Experiential Family Therapy with Satir’s Family Communication Games:
Virginia Satir developed Family Communication Games. The Roles game involved the use of the “roles” Placater, Distracter, Blamer, and Computer. The Placater acts weak, always agrees, and tries to please others to avoid anger. The Blamer hides fear by acting dominant and blaming others. The super-reasonable Computer acts rigid and emotionally detached and intellectualizes everything. The irrelevant Distracter protects him/herself by distracting, changing the subject, and shifting the frame of reference. A congruent communicator is real, genuinely expressive, and responsible for sending straight messages in their appropriate context. Family members were assigned roles and asked to interact with each other. Satir rotated the roles, so each family member would experience different roles and gain insight regarding opposite roles or roles generally used by other family members.
Other games were based on four basic interaction “rules” in families. Rule