Systemic therapy is a form of psychotherapy focused on “relationships between people within their social system.” A system can be a partnership, family, school, or even a company. Through a system analysis, a therapist offers new insights into why interaction patterns among members of the system become strained or lead to conflict. When one member of a system has a problem, it inevitably affects the other members, who must find a way to respond appropriately to resolve the issue. If this fails, the system either stagnates or escalates into open conflict. In such cases, a systemic therapist facilitates change through effective Systemic interventions, allowing the system to evolve and reach a new equilibrium. The power of Systemic therapy lies in its focus on change at the system level, rather than through individual treatment alone. A key advantage of Systemic therapy is its reduced risk of relapse, as all system members change and a new Systemic balance is established.
Crisis as Opportunity
Personal, relational, or conflict crises often provide the greatest space for change. This can lead to transformative, lasting changes that help systems evolve to meet current needs.
Belief in Growth
There is always an opportunity for growth. Life events and phases provide the chance to develop healthier coping strategies, and Systemic therapy supports individuals in becoming more authentic and emotionally mature.
First- and Second-Order Change
First-order change involves adjusting to another’s wishes, while second-order change is deeper and leads to lasting transformation. Systemic therapy strives for the latter.
Systemic therapy is effective for resolving conflicting communication patterns and improving mutual understanding, thus solving cooperation problems. It’s the go-to method for couples therapy, family therapy, and workplace-related issues, including mediation and coaching. Systemic therapy can also be applied when only one partner is willing to attend therapy, or when a child refuses family therapy, through techniques like Systemic parental guidance. Moreover, Systemic therapy is beneficial for individual issues such as anxiety, mood disorders, and lack of self-confidence, especially when previous treatments have been unsuccessful. It is particularly helpful in grief counselling and processing traumatic events, as joint processing often works better than facing such difficulties alone.
A company is also a System, with departments functioning as subsystems. Systemic therapy is used within businesses to address teamwork issues. When work relationships become strained or when you’re stuck in your job, Systemic coaching can help. Personal coaching provides insight into your patterns, team dynamics, and preferred roles, allowing you to negotiate the most suitable tasks and improve collaboration with managers and colleagues. Mediation can help resolve open conflicts between employers and employees.
A Systemic therapist breaks through rigid patterns, creates space for change, and helps bridge structural differences. In a safe and structured setting, sensitive, unspoken issues are openly discussed. Every system member is equal and validated in their input. Through system analysis, historical connections and deeper interaction patterns are logically explained, leading to mutual understanding and new perspectives. This often results in unexpected, creative solutions to longstanding issues. A Systemic therapist ensures that all parties contribute constructively to finding solutions.
1. Everything is a System
Systemic therapy focuses on systems and subsystems, which are interconnected and mutually dependent to maintain balance (homeostasis). For example, a partnership or family is a micro-system, while the broader society or global community forms macro- and supra-systems. The exchanges and influences between different system levels shape our consciousness, beliefs, and social behavior, organizing social order.
2. Everything is Context
Every individual is shaped by their unique cultural, social, and historical context, which influences how they perceive and interpret reality.
3. All behaviour is Communication
It’s impossible not to communicate—even silence is a form of communication. Behaviour inevitably triggers reactions in others. Communication can be verbal and non-verbal, and congruence between the two is key to being understood. Incongruence leads to confusion. Paul Watzlawick’s work on this topic in his book *The Pragmatics of Human Communication* is highly insightful.
4. Everything is Relationship
People have relationships with their personal histories, themselves, and their environments. Whether as family members, neighbours, employees, or community members, we occupy roles and positions regulated by social norms and codes, both explicit and implicit.
5. Content and Relationship Levels
Communication operates on both content and relationship levels, and the latter can heavily influence how messages are received and understood.
6. Everything is Feedback
Systemic therapists view interactions as reciprocal feedback loops. Negative patterns, such as a person withdrawing into passivity while the other compensates by over-managing, can trap relationships in unhealthy cycles.
