ABSTRACT
Chapter 9 explains the importance of applying family systems concepts and systems thinking when working with families, couples, and children. It also illustrates some of the risks a therapist encounters when facilitating a process group to address family issues. Family system behaviors and traditions that once were essential for survival can become outdated, yet continue to be passed on for generations, impacting behaviors, beliefs, and choices. How we communicate is often a combination of our family teachings, geographical styles, religious teachings, cultural norms, and social mores. Therapists need to work compatibly within a client’s communication style and family culture. Clients who identified as adult children of alcoholics and other compulsions affirmed that even though we do not have to know the reasons for a behavior to extinguish it, it can be reassuring and even empowering to understand the role we played in our family of origin. Seasoned solution therapists who understand family system dynamics will recognize that competency is not about a pre-defined process, but rather about the outcome.
