AFTA FORUM ON LARGER SYSTEMS

By Mary Whitehead and Pat Romney

Because of the deepening understanding of the complexity and importance of contextual issues, AFTA is reaffirming the larger systems work being done by members. Celia Falicov suggested the forum to support AFTA's ongoing effort to expand and diversity exploration of systemic practices while preserving the core commitment to family therapy. We believe that mutual support and examination will enrich us and help to keep the organization vibrant. As the organization reevaluates its membership criteria, it is possible that systemic work with larger systems could be as important and valued as clinical work with families in the office. In addition, with the economic challenges of managed care affecting clinical practice, many members welcome opportunities to diversify our practices.

Historically, family therapists have had a natural affinity for work with larger systems. The group attending this forum continued this tradition. Participants listed involvement with schools, jails, family businesses, physicians, many different non-profit institutions, sports teams, church layman family ministers, mental health community services and institutions, courts, adoption agencies, and government agencies.

Our roles also varied widely. Some work with a primary responsibility to the family, acting as an "informed link" using relationships with community resources to build a network of connections around the family. Others consult to the larger organization, with the primary responsibility to the group as a whole. Janine Roberts trains school counselors to be internal change agents. Daniel Kusnir finds himself in the inside role, wanting to become a change agent. Other roles described included executive coach, facilitator, designer of process and meetings, board member, teacher, trainer and executive director.

All too brief presentations by Ramon Rojano, Janine Roberts, and Pat Romney illustrated the exciting diversity of this work, and began to suggest common themes of discussion.

Ramon has created his own program, and trains therapists to be consultants to the family thus creating healthier paradigms, maximizing network utilization, and repositioning in the social context. He pointed out that we join on multiple levels: the nuclear family network, the larger system of community resources, and organizations of political action.

Janine posed the question, "What does it mean to take a particular technique or skill (e.g. joining, assessment, life cycle) from family therapy and move it into the larger context?" For example, she discussed the complexity of the consultant's role as she joins the process of family/school discussions when there is no explicit model linking the family and the school and the points of view and needs are very different. The school's team has its own rules, but these are very different from the family's expectations, needs, and experiences. She described using structural mapping of interactions and floor plans to help school administrators, teachers, students, and families to begin to see the broader system dynamics. A life cycle perspective looked at the way school/family interface changed as both the family and the school experienced developmental changes.

Pat described her approach as a consultant called into a very hostile system to do diversity work. Some members of the system were behind the consultant, some very much against her and treated her in the same hostile manner as they treated their staff. She was invited in by the disempowered group and felt a strong pull towards social justice for them. The challenge was to move the discourse to the common good, with the belief that justice for some is justice for all - to move from the self-destructive attack and either/or thinking of a dying institution to one that embodied conceptions of an egalitarian community in the process of transformation. Bringing and embodying a loving stance, an attitude of wonder and reverence, holding the group as a whole, she looked for the exceptions and unique outcomes in the context of the customary dominant practices. Who are the people who can work together across all the dichotomies? How can the consulting team, itself, reform their own negative conversations about the experience and bring in more positive attitudes?

Despite the many different contexts in which members were working, ideas generated in the discussion suggested that there are productive and exciting themes we experience in common. We agreed that larger systems work is not simply a technique, but an attitude. Jo Vanderkloot commented that although her consulting team may be called in to deal with race issues, the basic underlying problem concerns structure. She and her team find out where the organization's people are, and then bring in systems thinking. Charlie Brown added, from his work with athletes, opportunities arise not only to be called in to relieve pain, but also to help people/organizations make the most of their potential. Laura Chasin encouraged cross fertilization of ideas and skills with other professionals who deal with larger systems. What is basic to a family therapist's perspective may be new to another professional and vice versa.

Jay Lappin cautioned that we face competition from slick, well packaged programs that do not deal with system levels. What are the unique skills and perspectives of family therapists? How can we sell the complexity of our work in a brief, easily and quickly understandable package? What can we learn from others? How does larger systems work affect our identity as family therapists?

What can AFTA do next to support this work?

Some of the efforts discussed at the Forum included:

• A lightly annotated reference/resource list on our Web page, including links to other organizations. If you would like to recommend books, videos, web sites, etc., please send that information to Mary Whiteside (email: mwhiteside@igc.org). For each reference it would be helpful to add a one or two sentence description which will help members discriminate among the resources.
• A workshop on finding and applying for grants to support systems oriented work in the community.
• A slot at the annual meeting for case consultation on larger systems work.
• Another forum and interest group at the annual meeting, working more intensely on delineating the skills we bring to larger system work. What do we draw from family systems? From organizational dynamics? From other fields more related to the context of the specific consultation?

The general conclusion was that many members have work with larger systems as a significant portion of their professional activities and identity. They were eager to exchange ideas about practice within particular contexts (e.g. schools) and to continue discussion about the commonalities across contexts in theory, attitude, skills, and challenges. If you would like to add ideas or send recommendations to the committee, please contact Pat Romney (email: promney@romneyassoc.com).

Mary F. Whiteside, Ph.D. is affiliated with Ann Arbor Center for the Family. She works as a consultant, mediator, and family therapist. Her consultation is primarily with family-owned busineses. As a mediator, she has worked for many years with the legal and mental health professional networks encountered by divorcing families.

Patricia Romney, Ph.D. is President of Romney Associates, Inc., a research and consulting firm specializing in developing the human side of enteprise.