ABSTRACT
Social constructionism has offered some influential new perspectives for family therapy, as it has for psychology and social sciences more generally. The influence has been both at a broader conceptual level and in terms of some specific approaches in the practice of family therapy. It has alerted therapists to consider the broader social contexts, such as the dominant ideas that shape the behaviour end beliefs of family members. Behaviour therapists and cognitive behaviour therapists are interested increasingly in the utility of family systems ideas and practices. The realization that some treatment failures might result from an incomplete assessment of powerful social contingencies has led some cognitive therapists to ask what additional help their clients might need in order to benefit fully from their therapies. Family construct psychology offers an elegant way of describing the development and maintenance of problems in a family by revealing how these beliefs may become increasingly polarized and rigid or “pre-emptive” over time.
