Systemic and Group Therapies

Question 1

Concepts in systemic therapy

Answer 1

Think about how the problems serve as a function to stabilise the family system
Problems apparently located in an individual can be seen as a product of dynamics in the family
Circular causality
Triangulation
Transgenerational processes

Question 2

How systemic therapy works

Answer 2

Team of therapists, several different models underpinned by different theoretical perspectives
Therapists reflect, share ideas and observations
Approach - solution-orientated; reframing; positive connotation; enactment; circular questioning

Question 3

The Northfield Experiments

Answer 3

Set up in 1942 in Birmingham for ‘military psychiatric casualties’
Run by psychoanalysts Bion and later, Foulkes
“Basic assumptions” vs “work-group mentality”
Discussion groups where the task of the group was to “study its own internal tensions” that stood in the way of the individuals performing their military duties
Deal with issues of everyday life in a social setting

Question 4

Therapeutic Communities

Answer 4

A group-based approach for people with complex needs
The environment and group brings about change
Residential or day facilities
Structured programme of activities
Principles (Rapaport, 1960)
- Democratisation
- Communalism
- Permissiveness
- Reality confrontation