ABSTRACT
It is increasingly difficult to maintain neat distinctions across the therapeutic approaches used in practice. There is now so much borrowing of both concepts and techniques that some would argue that the similarities outweigh the differences. Insofar as theories are ways of helping us understand complex social phenomena there may be some truth in this, but as we argued earlier, both theories and interventions should be assessed on their evidential merits (see Chapters 3 and 4). Among the most eclectic therapeutic approaches is family therapy, embracing a variety of ‘schools’ with different emphases. Fundamental to each of these is the concept of the family as a social system and the proposition that effective intervention necessitates locating individual problems within that context and – in many circumstances – directing intervention at the family, rather than simply the pre-labelled individual. Systemic analyses may also be applied to other social systems such as groups or organizations.
