What is the systemic and strategic approach ? Meaning and benefits

The systemic and strategic approach is a method of therapy and intervention that focuses on interactions and dynamics within relational systems, such as families, couples or social groups. Key elements of this approach include:

1. Systemic : This perspective considers that individuals cannot be understood in isolation, but rather within the context of the relational systems in which they evolve. Each member of a system influences and is influenced by the others, and problems are often the result of these interactions.

2. Strategic : The strategic approach focuses on implementing specific strategies to solve problems. It often involves identifying dysfunctional patterns of behavior and designing targeted interventions to modify these patterns.

3. Concrete objectives : Interventions are directed towards specific and measurable objectives. Therapists work with clients to define desired outcomes and develop action plans to achieve them.

4. Rapid change : The Systemic and Strategic Approach aims to bring about rapid and lasting changes by intervening in interactions and behaviors within the system.

5. Use of specific techniques : Therapists can use techniques such as rewording, cropping, and communication exercises to help clients see their problems in a new light and adopt new behaviors.

What are the benefits of systemic family therapy?

Why should we seek out this type of therapy?

What is systemic family therapy?

In therapeutic practice, the systemic approach proposes to connect all individuals of a system - couple, family, friends... - who interact with each other. Systemic therapy does not therefore concern itself with the past of individuals and the multiple causes that could explain their difficulties, symptoms, emotions, but the communication and relationships that individuals maintain with each other in their current daily lives, the roles they play within their families, their partners, the functions they assume, the multiple identities that define them in relation to others.

What is the goal of systemic family therapy?

This is what systemic therapy, with the precious help of the family - because the systemic therapist is not a magician, he is only a guide, an interpreter at the service of the family - will try to find out.

Indeed, it happens that communication within a couple or family is difficult, conflictual or even non-existent, whether the relationships are fused, distant or even broken, which generates suffering and discomfort in its members, who are no longer able to move forward and do not know which way to go.

Sometimes one of them shows these signs of malaise, unease, suffering, which appear as physical and emotional symptoms strong enough to alert the family and that are, For the therapist, the sign that relationships within the family have become fragile, and that it is then the whole balance of the family that is threatened.

This is where the systemic family therapist can guide the family to other modes of functioning, other modes of relationship and bring about change that is beneficial not only for the unhappy person but for the whole family.

In fact, the "identified or designated patient", as it is called in therapy, is often the one who allows the family to change its functioning by bringing it into therapy. A family would not come to see a therapist for their son/daughter, their spouse... who is not well, fails in his studies, is depressed, anxious...but for the patient who had the courage to bring his family into therapy by showing, through his body, his emotions, her feelings that her family needs help to communicate differently, to function differently, to find her well-being and balance.

Can one consult alone without bringing his family?

Whether it’s an individual, couple or family consultation, the whole system is there. Even when a person comes to the room alone, they take their family of origin, parents, siblings, spouse, children, friends, colleagues, boss, who are not physically present in the room but are part of their life. of her past, her present, and in this float around her during the session, silent witnesses of a lifetime.

Indeed, a person does not build itself. It has its roots: a family of origin, a home that it founded, important referents in its life, attachment figures, and all these people, whether they are alive or dead, are part of its identity construction, what that person was, what he or she became and those people can also be important sources of influence for both the present and the future.

So yes, there are people in family therapy, there are empty or occupied chairs and ultimately you’re not really alone in family therapy consultation.

The therapist can then receive a single person, or as a couple, or receive the whole family. But he can also choose, during certain sessions, to receive only one system (the parents' system for example), or that of the children (the siblings), or even the conjugal system (when it is a question of problems which concern only the couple), and to bring the whole system together at the next session.

What are the benefits of systemic family therapy?

Everyone can speak for themselves and hear what other members of the system express, think, imagine to know, feel...in a calm, caring way that is not always possible at home.

The therapeutic space is a space where the therapist is the guarantor of the framework. Each one listens to the other without interrupting, without criticizing or judging and the information can then be exchanged, discovered, and the word released safely, without feeling in danger of having dared to say, to have dared to feel.

In such a space, family or couple members gain insights into how their family/couple works, how and why they react in a certain way, have followed a particular path, have sometimes lost track or have changed direction.

Family therapy allows the family to experiment, in session, safely, other ways of being in relation with each other, they acquire each tools, resources, to better communicate with each other, better understanding each other, better living together. And when this experience proves to be positive and safe in the session -guaranteed by the professionalism and kindness of the therapist- they know that they will be able to reproduce these experiences outside the session, at home, in their homes.

Summary

In summary, the systemic and strategic approach is a therapeutic method that focuses on relationships and interactions within systems while seeking to provide concrete and rapid solutions to problems encountered.

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Systemic and strategic approach meaning and benefits.