Systems theory became a framework that sociologists began using in the 1950’s and 1960’s in an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of societies, complex human organisations and families. Cybernetics and communication theories fed into the theory’s development, with an emphasis on interaction with the outside environment, homeostasis, goal orientation and feedback.

Family systems
A new way of understanding an individual, their problems and their behaviours was expanded by seeing this individual as part of a system.  As a member of a group of people who interacted together, who acted and reacted upon each other – a family. The traditional view of a family may include a mother and father, and the children, maybe both sets of grandparents would be included too.  But there is a wider family system that stretches back generations. This is the past that is also the present… (to paraphrase Sheldrake).
When talking of systems there are some general principles:

•    that there is no linear cause and effect
•    that there are rather, complex interconnections between the parts that make up the whole
•    that when there are changes in one part belonging to the system there are changes in the other parts.

There are some core principles that the helping professions can take from systems theory:

For the client and therapist:

•    The first immediate consequence is a richer view of the client and their life, allowing the client to be seen within a wider life context.
•    The client’s problem shifts from belonging to them alone, to belonging also to the wider family system.
•    It allows the uncovering of the interconnections between members of the family / intimate group
•    Facilitates the uncovering of deeper complex transgenerational interconnections within the client’s system, and reveals how this may be affecting the client in the present.

For a therapistl in their own system:

•    A systemic perspective allows a meta-view of own life context and issues.
•    This allows the therapist to see and acknowledge their own personal issues that need to be worked on. Becoming aware of blind spots ultimately enriches the quality of personal presence, of being there for the client.

Organisational systems
Organisations can be viewed systemically and will have its own set of dynamics, different to that of a family, but familiar. A business has a history; each person belonging to the organisation has a place in the hierarchy; the different parts of the organisation have a reciprocal relationship one with the other.