7. Everything is Circular
Rather than thinking in terms of cause and effect, Systemic therapists understand relationships as circular interactions. Both individuals contribute to maintaining the problem, and change requires altering these dynamics.
8. Mutual Dependence
Relationships exist by the grace of mutual dependence. In a healthy parent-child dynamic, the child accepts care while the parent adjusts to the child’s developmental needs. If the dynamic is unhealthy, Systemic therapy can help break these patterns and restore natural collaboration.
9. The Life Phases Model
Everyone goes through life phases and personal development stages. Whether in relationships, careers, or personal growth, Systemic therapy helps individuals navigate these stages.
10. The Symptom as a Carrier of Meaning
Systemic therapists explore the meaning of symptoms within the relational and historical context, understanding how these symptoms interact with and impact the system.
11. Repeating Patterns and Parallel Processes
Many people unconsciously choose partners or situations that replicate unresolved dynamics from their past. Systemic therapists help clients break these cycles, often uncovering valuable insights through therapeutic relationships that mirror real-life dynamics.
12. Permeable Boundaries
Healthy family systems have permeable boundaries, where individuals feel connected but also have space to develop their identity.
13. Triangulation
This occurs when one person in a relationship forms an alliance against another, disrupting healthy dynamics. Systemic therapy helps restore balance by clarifying roles and actions.
Systemic therapy, or systemic therapy, emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as a response to the growing recognition that individual behaviour is deeply influenced by the larger social and relational context. The roots of systemic thinking can be traced to the work of Gregory Bateson, a British anthropologist, and the Palo Alto group, which included researchers such as Jay Haley, Don Jackson, and John Weakland. Their work was heavily influenced by cybernetics and communication theory, particularly focusing on how patterns of interaction and communication within families contribute to psychological problems. They rejected the idea of focusing solely on the individual in isolation and instead emphasized how relationships and communication within systems, especially families, play a central role in mental health.
During this early phase, the theory of “double binds” was developed, which explained how conflicting communication within families could contribute to the development of schizophrenia. This was one of the first attempts to demonstrate how a dysfunctional family communication style could lead to severe psychological disorders. The early systemic approaches, like family therapy, considered the family unit as a whole rather than focusing solely on the individual, viewing psychological symptoms as emerging from relational dynamics rather than being purely individual.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Systemic therapy became more formalized with the establishment of various schools and approaches. One prominent development was strategic therapy, advanced by thinkers like Jay Haley and Cloe Madanes. This approach emphasized interventions designed to disrupt problematic patterns of communication and behaviour within a family system. Another significant approach was structural family therapy, introduced by Salvador Minuchin, which focused on the roles and boundaries within family systems and how reorganizing these structures could lead to healthier functioning. Both of these approaches played a significant role in developing practical therapeutic techniques aimed at transforming family dynamics.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Systemic therapy continued to evolve and incorporate new perspectives. One significant branch that developed during this time was contextual therapy, founded by Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy. This approach placed a strong emphasis on ethical dimensions of family relationships, focusing on issues like fairness, trust, and intergenerational loyalty. Narrative therapy, pioneered by Michael White and David Epston, emerged from the systemic tradition as well, encouraging individuals to reframe their problems by separating themselves from their issues and seeing them as stories that could be rewritten. This period also saw a rise in postmodern and social constructionist perspectives within systemic therapy, which questioned traditional notions of objective truth and focused more on the subjective experiences of individuals within their relational contexts.
Systemic therapy now encompasses a wide array of approaches that share a common focus on relationships, communication patterns, and social contexts. Today, it is recognized as an effective approach for treating a broad range of psychological, emotional, and relational problems. Modern systemic therapy is applied not only in family therapy but also in couple therapy, group therapy, and organizational settings. It is particularly valued for its ability to address complex and chronic issues, including family conflict, trauma, addiction, and mental health disorders, by addressing the underlying dynamics that contribute to these issues. Through its holistic and relational focus, systemic therapy continues to evolve, integrating elements from cognitive-behavioural therapy, psychodynamic therapy, and more recent approaches like mindfulness and emotion-focused therapies.