Systemic therapy looks at people not as isolated individuals, but as parts of various relationships and networks (romantic, familial, platonic, professional etc), and deals with the interactions and dynamics of these groups to improve the wellbeing of its members.
Taking the gaze of therapy away from the individual
Some forms of therapy try to explore the deeper, sometimes unconscious impulses and influences that affect our emotions, cognitions, behaviour and well-being. We might be invited to reexamine our past to understand how events and relationships from long ago might be affecting us now, in the present.
Not so with systemic therapy. This therapy isn’t concerned with whether there’s something ‘wrong’ with you, or your level of psychological health, and then labeling you with a ‘diagnosis’. Neither does it focus on you as an individual with a past, and with a set of feelings which you may be able to change. Instead, systemic therapy is concerned with the social ‘systems’ within which you live and work.
Families, groups, teams, hierarchies–in fact any context where social relationships are living and working–are the ‘systems’ of systemic therapy. Individuals within these systems relate to one another, and create a complex network with groups and sub-groups, all of which in turn relate to each other. These relationships produce certain patterns of behaviour, which the systemic therapist believes can be changed, by changing the way the system operates.
The Systemic Therapist
So a therapist might work with you individually, or with a group you are a part of, and together, you explore the relationships, the communications, and the patterns of behaviour happening right now, any of which may be restricting emotional growth in individuals or groups of individuals, limiting satisfaction or perhaps preventing progress and fulfilment.
With an individual–rather than a family or a group of people at work–the way a therapist might begin is to ask about ‘the problem’ the client brings to therapy. Then, the client might be asked how others view the same problem, and how others regard the relationships involved.
Systemic therapists do a lot of questioning, and they ask the client to imagine scenarios, and reactions, and to explore hypothetical situations. They are more active during sessions than some other therapists, in that they are likely to bring specific suggestions into the frame — and a great deal of ‘what ifs?’ might be proposed, using a variety of different times, contexts, and further hypothetical consequences.
The therapist’s aim is to ‘reframe’ the problem in some way, perhaps in several ways. The client is supported to see the problem in a different way, and to stop feeling trapped, or ‘frozen’ by it. It has shown good results in individuals with relationship difficulties, or those are experiencing problems with their family communications Zurich Prime.
The House Partnership, 4th November 2014
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Levni Yilmazis is an independent film-maker, artist and publisher. This is his ironic take on the less-than-helpful advice some people give when you're experiencing depression.
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It's popularly associated with peacefulness, calm, and stress reduction. But there's clear evidence that meditation also improves memory, increases awareness, empathy and compassion. These changes are revealed on brain scans.
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Video
Existential psychotherapist, Dr Irvin Yalom, discusses the importance of the client being treated as an equal by their therapist and of their working together. He suggests that self-revelation on the part of the therapist is also important.
Journalist Phillip Weiss, editor of Mondoweiss, discusses the pressures in modern marriage, especially to do with sex. And how most most studies show, in the US at least, that 25% of married men are unfaithful, and 15% of women.
Steve Hayes, the main force behind Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, is himself a panic attack sufferer in recovery. Panic responds very well to behavioural therapies such as CBT, especially when combined with mindfulness approaches.
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Elizabeth Gilbert-author of Eat, Pray, Love-talks about Schopenhauer's theory about intimacy and relationships and why people are like porcupines. Relationship counselling provides a safe space in which to work through difficulties together.
New psychology research has used brain scans, EEG, and measured antibody production, to reveal the biological processes that underlie the positive changes that people experience after practicing mindfulness meditation as part of psychological therapy.
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It has long been known that people's varying levels of emotionality lead to different responses in behaviour, but a group of psychologists in America have found an intriguing relationship between smile intensity in yearbook photos and subsequent marital harmony.
In a study that asked 515 people why they entered into sex with someone, 50% of women and 52% of men said that they hoped to trigger a longer relationship.
TV has been blamed for a range of problems in children and adolescents including poor body image and food issues. By studying a rural population in Fiji with only recent access to TV, and tracking attitudes to weight and shape, researchers have spotted the first signs of problem eating.
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Mindfulness, though it draws influence from ancient Buddhist tradition, is fast becoming an essential part of a range of non-religious psychological therapies and helping people with a wide variety of physical and emotional concerns.
In the current economic climate - when job security is at an all time low - many people are finding that their best course of action when ill is going to work anyway... but what are the costs not only to the economy, but more importantly to our wellbeing?
A man's problems with his wife keep him awake during a whole night. An animation about insomnia, by Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits, promoting the short story 'Night Thoughts' by Helen Simpson, for Granta magazine's issue on feminism.
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This powerful film by documentary filmmaker Martin Hampton introduces us to the lives of four people struggling with compulsive hoarding; each vignette more uncomfortable that the last.
Levni Yilmazis is an independent film-maker, artist and publisher. In this short animation he provides a wry how-to guide for breaking up . . . in 64 easy steps!
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Stress, at an appropriate level and duration, can be a positive influence in the workplace. However, when stressful influences are poorly managed, they can cause us to feel like we are 'treading water'. How can we use workplace pressure to our advantage?
Professor Mark Williams, co-developer of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, and research fellow at Oxford University, discusses the science behind why mindfulness works, in calming stress and preventing depression from recurring.
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This film by the charity OCD-UK offers insight into the problems that people with OCD face, and how they experience the condition. OCD responds very well to a combination of CBT cognitive behavioral and mindfulness therapies.
CBT has been consistently shown to aid recovery from OCD in over three quarters of people who undertake it by encouraging them to change the way they think through 'cognitive restructuring', and use this to change the way they behave through 'cognitive management'.
A short video from animator Kelly Bailey on what it's like to live with panic and agoraphobia, containing recorded testimony of real people who have struggled with and overcome these fears.
The focus of mindfulness-based therapy is upon recognising and accepting each moment in the present instead of jumping to hasty and often damaging reactions. This is proving to be greatly beneficial to improving our relationships with others.
Professor Paul Salkovskis, a clinical psychologist and director of the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma, discusses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. And Karen reveals how this form of therapy helped her overcome OCD.
Sleep brings a range of benefits to our minds, physical health, and well-being, and insomnia can be extremely disruptive to our lives and functioning. Insomnia and long term, chronic sleeplessness, can be extremely disruptive to our lives and functioning, so what can we do to tackle it?
Depression is three times more common following a heart attack: as many as one in three survivors qualify for a diagnosis of major depressive disorder. Research is beginning to reveal which parts of CBT Cognitive Behavioural Therapy CBT may be most helpful to these patients.
Cutural and religious rituals and many of the behaviours of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) show striking similarities: washing, checking, repetition... is OCD a manifestation of a deep human need that has spun out of control?
Kadam Morten Clausen, resident teacher at the Kadampa Meditation Centre in New York, discusses how stress is all about our perceptions of others and of the world. Mindfulness practices, as encouraged at The House Partnership, can help you find a path to a life free of stress.
Iain and Susan are struggling to work out why their sex life has ground to a halt. A short promotional film for the BBC animated documentary: Wonderland: The Trouble With Love and Sex.
Levni Yilmazis is an independent film-maker, artist and publisher. This is his ironic take on the less-than-helpful advice some people give when you're experiencing depression.
Though it has been proposed that food issues such as extreme dieting, anorexia and bulimia are on the rise and influenced by media pressures, analysis of texts about and by many of history's key figures suggests that these problems have been around for centuries.
A clip from the BBC's Weird Nature series showing how Vervet Monkeys in the Caribbean have taken to stealing cocktails from people on the beach. Studies show that they have the same percentage of teetotal and alcoholic individuals as the human population.