Page 38 - March April 2017 FTM

PERSPECTIVES
From Bipolar to Whypolar:
Applying systems-oriented therapy to treating bipolar disorder
Alev Ates-Barlas, MS
Working in a field in which so many phenomena may be prone to relative interpretations as they relate to human emotions and behavior, a therapist may find comfort in looking for solid grounds for a treatment. As a family therapist, even though I am mostly informed by less behavioral
and more experiential theories, I admit to the desire to find concrete maps to recovery. I take comfort in being an integrative family therapist who is willing to learn from multiple approaches. Nevertheless, there have been certain cases in which I have felt the ground beneath me shifting, and one constant in these cases is the diagnosis of bipolar. The existing literature on bipolar has so far been discouraging for me as a family therapist attempting to formulate a more systemic intervention for this disorder. Profoundly coddled by psychopharmacology, bipolar is viewed more on the level of a person’s biological rather than psychosocial system, with family therapy interventions seemingly sidelined as accessorial. Within historical context, we can see why this is so. But is there no room today for more inclusion of a systemic point of view? I will begin with a review of the literature that adds some context to my argument, and to my professional struggle with the bipolar diagnosis and its associated treatment methods.
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