Dissolving blame: Systemic therapy in action

When families and agencies get caught up in problems, discourses of blame can dominate. Karen Partridge and Nicola McCarty explain how systemic therapy can enable the shift from blame to appreciation and harness participants' resources for the benefit of all

Practices of freedom: Playing with the position of the other

An exercise for introducing tutors to a group of trainee systemic therapists is described. This is based on a principle of subverting hierarchy between tutors and students in a playful way and invites transparency and self-disclosure on the part of the tutors. It is an example of ongoing experimentation with positioning theory in systemic training as a way of exploring power differentials and attempting to give voice to subjugated discourses. Tutors and trainees reflect on the excitement and learning arising from the exercise