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We offer coaching and training on family systems constellations,
happiness, resolving cross-generational habits and healthy relationships.
What are Human Systems?
By human system we refer to a group of people
that live or work together, such as a team, a family, an organization
or a community. Human systems can accomplish goals that individuals, no
matter how motivated or resourceful, cannot accomplish.
Our systems thinking has been influenced by natural
science, mathematics, chaos theory, physics, systems theory, psychoanalysis,
anthropology and evolutionary psychology. Systems thinking examines
systemic and reciprocal influences rather than linear influence. Systems
thinking redefines cause and effect in relationships.
Human systems are subject to complex rules, which differ
from linear rules of cause and effect. Systems coaching must be applicable
at many levels - this page describes some practical aspects of systems
thinking in the context of social constructivism.
Chaos Theory & Therapy
Social Constructivism
We describe and explain the world with words derived
from our relationships, not from reality. Our words are cultural patterns,
embedded within our relationships. A constructivist view is that
if we change our words, we change our relationships. If we create and
disseminate new words within our culture, we affect everyday
relationships.
Similar to Heisenberg's Principle in quantum physics,
diagnosis can change that that was diagnosed. Social Constructivist
concepts can be found throughout our systemic coaching.
As nobody is isolated from human systems, all
coaching, counseling and therapy have systemic consequences. The
consequences of individual change on a human system can include
chaos - including symptoms of emotional and physical disorders -
unless the consequences to specified systems (families,
teams, community, etc) is included in the changework.
Human Systems are Complex
Attempts to control (simplify) human systems
can lead to authoritarian systems (e.g. communist, totalitarian,
military regimes, and many religious and cult organizations). And
attempts to analyze human systems (in most social sciences) often
leads to an obsession with statistics and a study of mediocrity
(individual excellence is smeared across populations).
| Simple
Systems |
Complex Systems |
- few similar elements
- weak links between elements
- limited potential for behavior
- stable, determined impact chains
- behavior is easily measured
- possible states can be predicted
- complete control is possible
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- many different elements
- strong links & dependencies
- large repertoire of behavior
- manifold, variable impact chains
- behavior is difficult to measure
- possible states are unpredictable
- limited control is possible
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Human systems cannot be completely analyzed - too much
is happening too quickly. The process of analysis changes that which is
analyzed ... as do the results. Statistical analysis data may be useful,
yet in human systems, every action can be both cause and effect.
Systemic behavior is better described by circular
interactions, feedback loops and fuzzy logic. Our
systemic diagnosis provides models for recognizing and predicting
behavior and consequences in individuals, couples, families, teams and
communities.
Systemic Rules
People don't get emotionally ill alone - emotional problems
generally reflect relationship issues. We seek to identify relationship
interactions that cause or support dysfunction. For example, people who bring
obsessions or compulsions into a marriage can predict that their children
will exhibit some of these unwanted behaviors.
For example, we perceive addictions as both causes
and the consequences of unpleasant family dynamics. An addiction
may be a way of avoiding an existential crisis ... while simultaneously
increasing the likelihood of family dysfunction and child abuse by reducing
behavioral restraints.
Although systemic rules guide the behavior of the
members of a human system, some systemic rules are explicit and some are
taboo and cannot be discussed by members. Examples of
systemic rules include rules and meta-rules about:
- Coalitions: Who can align with whom
for what benefits?
- Maturity: What are the emotional ages
of the members?
- Power: Who makes important decisions
for the system?
- History: What traditions and history
are still in active use?
- Roles: Who rescues? Who distracts? Who
makes trouble?
- Life Cycle: What is the developmental
stage of the system?
- Values: What are the overall systemic
values? (Clare Graves)
- Hierarchy: Who is in control? What lines
of authority are used?
- Boundaries: Which boundaries are flexible
and which are rigid?
- Culture: What is the identity of the
system? (religion, status, ethnicity).
- Entanglement: Is there differentiation
or are members entangled each other?
- Metaphors: What underlying symbolic
interactions occur between members?
Systemic Interventions
Although a problem may not be a person, nor a system,
a problem is a problem. Systemic solutions include:
- Outcomes: Research both individual and
system goals
- Planning: Help members explore steps to
desired goals
- Mapping: Help members explore benefits
and consequences
- Dissociation: Helps members dissociate
and discuss problems
- Metaphors: Help members reframe their
situations and solutions
- Resolve Conflict: Explore and resolve
simple and complex conflicts
- Change history: Help members re-evaluate
who they are and how they got here
Phenomena of Human Systems
As all members are affected by changes to a system,
individual change can be embedded in systemic coaching. Some general
rules appear to be:
- Systems go through life cycles
- Human systems exist in cultural contexts
- Experiences in a system shapes the future system
- Changes in part of a system affect all
people in that system
- Problems can be better understood within the
context of a system
- Conflicts between two people often involve a
third person triangulation
- Systems can get stuck in repetitive patterns
that restrict freedom and options
Stages of Systemic Change
Some people claim to be neutral observers, although
observation of human systems usually changes those systems. We ask for
permission to join human systems as a guest. We generally take a similar
sequence of steps when we are invited to help modify or change a human system ...
- Contact: We become accessible, knowledgeable,
confident - and kind
- Enroll: We build connections with system
members without favoritism or bias
- Assess: We assess coalitions,
hierarchies, communication channels and allegiances
- Reorient: We present our interpretation of
what is going on within the system to the members
- Feedback: We listen to and incorporate the
feedback from system members
- Realign: We change the way system members
interact with each other (systemic coaching)
Comparison of Systemic Coaching & Systemic Psychotherapy Models
- Communication/Humanistic (Satir &
Whitaker): Emphasizes relationships within systems. Observe
communication styles and provide experiential interventions.
- Intergenerational (Bowen): Emphasizes
multi-generational family maps. Observers resolve systemic tension
by avoiding participation in dysfunctional family rituals.
- Milan Model (Selvini-Palazolli):
Perceptive and paradoxical teamwork - two team members interview
while another team member covertly observes from a hidden location.
- Multicultural approaches: Examines the
societal influences of oppression and ethnic
identity.
- Narrative Therapy (White & Epston):
Examines a system’s experience and personal meaning through
the use of language and metaphor.
- Psychoanalytic (Ackerman & Framo):
Examines how influences from the past shape the present.
- Soulwork (Carruthers): Explores development
and behavior in a hierarchy of relationships. Systemic
diagnosis offers a rapid evaluation of relationship bonds and entanglements.
- Strategic (Haley & Madanes): Examines
inter-relational and communication styles to help families define
problems, and then help them solve those problem.
- Structural (Minuchin): Views systems as
organisms undergoing transformation. Explores the underlying
structure of systems.
- Systemic Family Therapy (Hellinger): explores how
individual lives are shaped by family systems and how conscience reacts
to changes in relationship behavior and violations of rules.
Online Coaching & Mentorship
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright ©
Martyn Carruthers 2004-2012 All rights reserved.
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