ABSTRACT
Systemic family therapy is primarily concerned with what happens between people, in their talk, actions, and assumptions. Systemic therapists place a great deal of significance on words and their meanings and the emotions that accompany them. Systemic therapists have generally thought about the word "love" in terms of nurturance, affection, attunement, and attachment. The structural therapist would be very responsive to the emotional temperature, intervening to increase emotional responsiveness or forge more separation. Systemic therapy is founded upon the assertion that relationships are central to understanding the human condition. Many of the advantages brought by the systemic perspective also raise some common challenges. The systemic therapist must act in a self-reflexive way, connecting her practice with an awareness of her personal experience. Systemic practitioners often draw on the contributions of attachment theory in accounting for the development of self. Attachment theory highlights the role of the caring relationship in providing ontological security for the infant.
