ABSTRACT
Contextual family therapy has been a part of the family therapy movement from the very beginning, as Boszormenyi-Nagy was a key figure in applying systems thinking to families (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2000). Relational ethics, however, have been such an essential part of the contextual approach that many therapists tend to neglect the interventions that are possible in this third dimension. Systemic interventions offer the contextual therapist a wide variety of treatment opportunities and integrations with other family theories, as long as those interventions do not violate the ethical mandates of the intergenerational family. As such, this chapter gives an overview of the systemic theoretical background and several techniques that we have found useful with families. Although many of these interventions belong to other family therapy approaches, the third dimension allows the contextual therapist to integrate some of these useful techniques into effective treatment interventions.
