On the Education of Systemic and Social Constructionist Marital and Family Therapists

Noted first is a growing tendency of marriage and family therapists (MFTs) to create and describe approaches that, although labeled as systemic, are built on the language and concepts of classical psychodynamic therapy. Next a brief description of the history and evolution of a systems theoretical perspective is followed by an enumeration of many of the basic beliefs and behaviors we suggest MFT students in training need to understand and be able to utilize with clients. Given the complexity involved with teaching systems theory, particularly at the level of second-order cybernetics, several strategies to facilitate student learning also are provided.