The medium is the message?—how agency setting influences our effectiveness as family therapists

Abstract

This paper formed the basis of a workshop at the Fourth Conference of the Association for Family Therapy. Three different agency settings are examined for their impact on family therapy: a social services department, a child psychiatric clinic and a hospital paediatric setting. Seven categories of influence are considered: physical setting, family motivation, the identified patient, expectations and resources, the extent of limits, supervision and recording and, finally, support networks. Case material is used and an attempt is made to assess the overall importance of the setting to family therapy. A chart summarizing the subject matter is included as an appendix. Copyright © 1980, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved