocative Therapy workshop was designed as a professional teaching, learning, training and supervision tool for Therapists, Counsellors and Coaches and is not to be used for any other purpose. It is not for general viewing nor to be shared nor copied.

Warning: Adult themes. You must have a working sense of humour, and be unconcerned with political incorrect language since Provocative Therapy deliberately plays with stereotypes to promote new ways of thinking and feeling.

The provocative coach represents and mirrors back to the client their own unhelpful behaviours, distorted thinking and repeating patterns to such an extent that the client will eventually disagree with and challenge their own self-limiting beliefs as manifested in the behaviour of the provocative coach.

There tends to come a point in the session when the client will react or resist the provocation and at this point, the session often moves towards consolidation and the integration of new behaviours. When Kim Morgan, Managing Director of Barefoot Coaching, was a client in a provocative therapy session, it was at this point that the coach ceased deploying provocative techniques and began providing personal affirmation, which Kim found a valuable and safe closure to the session.

Originally developed in 1963 by Frank Farrelly while working with chronic schizophrenics, the techniques used in Provocative Therapy, with its sensory rich language, are applicable to the full range of client issues, groups and family work .

He took part in therapy listening sessions where client interviews were taped and presented for discussion in weekly meetings with colleagues. In 1963 he began to develop Provocative Therapy. He found that by confronting his own feelings in response to a client, and using counter transference as a tool, he could build trust very effectively and rapidly. The level of honesty, self awareness and flexibility required of the provocative therapist in an interview may be quite challenging for an aspiring provocative therapist to achieve, and supervision is required during this process.

Provocative Therapy shares many of the existential-humanistic theories, in that it assumes that people can change at any point in their lives, and that choices people make impact on others and society. Additionally it embraces post-modern beliefs in the importance of understanding the nature of communication and language, and that solutions can be found relatively quickly. Given these theoretical underpinnings, 12 assumptions that drive the theory include

Most of the major concepts are incorporated in the twelve assumptions and the techniques listed that follow. In general, the approach tends to focus on demonstrating acceptance of the client non-verbally, and producing change in the client with appropriate provocation and humor.

The therapist talks to the client as if they are talking to an old friend, with a twinkle in the eye and affection in the heart, putting aside their professional dignity on behalf of the client. In addition the therapist uses the language of the client, in the present, and avoids professional jargon.

Using sensory rich, varied language, with metaphors and story-telling, verbal and non verbal responses, the therapist gets the attention of the client, and conveys their reactions effectively to, and on behalf of, the client, demonstrating their acceptance of the client non verbally.

Beschrijving: 2000; Essentials of Provocative Therapy. The Farrelly Factors are 39 behaviors, strategic patterns and mental activities that Frank Farrelly, the founder of Provocative Therapy, uses when working with a client. A systematic analysis of his work.

The Farrelly Factors are 39 behaviors, strategic patterns and mental activities used by Frank Farrelly, the founder of Provocative Therapy, when he is working with a client. The factors differ greatly in terms of their level of abstraction and their importance in therapy, but they have one thing in common: they are all practical, i.e. they all describe things one can actually do (behaviorally, emotionally and cognitively) in provocative therapy. Although this list is not exhaustive, together the factors provide a detailed description of the therapist side of the provocative interaction.

Get into an emotional state in which you are very sensitive to the funny, the absurd, the incongruent, the ridiculous in what the client says and does.

Frank likens this to that state in puberty where you are giggling with friends about just everything.

Internally see a ring (like a semicircle) of large screened colored television sets (depicting the client, his life, his work and his relationships). Pay attention to the one with the brightest colors and/or the loudest sound (or the one you find most interesting, like funny or embarrassing situations with important others). At the same time you are looking at the client from the corner of your eye, scanning and monitoring his reactions. Occasionally walk into one of the sets. Describe what you see and hear and feel (and smell).

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