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Systemic Therapists' Experience of Powerlessness
Author(s) -
Hildebrand Judy,
Markovic Desa
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.297
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1467-8438
pISSN - 0814-723X
DOI - 10.1375/anft.28.4.191
Subject(s) - reflexivity , systemic therapy , relevance (law) , power (physics) , psychology , project commissioning , publishing , subject (documents) , psychotherapist , sociology , medicine , social science , political science , physics , cancer , quantum mechanics , breast cancer , library science , computer science , law
In this article we explore and discuss the relevance of the concept of powerlessness in systemic practice. The views and concerns of systemic trainees' groups are compared with those of experienced therapists'. We interviewed 12 experienced systemic therapists and investigated what made them feel powerless and how they dealt with it. Extracts from interviews are quoted and summarised in the text. We argue that therapists' powerlessness is a marginalised subject in the systemic approach and that open discussion about the topic would enhance therapists' self‐reflexivity and contribute to a fuller understanding of the part that power and powerlessness play in the therapeutic relationship. We consider the place of gender, culture and wider sociopolitical contexts in the experience of therapists' powerlessness. Finally we discuss the implications of our findings for systemic therapy, training and supervision.