Systemic Practice Network

This section of the For All That web-site was intended to be more dynamic than it has turned out to be! The SP Network email group had a technical hitch. Some hard work on the various meanings of "systemic" got lost. Nick's energy transferred to developing the non-statutory wing of family therapy in the UK.

The thing is that Systemic Practice as Nick uses it here - ie ordinary good practice - is inherently not going to attract much interest. It belongs to everyone and no one. It won't ever have a specialist journal of its own. It will never have a Professor and an academic department of its own.

This website was launched at the "Connections in Practice" Conference in Stirling in March 2000. So it has the papers given there. It also carries other material on the themes of Demystification and Systemic Practice. The website and the (initially Scottish) Systemic Practice Network was conceived and coordinated by Nick Child. Nick hopes that 7 years into  his retirement a recent feature of SP in the Journal of Family Therapy will make it worth the effort again! At least now there's the Blog to use and Nick will try to revive what he has left of the SP Network email list.

One broad and simple definition of Systemic Practice is: 'any way of working that aims to bring out, share, and respect the views and stories of all involved, so to integrate a constructive way forward'.

That covers a lot of human and professional activities, doesn't it?! And that's a key point - they are all derived from universal ordinary human life and activity. Characteristically it describes Family Therapy. But there are several meanings to the term. Click to find out more Meanings of Systemic.

It is in the nature of demystification and Systemic Practice that there will be a network without institutional structure. The internet is perfect for it! There should be lots of web-pages and email networks - please let Nick know of other web-pages, list coordinators, and material to link to.

To join this Systemic Practice Network, please email Nick at: nick.child@virgin.net. You will then get intermittent emails updating you about For All That and informing you of relevant events, publications and developments on "all that"!

As well as the papers and materials here from Stirling in 2000, and the other articles here please suggest others and see the links to other websites page. Recently family therapists themselves have done the impossible and written detailed manuals of the method in a way that needs no demystifying. Go to Leeds Family Therapy & Research Team website if you want to download for free a full, close up, "manual" account of what is both good ordinary systemic practice and of specialist Systemic Family Therapy (SFT). But please email them where invited to feedback to them what you do with it.

The Potential of Systemic Practice . . . . Holding the Line: Social Work Now: Bernadette Docherty . . . . Workshop Feedback . . . . Alasdair Macdonald: SFT in Social Work . . . . What Next?. . . . Systemic Practice: Fitting and Teaming Up. . . . Family Therapy:The Rest of the Picture. . . . More Meanings of Systemic Practice

All feedback is welcome to: nick.child@virgin.net Click these to return to index pages: Demystification Index . . . . Nick's Work Index . . . . CFC Index . . . . Nick Child's Play or to the: Forallthat Homepage . . . . The Complete Index