Category: Uncategorized

  • “Reaching Inward: A Way of Training in Human Systems Thinking,” Marion Lindblad-Goldberg

    In her 1985 article in PsycCRITIQUES, “Reaching Inward: A Way of Training in Human Systems Thinking,” Marion Lindblad-Goldberg presented a method for training people to think systemically about human behavior. The core of her work relates to family therapy and ecosystemic structural family therapy (ESFT), a model that considers how family members and their broader social context are interconnected. 

    Key concepts of the article

    • Training in systems thinking: The article discusses a training program designed to help individuals move beyond a linear, cause-and-effect understanding of behavior. Systems thinking involves seeing individuals and their actions as part of a larger, dynamic network of relationships and patterns.
    • Focus on internal context: The training emphasizes self-reflection and an examination of one’s own role within a system. This contrasts with a “system-as-effect” perspective, which blames external forces for a system’s behavior.
    • Emphasis on family systems: The article focuses on applying systems thinking to family relationships. Her later work emphasizes that a family is its own best resource for change, suggesting her training method helped therapists see the innate strengths of families.
    • A “way of being”: The training is not merely a set of tools but a fundamental shift in perception—a “way of being” that fosters curiosity, compassion, and courage.
    • Focus on relationships: The article explored how to help trainees understand the patterns of interaction and structural relationships that define human systems, rather than just focusing on individual actions. 

    The article is an early piece from Lindblad-Goldberg’s distinguished career, which heavily influenced the field of family therapy. 

    • Pioneered ecosystemic structural family therapy (ESFT): Lindblad-Goldberg is credited with developing the ESFT model, which helps therapists work with families to identify dysfunctional patterns of interaction and connect families with community resources.
    • Founding of a training center: She is currently the Director Emeritus of the Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Training Center (PCFTTC), which trains therapists in the ESFT model.
    • Informed later publications: Her exploration of systems thinking in this 1985 article provided a foundational basis for her later books and papers, such as Creating Competence from Chaos (1998) and Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy: Theoretical and Clinical Foundations (2013). 

  • Win Access to the Homestudy of your Choice!

    #ecomap #esft #wickedcool

    YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO THE BLOG FOR YOUR ENTRY TO COUNT

    Enter the family assessment tool competition to win free access to one HOMESTUDY CE PROGRAM from the PCFTTC store (APA or ACE category).

    Using the movies Wicket Part 1 and Part 2 (or the Broadway production), and Elphaba as the identified patient complete at least two family assessment tools from this list:

    1. Structural map with identified family type
    2. Negative Interactional Pattern with at least three people in the pattern.
    3. Ecomap
    4. Genogram
    5. Critical Events Timeline

    Entries can use their imagination to fill in the gaps of information not provided during the films. The most creative information and with the most assessment tools accuracy wins!

    Entries are accepted until 11:59am on December 19th. Entries should be electronically submitted to training@pcfttc.com .

    Check out last years winner on youtube.com, using Kevin McCallister from Home Alone 1 and 2:

  • From “What’s Wrong With You?” to “What Happened to You?” — The Shift That Changes Everything

    #esft #systemicthinker

    For generations, helping professionals, educators, and even family members have been trained to ask, “What’s wrong with you?” when someone behaves in ways that seem confusing, defiant, or self-destructive. It’s a question rooted in problem identification, but it often carries an unintended message—that something inside the person is broken, defective, or in need of fixing. In Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy (ESFT), we take a different approach. We ask, “What happened to you?”

    This question changes the entire frame of understanding. Instead of pathologizing behavior, it invites curiosity, compassion, and context. It shifts our focus from the individual as the source of dysfunction to the system—the web of relationships, environments, and experiences that have shaped the person’s current way of coping.

    When we ask, “What happened to you?”, we are not excusing behavior; we are explaining it. We begin to see behavior as communication, not simply as a symptom to be eliminated. A child’s aggression, withdrawal, or defiance may no longer appear as “bad behavior,” but as an adaptive response to chronic stress, trauma, or unmet emotional needs.

