ABSTRACT
Interventions with parents and children requires a systems orientation to clinical practice. A systems orientation views the unit for treatment as the person in his or her social context. Since its inception in the 1950s, family therapy has tried to understand the relationship between symptom development and maintenance and social context. The underlying assumption of family therapy is that the self is the product of interactions with significant others. The experience of any social interaction is dependent upon the social context and the meaning created by the self through interaction with others. Meaning is dependent on a person’s language, social interaction, and inherent biological vulnerabilities and strengths. Meaning is a social construction of reality that has cultural, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral correlates.
