Dr Leonie White
Clinical Family Therapist, Psychologist & Director Phoenix Family Therapy Academy
“Family therapy has always believed itself to be the most radical and innovative of the ‘mainstream’ psychotherapies. This is because, at its core, it asserts that all problems experienced by human beings have an interactional component.”
Rivett and Street, 2009
Systemic family therapy is a comprehensive, dynamic and versatile framework designed to understand the complexity of an individual’s experience, the importance of relationships, and the significance of the big picture of life to create a full, holistic understanding. This approach focuses on relationships and context, and how these elements inform meaning-making. Importantly, systemic family therapy is not confined by the number of participants in the session; it can be effectively utilized with individuals, couples, families, and groups. That’s because as a framework for practice it is a way of thinking and working with clients that prioritizes relational patterns and contextual influences, setting it apart from frameworks that focus solely on the individual in isolation.
Systemic Family Therapy is a framework for practice in the same way e.g., that Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Art Therapy or Psychodynamic Psychotherapy are frameworks for practice. Just to be really clear, this means that a Family Therapy approach is about how we think and work, not who is in the room, or how many people are in the room.
This addresses a common myth about Family Therapy – that the approach is only for families. Family Therapy is absolutely for families, and also it is an effective way of supporting clients that is much more broadly applicable. Family Therapy can assist:
Individuals
Couples
Families…including all types of families such as single parent families, step and blended families, foster and kinship families…and even young people living in residential care
Also this approach can be helpful with teams and stakeholder groups
And in providing Professional and Clinical supervision
Family Therapy involves a shift in focus from the individual in isolation. A great metaphor is to think of a helicopter. We are taking the helicopter up to see the big picture so that we can consider what is happing for the individual, and also within relationships and the broader context of a person’s life…and how relationships and context influence the way people and families make meaning of the things that happen to them in life and the things they might be seeking help with. And then we decide where to land the helicopter in order to support the client with their goals. That means a systemic perspective gives multiple options and maximum maneuverability in supporting the client in their hopes and goals for therapy. Why? More options means that if you get stuck you can take the helicopter up again and find somewhere else to land, with ‘landing’ referring to the type of therapy intervention might be most helpful and acceptable to the person, couple or family … based on your holistic perspective.
So what are the broader contextual considerations that a Family Therapist might be interested in? Think of it this way: A person belongs to ever widening circles of “context” including:
Family
Work, and hobbies,
Extracurricular activities e.g., sport, music, clubs
Friends
Community
Religion, spirituality
And even more broadly, or if you like, the bigger circles that spread out from a person, considerations of gender, socioeconomic status, culture and the era in time a person has grown up in – some people refer to the era in time as a person’s cohort.
You might be getting the idea by now that family therapy is a bit of a misnomer and that perhaps another term is better suited, e.g., systemic psychotherapy. Family Therapy implies for a lot of people that this approach is just for families. It is absolutely for families, but also as a framework for practice, it is so much more widely applicable. In terms of what you call family therapy, it depends on where in the world you were as Family Therapy evolved and where the books, and articles you read come from. You might see and/or use different terms like Family Therapy, Systemic Psychotherapy, Systemic Family Therapy, Marital and Family Therapy….I prefer the term Systemic Family Therapy because of the focus on Systemic Thinking as a framework.
What exactly is this framework? Systemic Thinking & Systems Theory
Systems thinking is “…not a single theoretical approach … [it is] an epistemological umbrella, including … engineering, physical and biological systems and larger social systems.”
Stanton and Walsh, 2012.
Systems Theory started to develop around the 1940s and was a revolution in thinking that placed a spotlight on social context and interaction in order to understand human behaviour – especially in couple and family dynamics. This was a major shift from the dominant approaches at the time.
Systems Theory is an exciting combination of ideas from diverse fields that might not typically be associated with Helping Professions, and also ideas now taken for granted in Helping Professions.
This way of thinking considers:
Wholeness
Organisation – boundaries, hierarchy, relationships
Information and energy, including communication
And Stability and Change
Systems Theory is not so much translatable into specific counselling techniques, but rather a way of thinking about a system based on a set of very helpful concepts. With its roots in biological and physical sciences, and an eye towards interaction in understanding human behaviour Systems Theory provides a structure to identify and understand structures and patterns, and act as a guide for interventions to support change in therapy.
This view doesn’t mean that the individual experience is not important – it is very important. And also, a person’s relationships and context, and how they make meaning of the things that happen in life are very important too, and sometimes this is where the maneuverability, or ‘wiggle room’, to support positive change and growth is found.
