Introducing medical students to family therapy using simulated family interviews

Small groups of medical students are introduced to the subject of family therapy using a technique involving the simulation of family interviews. The students are called upon to enact a situation in which family members visit their general practitioner with a problem relating to one of the children, and the diffusion of this problem within the family is traced during the course of the simulation. Discussion is focused on the feelings evoked by the simulation, the psychodynamics of the simulated family and the quality of the relationship between the general practitioner and the family as it arises out of the interview. An effort is made to help the students to get in touch with some of their feelings towards disturbed families and to mobilize these feelings towards the effective management of the family's problems. By role playing the general practitioner, students can prepare themselves for their future professional roles in a situation which allows for feedback from colleagues and experimentation. At the same time, when family members are role-played, the process of identification and empathy with patients is enhanced. The technique is potentially stressful because of the unusual demands that it makes upon the students in terms of personal involvement, but the experience derived from successive groups of students over a 2 year period has been consistently rewarding, and most students have expressed an enthusiastic interest in the exercise.