What is the theory behind family work?

The symptomatic young person is seen as being part of a whole variety of different contexts:

• The various behaviours, including the symptoms, are viewed as being connected to, and to a large extent shaped by, these contexts, which may include patterns in here-and-now relationships and from families of origin, and from other contexts such as the world of school, culture or other aspects of society.
• Rather than simple linear causal relationships ("A causes B"), SystemsTheory suggests that the influences that propel change (or that maintain repetitive and unchanging patterns) occur in multiple directions, acting reciprocally, via a range of feedback mechanisms
• Close relationships are regarded both as influencing and being influenced by the young person and the symptoms.
• The responses of family members to the young person may then be seen as helping to maintain, or contributing to, their distress and symptoms.

A branch of SystemsTheory is Positioning Theory, which suggests that different people in any system are often "positioned" by the wider system, as much as (or even more than) they can be seen as taking up a particular position because of internal attributes, or by individual choice.
See subheadings under SystemsTheory for more description of this, and for ways in which this model for understanding human interactions has shaped specific ways of working.

Systems and Mentalizing in Families

• Mentalization, when it is working more or less effectively, is associated with a range of Features of Successful Mentalizing, including particular Strengths in RELATIONSHIPS.

• Given that for many (or most) young people, their family is the closest and therefore most powerfully affecting, aspect of their SocialEcology, it is rational to make attempts to improve relationships.