ABSTRACT
Just as efficient manufacturing requires managers to analyze system process assessment data (Deming, 1993), effective family therapy requires the therapist to analyze family system functioning assessment data (Satir, 1972). As team assessment and team decision making work well in industry, collaborative family assessment and collaborative goal setting work well in family therapy. The foundation for both environments is a systemic perspective. Perhaps systemic assessment can be explained effectively using a metaphor. When a horse trainer assesses the ability of a horse to run a fast race, he does not use a linear assessment technique of simply looking at the horse’s feet. He uses a systemic or holistic assessment approach of looking at the horse’s feet, muscle tone, joints, bone density, confirmation, lung capacity, heart rate, and so forth, along with the horse’s will to run. Most important, he systemically examines how all of these attributes work together or work against each other to produce the overall assessment. Even then, a Seabiscuit can be overlooked if the assessor is not tuned in to the heart. Family systems assessment requires a shift in paradigm to a unique multidimensional dynamic perspective. Functioning congruently in this new paradigm requires letting go of old linear assumptions and trusting one’s ability to remain upright while “skating on the ice without holding on to the rail.” Thus, the first challenge of family assessment is to “let go of the rail” and experience a new dimension of balance.
