Rachel Fritz, the Program Director of RHA, deserves to be recognized for her relentless pursuit in developing staff who are model adherent in both systemic thinking and practice. Rachel maintains a systemic perspective. Rachel challenges herself to consider isomorphic processes in a way to make meaning of what is occurring relationally between herself, the staff, and the families they serve. Rather than viewing induction as shameful, Rachel uses the isomorphic process as an opportunity to deepen joining with her staff so they can deepen their joining with the families they serve. Furthermore, Rachel maintains balance between professional boundaries and collaborative relationships to foster positive change and competence. Rachel recognizes the accomplishments of her staff and works with her staff to recognize the accomplishments of families, believing that families are their best resource for change.
In addition, Rachel engages in social ecology regularly and in a proactive manner. Rachel is incredibly adherent to utilizing assessment tools, particularly the Eco-Map, to help staff anchor changes within the family’s socialecology. Isomorphic to this process, Rachel often engages in self-reflection and her own practice of utilizing her professional Eco-Map to understand how her own lived experiences and social ecology enter the supervisory relationship. Rachel has identified her growth edge of continuing to work second order change through her teams and does so through the lens of what is most importantto staff’s growth and development and that of their families, even if uncomfortable. Lastly, Rachel assesses with complexity while acting with simplicity. During training, Rachel has been an invaluable alliance member in engaging in process versus context, often punctuating the smallest change in the relational process between the presenting staff, cohort, and family can lead to a larger change in the overall symptomology of the child and family. I highly recommend Rachel Fritz for the Dr. Marion Lindblad-Golberg Award because I believe she exemplifies all five qualities confidently and competently.
Sincerely,
Jerome Williams, LSW
Cohort Trainer
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We’re excited to share several meaningful updates and opportunities from the Training Center this month. From celebrating excellence in the field to continuing our commitment to trauma-informed practice, there’s a lot happening across our community.
Nominees Announced: 2026 MLG Award We are proud to recognize this year’s nominees for the 2026 MLG Award. Each individual reflects a deep commitment to systemic thinking, clinical excellence, and service to families. We look forward to highlighting their work and celebrating their contributions in the coming weeks.
Honoring a Pioneer This season, we also take time to honor a pioneer, Dr. Edna Foa, whose work has helped shape the foundation of trauma treatment. Her contributions will continue to influence how we support those in our community.
Trauma-Informed Care in Practice As we continue to deepen our focus on trauma-informed approaches, we remain committed to supporting professionals in understanding how trauma shows up across family systems, and the need to “provide options” if we are going to be trauma informed.
Register for Our Free CE Program We invite you to join us for our last free Continuing Education (CE) program for the training year. Whether you are a clinician or a supervisor you will want to be present. Learn about all things isomorphic. Be sure to reserve your spot and stay connected for upcoming offerings later this year.
Thank you for being part of our community and for your continued dedication to the families you serve.
In clinical practice, it is common for families to enter treatment with a clearly identified concern—“fix my child.” The referral behaviors consist of “defiance, tantruming, hurting self and others…and not listening to me…” The family will report, the child is diagnosed with ADHD.
Now folks, ADHD is a constellation of symptoms, these are the measurable constructs that signal how this child’s brain navigates the day to day. However, the focus quickly narrows to how those symptoms show up: impulsivity, inattention, difficulty regulating behavior.
But from an Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy (ESFT) perspective, this is only the starting point—not the full picture.
A systemic family therapist is always asking a broader question:
Is the referral behavior an individual-based challenge, or is it organized within the family system?
The Individual Within the System
Systems theory reminds us that individuals do not exist in isolation. Every person is embedded within a biological network of relationships, environments, and experiences that shape how behaviors are developed and maintained.
So while a diagnosis like ADHD may accurately describe a constellation of symptoms, ESFT invites us to look beyond the individual and ask:
Who is involved in this pattern?
What interactions are maintaining it?
Where is this behavior occurring—and where is it not?
This shift moves us from a symptom-focused lens to a contextual, developmental, relational and trauma informed understanding.
Expanding the Assessment: The Role of Social Ecology
In ESFT, understanding the family system means understanding the social ecology surrounding it. The therapist is not only observing behavior but also gathering information about the conditions that shape the family’s functioning.
We begin to ask:
Is there food insecurity or housing instability impacting daily routines?
Are there challenges related to income instability or access to resources?
What adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are present across generations?
Is the family navigating acute stress, medical concerns, or trauma exposure?
Are there generational patterns of mental health needs that resulted in developmental trauma and inform current functioning?
