The family therapist as a system interventionist

Family therapists need to develop therapeutic strategies which can be effective in helping members of dysfunctional and crisis oriented families reconnect with additional sources of support and strength.The extended family and social system can serve as this source of support when it is convened, mobilized and reactivated to become involved with the concerns of the ailing members of the family. This paper describes the unfolding six network phases, and the roles undertaken by the team of therapists serving as system convenors, mobilizers, choreographers and resource consultants. The task of the therapists working with a dysfunctional family and its larger extended support system is seen as that of an effective clinical stategist mobilizing the resourcefulness and energies of himself and his team to reactivate a dysfunctional system to change.A modified version of this paper appears in the author's book Networking Families in Crisis, Human Sciences Press: New York, 1978.