Systems Theory: Three Theoretical Foundations of Systemic Family Therapy
Cybernetics: Cybernetics emphasizes feedback loops and self-regulation within systems. In systemic family therapy, therapists observe how family members influence each other’s behaviours through communication patterns and feedback mechanisms. By identifying positive and negative feedback loops, therapists can intervene to alter unhelpful, problem maintaining interaction patterns, promoting healthier communication and functioning within the family system.
General Systems Theory (GST): This theory underscores the interconnectedness and interdependence of family members, suggesting that changes in one part of the system reverberate throughout the entire family and affect the whole. In systemic family therapy, GST informs the understanding that symptoms in one family member are often indicators of broader systemic issues. GST also encourages viewing the family within larger systems, such as social, economic, and cultural contexts, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the family dynamics.
Social Constructionism: Social constructionism highlights the role of language, culture, and shared meanings in shaping reality. In systemic family therapy, this perspective encourages therapists to explore how family narratives and societal discourses impact family dynamics and individual identities. By helping families reauthor their stories and co-construct new, more empowering narratives, therapists can facilitate significant change. Social constructionism also emphasizes the therapist’s role as a collaborator in the therapeutic process, co-creating new meanings and solutions with the family.
The Evolution of Family Therapy
In the early days Family Therapists were very interested in behavioural patterns, communication and the structure of family systems. We call these approaches the ‘first generation’, and they include Strategic Family Therapy, Structural Family Therapy, Bowen Family Systems and Milan Systemic Therapy.
As time passed Family Therapy was influenced by changes in the world, leading to the ‘second generation’ approaches, including Solution Focused Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Post-Milan Systemic Therapy, and Conversational approaches.
And currently we are in what some people describe as a ‘third generation’ with Evidence Based Practice including models, Integrative Practice, the inclusion of ideas from neuroscience, and application of Family Therapy ideas to specific issues such as Trauma.
If you are getting curious about what was happing in the world that influenced the development of Family Therapy from the first to second generation you might be interested to think of the 1970s to 1980s as a period of time that has been described as the ‘winds of change’.
Feminism helped Family Therapy consider gender and power
Post modern thinking and a social constructionist perspective helped Family Therapy move beyond behavioural patterns to consider meaning making
And both of these approaches highlighted collaborative practice
Family Therapy definition…defining characteristics
Based on the roots of family therapy and its evolution, you might say the foundations of a contemporary systemic family therapy approach are:
Cybernetics: considers the family as an information processing machine
General systems theory: considers the family as a natural system
Social constructionism: views the family as a meaning-making system.
Together these foundations highlight what defines systemic family therapy as a framework for practice and based on this today we would say that the defining parameters of Family Therapy are context, relationships and meaning making.
It’s also important to note that this means a systemic family therapy approach highlights key considerations of:
Interaction
Interrelatedness
Reciprocal influences
..as occurring within and influenced by the broader context
Another key defining characteristic of Family Therapy is the appreciate of the client’s:
Perspectives on problems
Resources, competencies and strengths
Preferred solutions
Each school of family therapy might differ in the specific application of Systems Therapy, but all accept the family as a system, and all have their roots in systems theory.
It’s also important to note that this approach is inherently non-pathologizing in the holistic consideration of people. We all face the challenge of being human and being in relationships.
“One of the contributions of family therapy was to define human problems as
human problems and not psychopathology. As an example with Minuchin, when he
dealt with an anorectic girl, and some residents said that they were collecting cases of anorexia nervosa and they would have liked to have known about this case,
Minuchin said this is not a case of anorexia nervosa this is a girl who won’t eat.
Now that’s the distinction between purist family therapy and traditional psychopathology. You don’t categorize psychopathology, you categorize human dilemmas as they occur in life and as you are trying to resolve them in practice.”
Jay Haley
Contemporary Practice in Systemic Family Therapy
Today, in our “third generation” of family therapy, integrative psychotherapeutic practice is considered the dominant trend. And it is a necessary trend as human beings are complex including the multiple dimensions of thoughts, feelings, neurobiology, actions, gender, relationships, community, culture, social contexts, and era in time.
This means that you can think about Systemic Family Therapy as a smorgasbord of ideas and ways of helping others from the first, second and third generation that all rest on a table of ‘Systems Theory’, and you can develop an individualised ‘plate’ from the smorgasbord for each person or family you are working with. You might even want to add something to the plate from another different therapy framework.
Systemic family therapy offers a robust framework for understanding and addressing the complexities of humans and their relationships. By integrating insights from cybernetics, general systems theory, and social constructionism, this approach provides a comprehensive view that transcends individual-focused therapies. The ability to adopt a helicopter view and consider the client in their broader context ensures that interventions are deeply relevant and impactful. As therapists, embracing the systemic perspective can enhance our practice and lead to more meaningful and lasting changes for our clients.
Leonie
Please note that this article is educational in nature and does not constitute professional advice.
Photo Attributions: Vecteezy Pro
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