These factors are not secondary—they are central to understanding how the family “got here.” BOTH their story of dislocation and their story of resiliency and strengths.
Community and Cultural Context Matter
ESFT also widens the lens beyond the household to include the community and cultural environment.
What are the beliefs within the family’s community about behavioral or mental health challenges? How does this influence who this family turns to?
How do schools, healthcare providers, and other systems respond to this family?
Are supports experienced as helpful, judgmental, or inaccessible?
Generationally what are the experiences of formal and informal supports?
The way a community interprets and responds to behavior can either reinforce distress or support change.
For example, if a child’s behavior is consistently labeled as “defiant” without consideration of context, the family may feel blamed or misunderstood. This can increase stress, reduce engagement with supports, and intensify the pattern.
From Blame to Understanding
When we focus only on the identified client, we will place pressure on one individual to “fix” the problem. ESFT challenges this by reframing behavior as part of a larger interactional system.
This does not dismiss individual needs—it situates them within context.
A child’s difficulty with attention and regulation may be influenced by:
Environmental instability
Caregiver stress or overwhelm
Inconsistent routines shaped by external pressures
Limited access to supportive resources
Understanding these factors allows the therapist to move from blame to curiosity, and from symptom management to systemic intervention.
Why This Matters for Change
When we understand referral behavior systemically, the pathway for intervention expands.
Instead of asking, “How do we fix this child?”, we begin asking:
What strengths do we already have we can use to support this child?
How do we strengthen the system around this child?
How do we increase stability, support, and connection?
Can we practice right now to shift patterns that maintain the behavior?
This is where meaningful, sustainable change occurs.
Final Thought
In ESFT, the identified client is never the whole story.
The client serves as the entry point into a system that is doing its best to adapt to a complex set of circumstances. When we take the time to understand the “who, what, and where” of that system, we move closer to interventions that are not only effective—but also compassionate, contextual, and lasting.
Because when we change the system, we change what is possible for every individual within it.
We are proud to recognize Becca Bowman as a nominee for the 2026 Marion Lindblad-Goldberg (MLG) Award in the Supervisor category. Becca’s leadership reflects a deep and sustained commitment to the five core values that define this award.
Maintains a Systemic Perspective
Becca consistently approaches supervision through a systemic lens. She helps clinicians hold awareness of the whole ecosystem—family dynamics, organizational context, and their own developmental edge—while thoughtfully addressing the parts. Her supervision moves beyond isolated interventions and instead works to fosters second-order change across systems.
Balances Professional Boundaries with Collaborative Relationships
Becca creates a supervisory environment where clinicians feel visible, valued, and worthy. At the same time, she maintains clear professional boundaries that promote accountability and growth. Her leadership reflects a powerful balance—supportive yet challenging, collaborative yet grounded in expertise. This balance strengthens competence and builds professional confidence.
Engages in Social Ecology
Becca models deliberate authenticity in her leadership. She demonstrates awareness of how identity, context, and lived experience shape both clinicians and families. By encouraging reflection and self-awareness, she fosters growth that is relational, contextual, and grounded in the realities of the systems in which clinicians operate.
Makes the Most of Intensity and Crises
Rather than retreating from difficult moments, Becca uses them as opportunities for development. She helps clinicians recognize their capacity in high-intensity situations and guides them in responding with intentionality rather than reactivity. Her steady presence during challenge reinforces the belief that growth is often forged in complexity.
Assesses with Complexity While Acting with Simplicity
Becca’s understanding of people and systems is nuanced and genuine. Yet those she supervises experience her communication as clear, grounded, and accessible. She translates complexity into actionable guidance, helping clinicians feel capable and focused rather than overwhelmed.
Through her commitment to these five values, Becca Bowman fosters confidence, competence, and professional growth within her team. Her leadership strengthens clinicians, enhances systems, and ultimately supports better outcomes for families.
We are honored to celebrate Becca as a 2026 MLG Award nominee and grateful for the intentional, authentic supervision she provides every day.
(PCFTTC does not have any religious affiliation with the recording entity, nor do they have any conflict of interest, or financial disclosures to make.)
“Am I joining with the family—or am I joining in on the pattern?”
#esft #joining #watchoutforinduction #collusion
One of the most essential—and most misunderstood—skills in Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy (ESFT) is the art of joining.
Joining is not simply about being warm, agreeable, or likable. It is not about aligning with one person’s perspective or “taking sides.” In fact, when joining slips into blind agreement, secret keeping, or following the maladaptive rules of the family system, it stops being joining altogether.
It becomes collusion.
And in systemic work, collusion can quietly undermine the very change we are trying to create.
What Is Joining in ESFT?
In ESFT, joining is a deliberate clinical stance. It is the process of entering into the family system in a way that communicates:
I see you
I understand your experience
The client’s/caregiver’s behavior makes sense in context
This is only accomplished through the use of family assessment tools. Joining allows the therapist to build responses to the narrow, negative narrative, creating relational safety. This is necessary for any meaningful intervention. Without it, families cannot tolerate the discomfort required for change.
Colluding
“oh I don’t think we can talk about that with the children…” claims the caregiver as the therapist suggests the presence of addiction has taken over everyone in the family. The therapist has a decision to make. Do they say, “okay…I don’t want to do anything without your permission…” Or, do they say, “I hear you, it makes sense that you are terrified about saying this out loud, and I have to tell you that everyone has talked about it to me, just not to each other… How we are managing the impact of addiction has literally almost killed your child. They tried to kill themselves. I think this lagging skills of talking about emotional pain means everyone is suffering alone…”
Collusion happens when the therapist:
Aligns too strongly with one family member’s perspective
Reinforces a problem-saturated narrative
Avoids challenging harmful, abusive, and coercive ways of relating
Over-identifies with a client’s emotional experience and doesn’t seek supervision to develop an intention plan to use this insight in service of the family.
For example, a therapist might believe they are joining with a caregiver’s frustration by saying:
“It makes sense that you’re overwhelmed—your child is completely out of control.”
While this may feel validating, it will unintentionally:
Solidify blame toward the child
Reduce curiosity about the system
Strengthen the very pattern maintaining the problem
In this moment, the therapist has moved from joining the experience to colluding with the narrative.
Joining around the “interaction between people”
In ESFT, we are not joining the content of what is being said—we are speaking to the interaction between family members. Because we believe the referral behaviors are a family based challenge, not an individual based challenge.
This is a critical distinction. Instead of agreeing with the single narrative, we look deeper:
How did they get here?
What are the strengths?
How does the way people relate organize in the family?
How does this structure maintain the current pattern?
A more systemic response might sound like:
“It makes sense that you’re feeling overwhelmed—and I wonder if your child’s behavior might also be a way of signaling how hard things have been for them lately…I don’t think anything has felt the same since your mother passed away…She was such an important member of this family and meant so much to all of you…”
Now, the therapist is:
Validating the caregiver
Expanding the meaning of the child’s behavior
Opening space for a new interaction
This is joining without colluding.
Why This Balance Matters
Families often come to therapy with rigid, polarized narratives that are points of induction for the therapist:
“The child is the problem”
“The parent doesn’t care”
“Nothing ever changes”
If the therapist joins one side of the narrative, the system becomes more entrenched. But if the therapist avoids joining altogether, the family experiences the therapist as distant or invalidating.
The work, then, is to hold both connection and clinical direction at the same time.
Joining without colluding allows the therapist to:
Maintain simplicity in the face of complexity
Preserve curiosity and complexity
Create space for new patterns to emerge
Final Thought
Joining is not passive. It is an active, moment-to-moment clinical decision.
It requires therapists to stay grounded, curious, and aware of their own pull towards. It asks us to tolerate complexity, and remain connected to every member of the system—especially when the system itself is asking us to choose a side.
Because in ESFT, healing happens through connection, clarity, and the courage to see the system differently.
I am honored to nominate Cassie Chase for the 2026 Marion Lindblad-Goldberg (MLG) Award – Staff. When Cassie is present in training spaces, the spirit of Marion Lindblad-Goldberg is present as well. Cassie embodies a deep commitment to honoring people with respect, curiosity, and kindness while simultaneously supporting the growth and development of her peers and the systems around her.
Maintains a systemic perspective Cassie consistently demonstrates a strong systemic lens, holding awareness of the whole while thoughtfully working with the parts. In training, she naturally attends to isomorphic processes across treatment, supervision, and learning environments. Her reflections and questions reveal an ability to connect individual experiences to broader relational patterns, helping others see how their work fits within larger systems. Cassie does not simply apply tools—she understands how and why they matter within the ecosystem.
Balances professional boundaries with collaborative relationships Cassie is a leader in modeling collaboration, particularly through her use of the Collaboration Scale. She balances confidence in her professional knowledge with humility and openness, creating space for shared learning. Rather than positioning herself as an expert, she invites others into the process, fostering trust and competence across the group. Her leadership is authentic, relational, and grounded in a strength-based approach that uplifts those around her.
Engages deeply in social ecology Cassie demonstrates a clear appreciation for social ecology and lived experience. She reflects thoughtfully on how her own context, growth edges, and support systems inform her professional work. She actively engages in deliberate practice, using feedback, supervision, and peer collaboration to stretch herself developmentally. Her willingness to be reflective and transparent strengthens the learning environment and normalizes growth for others.
Makes the most of intensity and challenge Cassie views moments of struggle, uncertainty, and intensity as opportunities for growth. In training spaces, she helps shift discomfort into meaning-making by staying grounded and relational. She demonstrates facilitative leadership by keeping second-order change in focus—encouraging curiosity, bravery, and new relational patterns when others feel stuck. Her presence helps regulate the system and move it forward.
Assesses with complexity while acting with simplicity Cassie brings a sophisticated understanding of systemic assessment tools while communicating and acting in ways that feel accessible and validating. She continues to challenge herself to work smarter, not harder, using family assessment tools and the collaboration scale with intention and clarity. While her conceptualizations are complex, her actions are clear, relational, and deeply human—making learning feel possible for everyone in the room.
Cassie Chase has become a quiet but powerful leader in training spaces. Her presence is a difference-maker for each cohort she joins. Through her authenticity, insight, and commitment to systemic growth, she fosters courage and connection in others. She exemplifies the values and legacy of Marion Lindblad-Goldberg in both spirit and practice.
I am honored to nominate Ashlie Girty for the 2026 Marion Lindblad-Goldberg (MLG) Award. Over the past year, Ashlie has truly blossomed—demonstrating meaningful growth in her leadership, clinical confidence, and systemic thinking. Her development reflects not only a deep respect for the ESFT model, but also a courageous commitment to engaging her growth edges in service of families and systems.
Maintains a systemic perspective Ashlie consistently demonstrates an appreciation for the isomorphic process across training, treatment, and supervision. Her presence in the training room reflects an ability to hold awareness of the whole while thoughtfully attending to the parts. Through her observations and reflections, Ashlie brings clarity and calm to complex discussions, helping others slow down and see patterns within systems rather than focusing solely on individual behavior.
Balances professional boundaries with collaborative relationships Ashlie leads with a gentle, supportive presence that fosters trust and psychological safety. At the same time, she has intentionally worked to strengthen her ability to challenge within relationships—using family assessment tools as a guide rather than relying solely on support or reassurance. This balance allows her to collaborate authentically while maintaining professional clarity, sending a powerful message to families and colleagues alike: growth happens within connection, not at the expense of it.
Engages deeply in social ecology Ashlie demonstrates a strong commitment to understanding how her own social ecology. She actively seeks collaboration with her supervisor and peers, using these relationships as spaces for deliberate practice and reflection. Her willingness to engage honestly in learning—particularly around discomfort and uncertainty.
Makes the most of intensity and challenge Ashlie has shown remarkable courage in leaning into intensity rather than avoiding it. Her unwavering commitment to videotaping sessions and using feedback as a tool for growth exemplifies her ability to view struggle as an opportunity for development. Through this process, she has taken positive, thoughtful risks that empower clients and reinforce their capacity for change. Her approach reflects facilitative leadership that keeps second-order change at the forefront.
Assesses with complexity while acting with simplicity Ashlie’s use of the ESFT model and family assessment tools reflects a growing ability to conceptualize cases with depth while responding in ways that feel accessible, calm, and validating. Though her understanding of relational dynamics is increasingly complex, her actions remain grounded and clear. Families and colleagues experience her as warm, steady, and respectful—someone who makes challenging work feel possible.
Ashlie Girty’s presence in training has brought peace, warmth, and steadiness to the learning environment. Her growth over the past year has been both intentional and impactful, marked by humility, courage, and a deep commitment to systemic practice. She embodies the relational heart of ESFT and the developmental spirit of the Marion Lindblad-Goldberg Award.
We’re excited to bring you the latest from the Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Training Center! This month’s newsletter is packed with updates, insights, and opportunities for professional growth:
Malibu Bound: PCFTTC is heading to the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) conference—discover what we’ll be sharing!
Nominees for the 2026 MLG Award: Meet the inspiring professionals recognized for excellence in systemic family therapy.
Pinky & Jen Wraparound the World: Learn how our directors are spreading systemic family therapy practices as podcast guests.
Couples Therapy: Explore practical strategies and insights from our featured expert, faculty, Dr. Amber Berkoski on couples therapy.
Free CE Programs: Enhance your skills with our Free continuing education opportunities.
