SECOND ORDER CYBERNETICS AND REFLEXIVITY IN SYSTEMIC PRACTICE

1995

References used in compiling Chapter 9 of Procter and Winter (in press) Personal and Relational Construct Psychotherapy. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Relational constructionism begins with a simple but important idea: everything we consider real, all the truths that we cherish and the values we hold are constructed in and through the web of relationships that we participate in. When applying this idea to psychotherapy, we are invited to re-imagine and question its practices and traditions, particularly, those that have operated as unexamined truths or as a foundational logic in the discipline. This approach to psychotherapy may be considered a heresy when compared to traditional theories and models, that through their rigid standards and orthodoxies, and claims to objectivity and knowledge, have imposed an institutional order constraining the imaginative possibilities of therapeutic practice.

Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 2019

Co-experiencing psychotherapy was developed in Russia by Fyodor Vasilyuk and his colleagues after an impactful encounter with Carl Rogers. Through an interview with Jeffrey Cornelius-White, with Fedor Shankov serving as translator and later contributor after Vasilyuk's death, the ideology and methodology of co-experiencing psychotherapy is explored. Fyodor Vasilyuk addresses the phenomenology of co-experiencing therapy as well as its relationship to both cultural-historical psychology and person-centered psychotherapy. He describes the concepts of his approach as well as the importance of the synchronous relationship between the client and therapist in overcoming crises along with a comparison of other anthropological practices' conceptualizations of human experiences. The interview closes with Shankov's accounts of personal experiences with Vasilyuk, honoring his legacy of creativity as a person, bravery to live daringly, and for developing a humanistic approach founded on Russian psychological traditions. L'expérience de la co-thérapie expliquée sous forme de dialogue L'expérience de la co-thérapie a été développée en Russie par Fyodor Vasilyuk et par ses collègues suite à une rencontre déterminante avec Carl Rogers. Le système et la méthodologie de l'expérience de la cothérapie sont explorés au travers d'une interview avec Jeffrey Cornelius-White et Fedor Shankov agissant comme traductrice puis ensuite, après le décès de la Fyodor Vasilyuk, comme contributrice. Fyodor Vasilyuk aborde la phénoménologie de l'expérience de la cothérapie aussi bien en relation avec la psychologie dans son contexte culturel et historique qu'avec la psychothérapie centrée sur la personne. Elle décrit aussi bien les concepts de cette approche que l'importance de la relation ajustée entre le client et le thérapeute dans le dépassement des crises et en propose une comparaison avec d'autres conceptualisations anthropologiques pratiques de l'expérience humaine. L'interview se termine avec des récits d'expérience personnelle de la Fedor Shankov avec Vasilyuk, rendant hommage à l'héritage de sa créativité en tant que personne, à son ARTICLE HISTORY

Journal of Systemic Therapies, 2012

A critical review of some of the historical debates among systemic therapists suggests that the enactment of systemic practice has largely been eclipsed by an over-emphasis on interpretation, narrative, and theoretical understanding. We argue that being principally organized by any therapeutic model-whether it advocates a postmodern, narrative, systemic, or other view-maintains the hegemony not of only a singular form of interpretation, but of interpretation itself. We suggest the practical shift intended by systemic and cybernetic contributions to the field involved its implicit encouragement of an always readyto-change therapy, creatively guided by interactivity rather than allegiance to any habituated form.

Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 1992

This chapter from Systemic Therapy as Transformative Practice reframes systemic practice as research and offers several ideas and examples of research methodologies which are a close fit with what systemic practitioners are already doing! In effect, the chapters unravels and challenges the idea that reflexive, siutated practice is not already a collaborative form of inquiry. Simon, Gail (2016). Systemic Therapy as Systemic Inquiry as Transformative Research. In McCarthy, Imelda & Simon, Gail (Eds.), Systemic Therapy as Transformative Practice. Farnhill: Everything is Connected Press. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Systemic-Therapy-as-Transformative-Practice/dp/0993072321/

Culture and Reflexivity in Systemic Psychotherapy, 2018

This document is the published version of 'Culture and the reflexive subject in systemic psychotherapy'. It is reproduced here with the kind permission of Karnac Books. You are encouraged to consult the remainder of this publication if you wish to cite from it.

Journal of Family Therapy, 2010

written, but I was struck (perhaps even challenged) by the bleak picture of social work practice which O'Hagan offers us.