Lyngaard, H. & Baum, S. (2006) So how do I …? In: S. Baum & H. Lyngaard (eds.) Intellectual Disabilities: A Systemic Approach. London: Karnac. Mason, B. (2005) Relational risk taking and the training of supervisors. Journal of Family Therapy, 27: 298-302. McIntosh, P. (1998) White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. In: M. McGoldrick (ed.) Re-visioning Family Therapy. Race, Culture and Gender in Clinical Practice. New York: Guidford Press. McKenzie, R. & Dallos, R. (2016) “I just like Lego!” Self-autism mapping as a non-totalising approach. Context, 144: 21-23. Ncazelo Ncube-Mlilo (2013) Narratives in the suitcase, Dulwich Centre Friday afternoon Video archive. Partridge, K. (2010) A bundle of treasures for a wandering therapist: An exploration of personal and professional resources to sustain a therapist on a systemic journey. Context, 112: 26-29. Pearce, W. B. & Cronen, V.E. (1980) Communication, Action, and Meaning. New York: Praeger. Shotter, J. & Gergen, K.J. (eds.) (1989) Texts of Identity. London, Sage. Simon, G. (2016) Editorial: Systemic practice and autism. Context, 144: 1-3. Webb, N. & Fredman, G. (2018) An appreciative approach to consultation. Bringing forth the best in people. In: G. Fredman, A. Papadopoulou & E. Worwood (eds.) Collaborative Consultation in Mental Health: Guidelines for the New Consultant. Abingdon: Routledge. Wilson, J. (1998) Child-Focused Practice. London: Karnac.
Groups in family
therapy Ged Smith and Richard Curtis
T is interview was fi rst published in T e Gannet, the bi-annual newslet er of Group Analysis North, in January 2020, and is reproduced here with their kind permission. Here Richard Curtis, group analyst, is in discussion with Ged Smith, a family therapist with more than 25 years of experience, about what excites him about his work and ways in which family therapy and group analysis overlap and complement one another.
Rachel is a clinical psychologist and systemic psychotherapist who works in the NHS in a CAMHS disability team. She has recently completed training in systemic supervision.
Richard: Has family therapy seen a development in how it thinks about interacting with family groups? Ged: The changes in family therapy have been massive and profound, almost worthy of being called a revolution, in both theory and practice, which of course shape each other. The change has been mostly in terms of power, and the position of the therapist, which has changed from a position of expert who ‘knows what’s needed’ and gathers enough information in order to deliver therapy to the family, tells them what is wrong and what they need to do. The post-modern ‘power revolution’ concerned with therapy becoming a much more collaborative venture with families and co-constructing ways of working and moving forward together. Richard: Co-constructing…? Ged: Yeah, ways forward together, rather than us [family therapists] having the answers, which is the beauty of family therapy, really, because we don’t need the answers. The biggest, most important thing that happens is that people hear from each other, and that is what makes all the diff erence! So we don’t synthesise it or summarise it or condense the conversation or do anything else with it. We just ask questions based on ‘What do you think about what you have heard today? What diff erence will it make to your life? What impact will it have on your life and your relationships and on the problem you’re here seeking help for?’ So, yeah, in a word, it is ‘power’ – which means a much more collaborative way of working with people. So yes, massive shifts for family therapy over the past 30 years. Richard: Foulkes said that the individual is an abstraction, and could only be considered in the context of the groups that the individual comes from or relates
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to. Does that seem familiar to a family therapist? Ged: Yeah, it’s absolutely fundamental to systemic theory, so much so that we almost disregard symptoms. When a person who has presented with a personality disorder, or eating disorder, or ADHD, or depression, or anything – we would be far less interested in that, and consider the person as a bearer of the symptom, on behalf of or a refl ection of the family or other systems s/he belongs to. So, by exploring the family dynamics, one can realise how someone is in distress and needs to communicate that distress. People don’t usually say ‘I am in distress. Can you help me? Can you be nicer to me? Can you stop abusing me?’ or whatever. People more typically act out their distress and communicate that distress by smashing things up or going missing, or becoming depressed, or becoming ill, or displaying the so-called ‘problematic’ symptom, that which is problematic for the system. The client is not the individual, the client
is the family, even though there will be a referred person and sometimes a so-called ‘identifi ed patient’, but once we meet them, we wouldn’t be focused on that person or patient any more or less than we would be on the other people. Richard: Group analysis takes particular interest in the location of ‘the problem’, and looks at the diffi culties of the individual as better understood as refl ecting disturbances in the network of relationships in the individual’s private life or in the psychotherapy group itself. Ged: ‘Locate’ – that’s a good word, because we wouldn’t locate the problem in the individual either. A bit like the idea of the ‘symptom’ I mentioned earlier – we wouldn’t see that at all, we would think, “What is going on in your life that makes you need to have these symptoms? What
Context 170, August 2020
Groups in family therapy
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