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Systemic Therapy, or Marriage and Family therapy, is a professional and conscious attempt and methodology used to study families in American Society based on the assumption that the American family as a whole is larger than the sum of its parts. The aim of family therapy is to understand and cure disorders of the interactional whole of a family and its individual members as family members. Family systems therapy focuses on the specifics of systems theories as applied to families as smaller societies, and the research generated by or consistent with these views using models that use an organismic or systems metaphor for understanding families. Such theories are important for stimulating new research and organizing existing data, and advances in these theories over the past few decades has expanded the potential for understanding child development, as well as adult adaptation and the development of close relationships.

It should be clearly distinguished from other therapies, which have specialized & unique approaches in several different and often incompatible ways:

1) Self-help 1) Individual 2) Couples

The aim of family therapy is that the interactional patterns which prevent individual growth will change. This is achieved especially emphasizing and trying to find the hidden positive resources in family’s interactional whole. In Family therapy the therapist or a family therapy team meets in the session those family members willing to participate in discussion about the topic they have or some of family members has defined as a disorder or problem. Similar to most psychological and sociological therapeutic tools, these tools have mainly been developed from, for and towards "YAVIS" anglo-celtic clients (Young, Attractive, Verbal, Intelligent, Successful). Multicultural and interrcultural are still being developed.

Family therapy teams come in several forms, usually with multiple specializations in age groups, sex, theoretical approaches and practical processes. Usually the client-practitioners (as separate from writers, researchers and teachers) are specialized to one or few approaches, with most practitioners being "eclectic", using techniques from several aras, depending upon the client(s).

The number of sessions depends on the disorder, but the average is 5-20 sessions. The basic theory of family therapy is derived mainly from object relations theory, cognitive psychotherapy, systems theory and narrative approaches. According to the main theoretical perspectives, family therapy can be classifies as follows: Psychodynamic; structural; behavioural or cognitive; strategic; reflective and narrative models. The main indications of family therapy are as follows:

Serious psychic disorders (e.g. schizophrenia, addictions and eating disorders); Interactional and transitional crises in a family’s life cycle (e.g. different separation and individuation crises or divorce crises); As a support of all other psychotherapies and other psychological and psychiatric therapies (even medication).

Family therapy, also referred to as couple and family therapy and family systems therapy, and earlier generally referred to as marriage therapy, is a branch of counseling that works with couples in intimate relationships and families. It tends to view these in terms of the systems of interaction between family members. It emphasizes family relationships as an important factor in psychological health. As such, family problems are seen to arise as an emergent property of systemic interactions, rather than to be blamed on individual members.

The goal of marriage and family therapy is to improve the quality of familial relationships, to address problems of intimate relationships and interpersonal relationships, of family dysfunction, to support the enhancement of the mental health of individuals in family systems and mediate disputes.

Family therapy practitioners come from a range of professional backgrounds, and some are specifically qualified or licenced/registered in family therapy (licensing is not required in some jurisdictions and requirements vary from place to place).

These include psychologists, social workers, counselors, psychotherapists and medicine, both general practitioners and psychiatrists.

Founders and key influences

Some key developers of family therapy are:

• John Bradshaw (author) (systems theory)
• Nathan Ackerman (psychoanalytic)
• Gregory Bateson (cybernetics)
• Murray Bowen (systems theory)
• Milton Erickson
• James Framo (object relations theory)
• Jay Haley (communications)
• Walter Kempler (gestalt psychology)
• Salvador Minuchin (structural)
• Virginia Satir (communications and experiential}

Methodology

It uses a range of counseling and other techniques including:

• psychotherapy
• systems theory
• communication theory
• systemic coaching

A family therapist usually meets several members of the family at the same time ("conjoint family therapy" is used in the approach of Virginia Satir.) This has the advantage of making differences between the ways family members perceive mutual relations as well as interaction patterns in the session apparent both for the therapist and the family. These patterns frequently mirror habitual interaction patterns at home, even though the therapist is now incorporated into the family system. Therapy interventions usually focus on relationship patterns rather than on analyzing impulses of the unconscious mind or early childhood trauma of individuals as a Freudian therapist would do.

Family therapy is really a way of thinking, an epistemology rather than about how many people sit in the room with the therapist. Family therapists are relational therapists, they are interested in what goes between people rather than in people.

Depending on circumstances, a therapist may point out to the family interaction patterns that the family might have not noticed; or suggest different ways of responding to other family members. These changes in the way of responding may then trigger repercussions in the whole system, leading to a more satisfactory system state.

In the United States

Prior to 1999 in California, counselors who specialized in this area were called Marriage, Family and Child Counselors. Today, they are known as Marriage and Family Therapists, or, more commonly, MFTs. There are many career options for MFTs. They can work in private practice, in a clinical setting, such as a hospital or institution, or for a variety of counseling organizations.

MFTs are often confused with Clinical Social Workers, or CSWs. The primary difference in these two professions is that CSWs focus on social relationships in the community as a whole, while MFTs focus on relationships.

The MFT is a license awarded by the State of California. The training prepares you to be a counselor and you will be working directly with clients on a one to one or group basis only. As an MSW you are prepared to provide clinical, administrative, community organization, case management, research, and policy development services. The MSW offers flexibility in the job market and is also an older degree than the MFT.

A master's degree is required to work as an MFT. Most commonly, MFTs will first earn a B.S. or B.A. degree in psychology, and then spend 2 to 3 years completing a program in specific areas of psychology relevant to marriage and family therapy. After graduation, prospective MFTs work as interns.

Requirements vary, but in most states about 3000 hours of supervised work as an intern is needed to sit for a licensing exam. MFTs must be licensed by the state to practice. Only after completing their education and internship and passing the state liscensing exam can they call themselves MFTs and work unsupervised.

However, Marriage and Family Therapist are currently not allowed to diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, practice independently, or bill insurance in the State of Ohio. MFT's in Ohio face a long road of fighting for equality.

See also

• Behavioural family therapy
• Child abuse
• Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy
• Domestic violence
• Family
• Interpersonal relationship
• Intimate relationship
• Marriage
• Mental health professional
• Relationships Australia
• Systemic family therapy

External links

• American Association for Couple and Family Therapy
• American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
• American Family Therapy Academy
• Bowen Theory
• Family Therapy Books and Journal Articles
• Relationships Australia
• Family Tree Healing
• Marriage Counseling & Family Therapy Blog

• Psychotherapy
• Family
• Parenting