Plenary III: Including emotions in systemic therapy

ABSTRACT

In recent years, emotions, once a neglected topic in systemic therapy, receives a growing attention. A systemic way of thinking about emotions is the emotional system, which can be viewed as the sum of the emotions embedded in any human system. Emotions are actively exchanged within it, all the time, and they give all interactions a characteristic flavor. Any human system tends to be organised around one or more emotions (dominant emotions), and to avoid and be repelled by others (tacit emotions). One of the main therapeutic tasks, therefore, is to hypothesise about dominant and tacit emotions, trying to imagine the role they play in the specific history of the system.

Emotions are also connected to the position of anyone in the system. Fostering the clients’ awareness about their emotions positioning is another therapeutic goal, which in turn requires the therapist to become aware of her own dominant and tacit emotions, and of their relationship with her positioning within the therapeutic system. Such a disposition allows, for example, to see differently the well known phenomenon of a client who “induces” in me some emotion: I feel this emotion because I am put in a definite position within the emotional system.

Including emotions is systemic therapy may thus generate a whole new array of therapeutic principles and techniques, which can be put to work together with the well-known ones considered in the systemic traditions, leading to a more complex and satisfying approach to clinical practice.