ABSTRACT
Systems-centered therapy (SCT) is an innovative approach to individual and group psychotherapy. The most important implication for therapy is the idea that all living human systems exist in a hierarchy and function in the same way and have a common structure. In contrast, systems-centered therapists deliberately introduce a series of methods and techniques which influence how the system develops and how the system directs its energy towards the goal of therapy. The SCT therapist also reinforces the message by making authentic eye contact with the patient, and maintaining it in attunement. The first fork-in-the-road presented in SCT therapy is between explaining and exploring. Functional subgrouping is probably the most important innovation that SCT has introduced into group therapy. The SCT techniques for reducing anxiety are similar to those of cognitive therapy, with an important difference. SCT encourages people to recognize that it is normal to have the impulse to retaliate when people, things, or situations are annoying.
