Systemic therapy

“Systemic therapy” or “systemic family therapy” is a psychotherapeutic procedure that focuses on the social context of mental disorders, especially on interactions between family members and their social environment. In contrast to psychoanalysis, representatives of this therapeutic direction emphasize the “importance of implicit norms of living together for the occurrence and overcoming of mental disorders (family rules)”.

However, other forms of therapy, such as “cognitive short-term therapy”, also take into account the “systemic” aspect. According to its representatives, “systemic therapy” differs in that other members of the social environment relevant to the patient are included in the treatment.

Since the end of 2008, “systemic therapy” has been recognized as a scientific psychotherapeutic procedure in Germany.