SYSTEMIC THERAPY

Systemic therapy is a psychotherapeutic method. It views people as part of a system. Systemic therapy does not see problems as a disorder of an individual person, but as the result of a disorder in the social environment of the individual - i.e. the system. A system can for example consist of family, partner, school / work environment etc. All the people in a system are directly interrelated. The interactions between the affected person and their environment are therefore the focus of systemic therapy.

Changes in a system therefore affect all members. Disturbed relationships or unfavourable communication patterns within the system can affect the mental health of individual members.
Systemic therapists therefore attribute a person's problems to a disturbance in the system (constellations). The therapist assumes, among other things, that each disorder also fulfils a specific purpose in the system. Together with the patient, an attempt is made to find the function of the symptoms within the system .

Systemic therapy is first about understanding the relationship structures and patterns within the system. Who takes on which roles? Why does a person behave in a certain way? How do the people interact with each other? In systemic therapy, unbalanced relationships, unhealthy patterns as well as unfavourable communication are considered to be decisive, influencing factors for psychological problems. The solution is, therefore, to change these unfavourable patterns.

The therapist focuses on the existing resources that the patients and their caregivers bring with them.Often, those affected have skills that they have not used or have used incorrectly. This could be the ability to listen well, to mediate disputes or to assert oneself.
For the treatment of mental disorders, the therapist also explores what function the symptoms have in the system. An example would be a depressed mother who is a single parent and is afraid that her son might leave her. Her depression contributes to the adult son not moving out because he is worried about her.
However, this does not mean that the therapist is implying bad intentions on the part of the mother. Affected people are usually not aware of the effects in the system. When affected persons understand the connections and see what sense their symptoms have in a system, they can cope with them more easily.

Systemic therapists often use circular questions. They do not ask the affected person directly about their feelings towards another person, but place them in the perspective of a third person. For example, the therapist could ask a father how his son would describe the relationship between his father and mother. This change of perspective can be somewhat confusing and unfamiliar at first. However, circular questions allow the therapist to always focus on the entire system.

A wide variety of life issues can be dealt with in systemic therapy. It is considered an effective treatment option for example for affective disorders such as depression, eating disorders, addictions, schizophrenia and psychosomatic illnesses. Children and adolescents also benefit from systemic therapy.

Systemic therapy can also take place in an individual setting. The caregivers are then not present, but the therapist can work vicariously, for example with symbols, to involve the caregivers.

Above all, it's about recognising the complexity of things. A person belongs to a family, a history, a culture, a social and natural environment etc. with which he/she interacts. These relationships are not linear but circular: there is rarely a single cause and a single consequence. As therapists, we address an individual who is part of a system and the systems of individuals, that consist of e.g. the family, assuming moreover, that we ourselves are part of the therapeutic system. These systems are more than the sum of the individuals that make them up: They have their own organisation, their own dynamics, their own way of being in balance or changing.
Therefore, we are interested in people's family and social backgrounds, the way couples and families function, their competences and resources, their need for stability and their ability to change. We question and critically look at values, roles, rules of life, communication patterns, the ways in which people differ from one another, family history and solutions that have already been found. It is important to us not to offer instruction manuals, ready-made solutions or normalisation grids, and we are committed to ensuring that every individual, every couple, every family can find their own path and their own solutions, alongside a therapist, who accompanies them for a small part of their journey.