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A new master’s program in systemic family psychotherapy is opening at the Higher School of Economics. We are talking with the head of this program, Anna Yakovlevna Varga.
About expert
Anna Varga is an expert of the Psychologies magazine, a family therapist, a board member of the Society of Family Counselors and Psychotherapists (Moscow), a member of the International Association of Family Therapists (IFTA), a member of the European Association of Family Therapists (EFTA).
Psychologies: Who comes to family systems therapy?
Anna Varga: The answer is in the question itself – the family comes to therapy. And the reasons for applying can be very different. For example: the sexual dissatisfaction of one of the spouses, or the wife does not know how to reconcile with her husband, the difficulties of raising children, their poor academic performance, perhaps, or mother and grandmother are in conflict over how to properly raise a child – in all these cases, the family can ask for help.
Does this mean that one person cannot come to an appointment with a family therapist?
A.V.: No, it doesn’t. One person can turn to a family therapist if his problems are related to the family: for example, there are difficulties with creating a family. A woman has been unable to get married for years, a man cannot marry – as a rule, such problems are connected with the fact that a person has not separated from his parental family, has not become independent. In this case, we do not invite his mom or dad to the reception – in some cases they are no longer alive, but he or she has them in their thoughts, and this is what we are working with. If those who live together have conflicts and problems, then it is very desirable that everyone come to the reception.
Read more:
- Take your child to a psychologist?
Why is it so important?
A.V.: It is important for a family psychotherapist to see all family members, to see how they communicate with each other, and not only talk, but at what distance from each other they sit down, who looks at whom more often … All this gives the therapist information about what the relationship is between family members. Listening to the story of someone alone, the therapist will never get this information. In addition, if the wife comes to the appointment first, and the next time she comes with her husband, he thinks that she has already talked to the therapist, created some impression, they find themselves in unequal conditions. Therefore, I always ask spouses to come together. Each member of the family sees the situation from his own perspective, and the task of the psychotherapist is to see all the interactions at the same time and understand how the family system works. When such an understanding appears, it is possible to influence the system by changing the interaction in it.
How can a therapist influence family relationships?
A.V.: All systems psychotherapists work with prescriptions. The main idea is that changes do not occur in the therapist’s office, but in people’s real lives. And in order to bring about changes, certain prescriptions are given – which ones depend on the specific situation – and they are created together with family members, this is joint creativity. Let me give you an example from marital therapy. Spouses cannot agree on anything among themselves, throwing thunder and lightning, and any discussion turns into a quarrel. So, first you need to create a safe territory for them, where they know for sure that they will spend time together without hurting each other. We start to figure out what each of them likes to do separately. Both like to go for a walk, or eat delicious food, or watch a movie. Then we create a ritual. According to the schedule, they go to do together what each of them likes. For example, they go to a restaurant. This should be a limited time so that they do not have time to quarrel. So they have a new experience of safe interaction – they know that they can be together and not blame each other. Then this experience can be used – the next step can be a discussion of their conflicts: they try to hear and understand each other, instead of blaming.
Read more:
- “If you go to a psychologist, our marriage is doomed”
How is systemic family therapy different from other types of family therapy?
Systemic family therapy is a special approach.
A specialist in this approach thinks differently, sees differently: he tries to avoid linear sequences according to the “cause-effect” scheme, his attention is focused on complex relationships in which each effect is also a cause. The system is based on feedback: any action causes some kind of reaction, which in turn forms the next reaction. With a linear approach, it is believed that a person has a certain unchanging structure, for example, “unconscious – consciousness – super-ego”, that internal conflicts arise due to the fact that some content of the unconscious cannot be revealed to consciousness in full and is expressed in this way that makes a person suffer. Hence the conclusion that it is necessary to reveal this unconscious content and find other ways of expressing it.
The systems approach believes that there is no stable structure of a three-membered person. A person is a flexible formation, the multifaceted functioning of which is determined not by its internal contents, but by the social systems in which it is built. And social systems, in turn, obey their own laws.
People are like clouds that crash against each other and build mutually acceptable forms. The social system is primary, and the person and his experiences and well-being are secondary in relation to the functioning of the system.
The same person, being included in different systems, can behave and feel completely differently. “Can you imagine that Ivan Ivanovich does this at home?” – in unhappy families, people do not look like they are seen by colleagues at work.
Master’s Program in Systemic Family Psychotherapy
Upon completion of the program, its participant becomes a master of psychology, and also receives a separate certificate certifying that he has received in-depth knowledge of systemic family therapy. Those who already have higher education are admitted to the program based on an interview and assessment of their portfolio (diplomas, certificates of retraining and achievements).
The uniqueness of the program is that it strictly follows the training standards, provides exactly the same education that all systemic family therapists in Europe receive. That is, this education is at a good world level. Today the program is in Russian.
However, there is a plan to make it in English – this will facilitate the integration of professionals into the global community. Those who have been trained under this program and joined the European professional association, if they wish, will be able to get a job in Europe, as the lawyers of the European association can help with employment. In addition to the training program, research work is provided – which also meets European educational standards.
Moreover, the Higher School of Economics has equipment that allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of psychotherapy – with the help of unique devices, you can see what new connections appear in the brain of clients after psychotherapy. And since we know which areas of the brain are responsible for what, we can say which areas of the brain and their corresponding functions have become more developed. This kind of monitoring results allows you to make meaningful and targeted changes in the process of psychotherapy. A.V.
Learn more
Description of the master’s program at psy.hse.ru/sfpt
Circular reason. The case of the underachieving child
All events that occur in the family are not subject to linear causality, but circular. Event A is not a consequence of event B; event A produces event B just as much as event B produces event A.
Consider an example.
Here is a child who does not study well. He does not do his homework until his mother makes him sit down. If the mother does not control him, the child reads, plays, looks out the window, but does not do his homework. Often the daily preparation of lessons is accompanied by scandals. The mother screams, the child cries… The more the mother forces the child to study, the more obvious that the responsibility for these lessons lies with her.
When a mother does homework with a child, controls homework, she takes responsibility for his studies. Who controls, he is responsible. The child begins to learn not for himself, not for his own inner motive, but for his mother.
The more parents try to make the child learn better, the less chance the child has to learn better. This is the paradox of family life.
Mom has a need for the child to be dependent on her, classes with the child structure her time, the mother feels that she is needed, necessary. For therapists working with the system, the question arises: “Why does a mother need a child to depend on her?” This is the main question – “why”? Not “why”, but “why”. Here it turns out that the mother is ready to spend her time in this way, to waste her nerves, not to achieve goals from year to year in order, for example, to fill her emotional vacuum that forms in marital relations. She, instead of clarifying the marital relationship, transfers all her energy and love to the relationship with the child.
Mom is so busy with the child and is so tired of raising him that she no longer has the strength and desire to sort things out with her husband. Therefore, a certain semblance of comfort is formed in marital relations: the spouses communicate little, and if they communicate, then the topic of safe communication is known: this is a child and his failures. And if so, then dad has no choice but to work hard and stay at home a little.
The more tense the relationship in a married couple, the more carefully the mother takes care of the child; the more carefully the mother takes care of the child, the less successful the child is in school; the less academically successful a child is, the more stable the family system is.
Here is the circular reason. Seeing the circular cause of events occurring in the system is the first methodological principle of systemic family psychotherapy.
Based on the book by A. Varga “Introduction to Systemic Family Psychotherapy” (Cogito-Center, 2009).