An exploration of organisational consultative practice: A systemic family therapy perspective

Although various conceptual approaches and frameworks describe how systemic thinking can be applied via consultation to organisations, they are derived from clinical work and case studies. Indeed, the empirical literature regarding the efficacy or even the understanding of the application of systemic principles to organisational consultation is very poor. An understanding of the processes involved in systemic organisational consultation is considered important in order to support therapists working systemically with organisations in a way that maximises possibilities for organisational productivity, =learning and change. This study presents an exploration of systemic family therapists’ understandings and experiences of systemically orientated organisational consultative practice. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with twelve qualified systemic family therapists working in a variety of mental health and forensic settings across South Wales and the South West of England. A Constructivist Grounded Theory approach was employed to analyse participants’ accounts. Three themes relating to systemic organisational consultation were identified in the study: ‘The prologue: Conceptualising the context for consultation’, ‘From monologue to dialogues: Creating new contexts for new conversations’ and ‘The metalogue: Outcomes of consultation’. The emergent themes were compared to wider literature pertaining to the application of systemic family therapy to organisational consultative practice. The findings from this research have a range of implications for systemic therapists as well as other professionals working systemically with organisational systems. Implications for clinical practice, training and the development of the role of the therapist working systemically with organisations are discussed, and recommendations for future research are made