    This reframing is also healing for caregivers. Parents often feel blamed or powerless when a child struggles. But when professionals help them see the child’s behavior in context—through the lens of what happened—they can respond with empathy and leadership instead of frustration and guilt. This approach restores the caregiver’s confidence and invites them into collaboration, rather than correction.

    From a clinical perspective, “what happened to you” thinking leads to interventions that are relational, not punitive. It allows for joining, reframing, enactment, and anchoring—the hallmarks of ESFT—to take root in a way that promotes lasting change.

    Ultimately, asking “What happened to you?” honors the truth that all behavior makes sense in context. It opens the door to healing by helping individuals and families see themselves not as problems to be fixed, but as systems capable of resilience, repair, and growth.

    When we lead with curiosity instead of judgment, we don’t just change our questions—we change lives.

    Checkout the HOMESTUDY: Really Being Strength Based in Treatment: “Every Family is their Own Best Resource for Change” in our store to start learning how to shift change in the system.

  • Lessons from Superman – Part 4

    #superman #ESFT #systemicfamilytherapy

    “Every voice matters. Even the quietest one can change the whole story.”

    Systemic family therapy is built on the belief that families are ecosystems, and in ecosystems, every part plays a role. Yet in many families, certain voices—children, quieter siblings, caregivers, and even natural supports—can get lost in the noise. When that happens, the system adapts in ways that often reinforce imbalance and distress. This results in dislocation.

    Therapists

    As systemic family therapists, our responsibility is to ensure that every voice is heard. This may mean slowing down to notice the child who rarely speaks, or asking a question that allows a caregiver to share their untold story. It may mean restructuring a session so the quieter members are elevated, reminding the family that healing comes from inclusion, not exclusion. Or, it may mean calling attention to the impact of a family member is still having on how people relate, even if they are gone or deceased.

    Supervisors

    Supervisors can carry this forward by how they engage supervisees. When early-career clinicians hesitate to speak up, supervisors can invite their perspectives and validate their observations. Often, those voices carry insights others have overlooked. This can be used as part of the prepared plan for what will happen in the next session. Or, maybe the supervisors connects the insights to the family assessment tools.

    Summary

    Families change when silenced voices are given space. Teams strengthen when quieter members are encouraged to lead. In systemic practice, the smallest shift—one voice being heard—can transform the whole story. In honoring every voice, we honor the heart of systemic therapy: belonging, connection, and the belief that everyone has a role in shaping the system’s future.

    Check our CE program Store to learn more about systemic family therapy and ecosystemic structural family therapy.

    To learn about our Certification Programs click here.

  • Protected: Lessons from Superman – Part 3

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  • Equifinality & Equipotentiality

    #esft #systemicfamilytherapist #familyresiliency

    Two Systemic Truths Every Family Therapist Should Know

    In Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy (ESFT), we understand that human behavior doesn’t occur in isolation—it’s shaped by a complex network of relationships, histories, and environments. Two foundational ideas that help us make sense of this complexity are equifinality and equipotentiality. These concepts remind us that there is never just one path to a problem—or to healing.

    Equifinality: Many Roads, One Destination

    Definition: Different starting points can lead to the same outcome.

    In practice, this means that families with very different structures, histories, or stressors can arrive at similar patterns of functioning or symptoms.

    For example, one child’s depression might emerge from a divorce, another’s from high parental conflict, and a third’s from overprotection. Though their paths differ, the presenting concern—emotional withdrawal—looks similar.

    For the ESFT clinician, equifinality invites curiosity. Rather than assuming causality, we look systemically: What relational patterns have formed around this symptom? What role does it serve in maintaining family balance? Understanding these dynamics helps therapists move from surface behaviors to deeper systemic change.

    Equipotentiality: One Road, Many Possible Destinations

    Definition: The same starting point can lead to different outcomes.

    This concept highlights the variability of human resilience. Two siblings may grow up in the same family and experience the same parental conflict, yet one develops anxiety while the other becomes highly independent.

    For the ESFT therapist, this principle emphasizes context and meaning.

    Families are not defined by what happens to them, but by how they organize around it.

    Equipotentiality reminds us that every experience holds multiple possible outcomes—and that therapy can influence which path unfolds.

    Why These Concepts Matter in ESFT

    Both principles underscore a central truth: change in families is dynamic, relational, and contextual.
    Equifinality encourages therapists to avoid simplistic explanations, while equipotentiality keeps hope alive—even in challenging cases. Together, they form the foundation of systemic thinking: honoring diversity, complexity, and the endless potential for transformation within every family system.

  • Protected: Lessons From Superman – Part 2

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  • Protected: Lessons From Superman – Part 1

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  • Families Don’t Exist in Isolation: How ESFT Brings Healing Through the Whole System

    #esft

    “Families don’t exist in isolation. Trauma often lives in patterns.” These words reflect a truth that every systemic family therapist understands deeply. When working with families—especially those impacted by trauma—it’s not enough to focus on one individual or one diagnosis. Healing comes when we step back, widen the lens, and look at the family as a whole, including the surrounding environment and history that shapes them. This is the foundation of Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy (ESFT).

    ESFT is a trauma-informed, strength-based, and context-sensitive approach that sees people not as isolated problems to be solved, but as members of relational systems that hold both challenges and solutions. When we say “trauma lives in patterns,” we mean that pain and dysfunction often repeat across relationships and generations. A child’s emotional dysregulation may mirror a parent’s unresolved trauma. A caregiver’s sense of helplessness may reflect generations of marginalization or systemic oppression. Without this understanding, treatment stays at the surface.

    By looking at the entire system—caregivers, siblings, extended family, schools, communities—ESFT helps therapists uncover the patterns that perpetuate distress. But more importantly, it gives families a roadmap to disrupt those cycles through new ways of connecting, leading, and supporting one another.

    This kind of healing work cannot happen in isolation. ESFT emphasizes collaborative engagement with caregivers, empowering them to become the leaders of change within their families. It encourages therapists to join with families in a way that builds trust, uses natural strengths, and honors lived experience.

    Real change in therapy doesn’t come from compliance or short-term fixes. It comes from creating new interactional patterns—ones that foster secure attachment, emotional regulation, and shared responsibility. ESFT helps families move beyond survival mode and into sustainable healing by treating not just the symptoms, but the relational dynamics underneath.

    Because at its core, systemic family therapy reminds us: healing is not just individual—it’s relational. And when we treat the system, we open the door for true, lasting transformation.

    #FamilySystems #ESFT #TraumaInformedCare #SystemicHealing #RelationalChange #PCFTTC

    HELPFUL LINKS:

    What is ESFT?

    Check out our store to access continuing education credits workshops to bolster your systemic thinking, courses.pcfttc.com

    See our youtube page for more pro tips on thinking and working systemically.

    Join us on Linkedin, Facebook or instagram!

  • Today we celebrate belonging, connection, and community – your social ecology…

    Celebrating Connection and Community: Reflections for the Fourth of July

    As we gather with family, friends, and neighbors to celebrate the Fourth of July, we’re reminded that this holiday is about more than fireworks and parades. It’s a time to reflect on the values of belonging, connection, and community—values that lie at the heart of our mission at the Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Training Center (PCFTTC).

    Just like families, communities thrive when we recognize our interdependence. While independence is an important theme of this holiday, true strength comes when we honor both individual voices and collective responsibility. In systemic family therapy, we see this every day: lasting change happens when every family member feels heard, valued, and part of the process.

    This same truth applies to the broader systems we’re part of—our neighborhoods, our schools, our workplaces, and our professional communities. Whether it’s a caregiver learning to lead with hope or a community coming together to support its most vulnerable members, the power of connection fuels healing and growth.

    As you enjoy today’s festivities—whether it’s a backyard barbecue, a community event, or quiet time with loved ones—we invite you to take a moment and reflect:

    • How do you create space for every voice to be heard?
    • How do you foster belonging in your work with families and in your own community?
    • How can we, together, build systems that offer hope and healing?

    From all of us at PCFTTC, we wish you a safe, joyful, and meaningful Fourth of July. May we continue to build stronger families and communities—one connection at a time.

    #FourthOfJuly #FamilyTherapy #SystemicThinking #CommunityConnection #PCFTTC #IndependenceAndInterdependence #HopeAndHealing