What is Systemic Psychotherapy – main priniciples

Systemic psychotherapy, also called family therapy, it is seeing the person as part of different systems and contexts, such as home, work, school, and the whole society. The focus is to explore your relationships in those different contexts, and how this influences your life, feelings and behaviours and subsequently the view of self and identity. More specifically, systemic psychotherapy understands your difficulties and resources as a product of past and current relationships in various environments as well as the meanings attached to it without locating the problem in you/pathologizing you. Social diversity markers, such as culture, race, gender, are of great importance and it could be explored how these may intersect and create possibilities or constraints in your life.

About me

I am a mixed-race, Greek-British, heterosexual woman, who has lived and worked in London for 9 years. Prior to completing my family therapy training at King’s College of London, I completed a low intensity CBT certificate and a master’s in research in clinical psychology. I have experience working with families, couples, and individuals privately and within various settings in the NHS, such as CAMHS and adult services.

Due to multiple transitions in my personal and professional life, such as migrating, studying, working and living in the UK as a young adult, I do consider myself as culturally sensitive, with a deep understanding of how different contexts and social diversity markers, such as race or gender, may create a power struggle, having real implications in people’s lives.

I believe that therapy is the most effective when there is a strong therapeutic relationship. In my work, I seek to build this through respecting and appreciating the individuals’ resources, needs, and differences, and following their pace.

In my therapeutic practice, I tend to draw from different systemic frameworks.Work with individuals:

Why do I feel/think/behave like this or have this experience and how do I impact and get impacted by my relationships?

These are some of the questions that can be answered in individual sessions. In individual sessions, you can explore how your emotions, behaviours, and way of relating and interacting with others in different contexts, such as family, work, friendships, have been formed over the years and they have an impact on the view of yourself and your identity. This may give you the opportunity to create a new understanding of your experiences, creating agency and choosing how you want to see yourself, relate to others, and live life.

Work with families:

Family therapy sessions could be joined by the whole family, some members, and/or significant others/support network. In family therapy sessions, all members are treated equally, and they are invited to share their perspectives. There is no set agenda or expectations for a unanimous point of view, on the contrary, differences are welcomed. In a secure space, the presenting problem would be discussed and explored in relation to the family’s rules, roles, beliefs and emotions building on the existing strengths and resources of the family.

Some of the matters that could be explored in the sessions are feeding/sleeping, attachment, parenting/co-parenting, separation/divorce, fostering, adoption, kinship care, mental health difficulties, behavioural difficulties, school-related concerns, neurodiversity, eating-related concerns, physical-health problems, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and others.

Work with couples &families:

Couple & family therapy could be joined by all parties or just by one of them. In the sessions, there is no set agenda, and you could bring in what feels important for you. Underlying emotions, beliefs as well as past and current patterns would be explored in relation to the presenting difficulty either in the individuals or the relationship(s).

What is Systemic Psychotherapy – main priniciples

Systemic psychotherapy, also called family therapy, it is seeing the person as part of different systems and contexts, such as home, work, school, and the whole society. The focus is to explore your relationships in those different contexts, and how this influences your life, feelings and behaviours and subsequently the view of self and identity. More specifically, systemic psychotherapy understands your difficulties and resources as a product of past and current relationships in various environments as well as the meanings attached to it without locating the problem in you/pathologizing you. Social diversity markers, such as culture, race, gender, are of great importance and it could be explored how these may intersect and create possibilities or constraints in your life.

About me

I am a mixed-race, Greek-British, heterosexual woman, who has lived and worked in London for 9 years. Prior to completing my family therapy training at King’s College of London, I completed a low intensity CBT certificate and a master’s in research in clinical psychology. I have experience working with families, couples, and individuals privately and within various settings in the NHS, such as CAMHS and adult services.

Due to multiple transitions in my personal and professional life, such as migrating, studying, working and living in the UK as a young adult, I do consider myself as culturally sensitive, with a deep understanding of how different contexts and social diversity markers, such as race or gender, may create a power struggle, having real implications in people’s lives.

I believe that therapy is the most effective when there is a strong therapeutic relationship. In my work, I seek to build this through respecting and appreciating the individuals’ resources, needs, and differences, and following their pace.

In my therapeutic practice, I tend to draw from different systemic frameworks.Work with individuals:

Why do I feel/think/behave like this or have this experience and how do I impact and get impacted by my relationships?

These are some of the questions that can be answered in individual sessions. In individual sessions, you can explore how your emotions, behaviours, and way of relating and interacting with others in different contexts, such as family, work, friendships, have been formed over the years and they have an impact on the view of yourself and your identity. This may give you the opportunity to create a new understanding of your experiences, creating agency and choosing how you want to see yourself, relate to others, and live life.

Work with families:

Family therapy sessions could be joined by the whole family, some members, and/or significant others/support network. In family therapy sessions, all members are treated equally, and they are invited to share their perspectives. There is no set agenda or expectations for a unanimous point of view, on the contrary, differences are welcomed. In a secure space, the presenting problem would be discussed and explored in relation to the family’s rules, roles, beliefs and emotions building on the existing strengths and resources of the family.

Some of the matters that could be explored in the sessions are feeding/sleeping, attachment, parenting/co-parenting, separation/divorce, fostering, adoption, kinship care, mental health difficulties, behavioural difficulties, school-related concerns, neurodiversity, eating-related concerns, physical-health problems, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and others.

Work with couples &families:

Couple & family therapy could be joined by all parties or just by one of them. In the sessions, there is no set agenda, and you could bring in what feels important for you. Underlying emotions, beliefs as well as past and current patterns would be explored in relation to the presenting difficulty either in the individuals or the relationship(s).