Learning Objectives
By the end of this lecture, students will be able to:
- Define systemic therapy and explain its core philosophy, particularly the shift from an individual-focused approach to a contextual and interactional perspective.
- Explain key systemic concepts such as the family life cycle, homeostasis, and the identified patient, and describe their role in understanding psychological difficulties.
- Analyze interactional patterns within families, including feedback circuits, and evaluate how these patterns maintain or reinforce symptoms.
- Differentiate between the major schools of systemic therapy (e.g., structural, intergenerational, strategic, Milan, and solution-focused approaches) in terms of their main concepts and interventions.
- Apply systemic thinking to clinical situations by proposing basic interventions (e.g., reframing, restructuring) and describing the role of the systemic therapist in facilitating change.
