A family and systemic psychotherapist works with people in the context of their relationships rather than treating one person individually, based on the understanding that many difficulties sit in the patterns between people rather than being located inside any single family member. A child's behaviour, a couple's repeated arguments, or a family's response to a crisis are all approached as something happening between people rather than a fault located in one of them.
Sessions with more than one person present
Sessions usually involve more than one family member at a time, and part of the therapist's task is to open up conversations that have become impossible to have at home, while making sure that everyone present, children included, actually gets heard rather than talked over by louder or more articulate family members.
A slower pace, by design
Sessions in this approach tend to run longer and be spaced further apart than individual therapy, giving space for changes made in session to actually take effect in daily life before the family returns to discuss what happened. Training in this field is accredited by the Association for Family Therapy, reflecting a recognised standard for a specialism that requires managing several people's needs within a single piece of work at once.