ABSTRACT
A systemic hypothesis is an attempt to develop the connections between information gained from family members during a family interview. Systemic hypotheses are developed and discarded as new information emerges or is elaborated in subsequent family meetings. Reframing as a cognitive technique is used extensively by therapists of many persuasions. Systemic practitioners recognize the power of reframing in creating possibilities for change in relationships and in the relationally-based beliefs that may influence behavioural choices. The chapter draws on violence lines between the shapes representing family members, often indicating with an arrow head the direction of the violent behaviour. Problem-solving approaches are both popular and tried and tested with practitioners of many orientations. Systemic psychotherapists have given a systemic gloss to some of the more common approaches, making them relationally based, with the questions asked interventive in their own right. The systemic solution-focused therapies draw on some of these motivational interviewing principles and strategies in a very creative way.
