ABSTRACT
Psychotherapists are frequently confronted with symptoms that arise within blended families. Some involve a wide range of behavioural problems in the children. Others involve depression in one of the parents following a divorce. Then there are cases involving conflict with a former partner, sometimes about the present partner. Parenting issues and access arrangements may be involved. In short, blended families are linked to a varied palette of problems in the psychotherapist's consulting room. Blended families can be regarded as complex dynamic systems. Within these systems a multiplicity of symptoms may develop which appear in diverse guises in the consulting rooms of therapists and care workers. In many cases, the love between the new partners is not strong enough to withstand the battering that arises from clashing loyalties. When a large party was organised in the holiday home, which his children saw as their own family's special place, the tension increased.
