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An Open‐Systems Approach to Teaching Family Therapy *
Author(s) -
Skynner A.C. Robin,
Skynner Prudence M.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of marital and family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.868
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1752-0606
pISSN - 0194-472X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1979.tb01276.x
Subject(s) - family therapy , context (archaeology) , family systems , discipline , work (physics) , psychology , professional development , medical education , psychotherapist , pedagogy , sociology , medicine , developmental psychology , social science , mechanical engineering , paleontology , engineering , biology
Through systems concepts are increasingly employed in family and marital therapy, they are usually employed in a limited way, excluding some aspects of the total system. Systems ideas are applied most fully to the nuclear and extended family of the referred patient, and increasingly to the therapist's family of origin. The interface between the influence of the family of origin of the professional and difficulties in his practice is also scrutinized, though more often in a teaching and supervisory context than during therapy. The relationships among the therapist's family of origin, his marriage and family of procreation, and his professional work are more often neglected, and the influence of all three on the dynamics of institutions, training programs and staff groups is least often explored. The authors, a married couple who work together professionally, occupied fin‐several years a crucial leadership role in developing the first multi‐disciplinary teaching programs in the London area, bringing together key teachers from all the main institutions, with widely differing theoretical orientations, in a group which now forms the Institute of Family Therapy (London). This paper describes their attempt to facilitate a more consistently open‐systems approach which appeared to stimulate unusually rapid growth, learning, and group cohe‐siveness.