Working with children in systemic family therapy

Play and creativity are essential ingredients of therapeutic work with children. Systemic family therapists have to take the developmental stage of children into account and must adapt their interactional style, the therapeutic setting, their language and their interventions to the needs of children. Since the very beginning of family therapy, a large number of practical recommendations for child participation in family therapy have been compiled. This article presents a number of therapy techniques and case examples illustrating the broad range of interventions that are being applied in systemic family therapy with children.