This book brings together a team of experienced practitioners to explore the impact and outcomes of delivering systemic therapy based interventions to people with chronic and life limiting health conditions. It showcases how practitioners have effectively used theory and evidence to develop systemic practices with people across the lifespan. In line with contemporary systemic theory and practice, the book will draw heavily from the attachment and narrative theory and the affective turn, so the collection of chapters provides a showing as well as a telling of the work. Drawing on stories woven from practice within research, the book addresses the psychosocial needs of those who are ill, as well as the healthcare professionals entrusted with their care.
The book will cover the range of activities that practitioners do, from direct work with patients, to work with teams, supervision, research and service development.
Dr Jenny Altschuler
is a Systemic Family Psychotherapist and Clinical Psychologist who worked for the NHS for much of her professional life, including at the Royal Free Hospital and later the Tavistock Clinic, where in addition to seeing families facing a wide range of issues, teaching and supervising systemic family psychotherapists and clinical psychologists, she established a service for families facing life limiting medical conditions and disabilities, and developed the first UK-based training for healthcare professionals working with families facing illness, disability and death. She is now offering supervising to healthcare professionals and therapy to families facing illness, refugees and other migrants.
Dr Sarah Helps
(BSc, MSc, DClinPsy, DProf, FHEA) is a consultant clinical psychologist and systemic psychotherapist. She is Chief Psychological Professions Officer at a large acute hospital in the North East of England. She is systemic lead on the Doctoral programme in Clinical Psychology at Kings College London. Her research interests currently involve exploring how communication works in family and systemic psychotherapy and how to embrace creative ways of working within family and systemic psychotherapy.
