Using Family Therapy Techniques in your Work

Abstract

Intrinsic to systemic work is the understanding that, as family members are intimately connected, focusing on these connections provides a more useful way of understanding and promoting change than focusing on individuals. While this chapter is not intended to ‘teach’ family therapy, the issues raised may provide useful pointers for all health professionals. Whether consulting to organisations, working with a family or an individual, systemic work focuses on both the immediate difficulties and the patterns of relationships that may have created and maintained those difficulties. As families and organisations are made up of individuals, work focuses on how individual differences are integrated and managed.