Context magazine
In this edition
Editorial
Editorial – Pete Brown and Lydia Stafford
Feature articles
Themed
Using props in NVR – Pete Brown
A map for new territory: NVR, cancer, and family – Lydia Stafford
Working collaboratively in solidarity teams across residential and mental health care – Victoria Apperley, David Toland and Jemma Beedell
An NVR journey: building a relationship between learning disabilities, autism and NVR – Michelle Marston and Rachael Hough
What they never tell you about NVR group work – Joanne Buchmüller and Luke Cousins
Finding an anchor, a map, and a compass in inpatient CAMHS – Collette Williams, with contributions from Rachel Horn, Megan Duffield, Hatty Pocock, Lydia Stafford and Nicky Maund
NVR and the therapeutic potential of silence – Helen McEleny
Small steps to lasting changes: From NVR participant to practitioner – Melody Selwood
Decolonising NVR – Julia Jude, Vicky Rodrigues and Veronica Rivera-Gould
When all seems lost: Creating hope, change, and confidence for adoptive families in crisis – Rowan Stewart and Philippa Beale
Challenging misogyny to therapeutic ends in NVR – Peter Jakob and Jessica Mackinnon
From NVR parent groups to NVR in every parent’s pocket: The story behind the NVR Companion app – Linda Hafez
General
Tree of life within an adult eating disorder ward – Adia Meyer, Elisa Zesch, Amanda Sarpong and Beth Easton
Therapy – Beth Spellman-Ross
Reports and reviews
Non-Violent Resistance and Neurodiversity: Effective Relational Support for Autistic Individuals and People with Intellectual Disability, by Sophie Doswell, published by Pavillion – Review by Ilaria Calussi
NVR UK conference 2026 – Carole Payne
Relational foundations: The contribution of systemic psychotherapy to co-creating hope, love and protection in a changing social care landscape, 14 May 2026 – a reflection on the annual conference for family therapists working in social care – Rebecca Harvey and Natalie Shoreman
Branching out: Reflections from the West Yorkshire branch – Carole Hunt
Association news
About Context
Context is the Association for Family and Systemic Psychotherapy (AFSP)’s well-respected bi-monthly magazine. It’s a valued, accessible, user-friendly resource and forum for qualified family and systemic psychotherapists, students and other health professionals interested in systemic practice.
The magazine is packed with news and views on the issues that matter to professionals working with families, adults and children in a therapeutic environment. A space to share and stimulate therapeutic ideas, it features the latest events, publications, training, conferences and workshops.
Accessing Context
Context is included with AFSP membership. Full, retired and student members can access digital versions of previous issues back to 2010 below, and have the option to receive new issues in the post. Those with free student memberships can only access digital copies.
Non-members can subscribe to receive print copies of Context. This costs £55 per year if you live in the UK or £79 if you live overseas.
You can also buy individual issues. Digital versions cost £7.50. Print versions cost £11.50 if you live in the UK or £15.50 if you live overseas.
If you haven’t received a copy of Context you should have received in the post, please let us know within 1 month so we can send you another copy.
Writing for Context
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Back issues
Contents snapshot
Editorial
Editorial – Ged Smith
Feature articles
A Ming vase in a charity shop’: An ordinary family therapist’s extraordinary work – An interview with Mark Hendy, by Charlie Chapman and Kate Evans
The ACEs in the graces – Jackie Lunt
Thinking systemically in acute settings and a trip to Spain – Michael Briggs
The life and role of an external examiner – Yvonne Ayo and Kerri Newns
Navigating the politics of not belonging – Sofia Koraidou
Tree of life responses: Exploring and developing ideas for future action – Caiomhe Cutrara, Clarissa Stevens, Barbara Rishworth and Abbie Unwin
Sporting systemic ideas – Luke Taylor
Systemic thinking as an ethical compass: Systemic practice in times of political and planetary crisis – Cinthe Lemmens
When therapy ignores injustice, it becomes complicit: Rethinking systemic practice through the lens of social justice – Yara Doumit Naufal
Cross-neurotype conversations: Systemic approaches to neurodivergence in the therapeutic relationship – Eloise Stark
Concentric circles of power and influence: Bringing dimension and polyphony to the CMM hierarchy model – Roland Glover
Reports and reviews
Sharon Bond – tributes – Yvonne Ayo, Kerri Newns, Elaine Holliday, Kate Creedy, Inger Gordon, Shakira Nkanang and Parveen Kaur
Sussex AFSP branch report – David Secrett
Association news
Contents snapshot
Editorial
Editorial – Mark Chidgey and Jo George
Feature articles
Kinship and community: Harnessing the power of family group conferencing for children in care – Alexandra Benyon
Heart and hope: The meaning of home for children and young people in foster care – Andrea Warman
Holding onto hope, talking and being with heart. Towards building home: Centring narratives of gain and moving away from narratives of loss – Shakila Emmanuel and Anees Fatima Hakim
From herd to community: How horses inspire hopeful journeys in residential childcare – Deborah Judge
Exploring art-making in therapeutic group work with unaccompanied, asylum-seeking, young men – Lucy Gorell Barnes
Complex caring systems: Systemic work within residential childcare – Abi Jordan and Samantha Hogan
Having to be systemic to survive: Personal and professional stories of being in care – a conversation – Susan Crawford and Mark Chidgey
Be-longing – Emma Palmer
The sleeping giant: Working systemically with sleep issues – Christy Reynolds
Reports and reviews
EFTA-NFTO Norway: Family therapy and systemic practice in Norway – Lennart Lorås
Looking back and forwards – Gillian Petrie
Association news
Contents snapshot
Editorial
Neuroscience and family systems: You’ve got another think coming! – Chip Chimera and Rudi Dallos
Feature articles
With a little help from my friends: The social engagement mode and recovery from trauma – Rudi Dallos and Arlene Vetere
Neuron – Hannah Watts
The body in the room: Integrating somatic and systemic practice in adoption work – Charlotte Jaggar
Functional neurological disorder in children and adolescents: A journey through mind-body medicine – Kasia Kozlowska
Attachment narrative therapy: Integrating neurobiology, attachment, trauma theory and narrative coherence within systemic family therapy – Rudi Dallos and Rebecca Stancer
Neurobiology thoughts, and trauma from a systemic and Buddhist perspective – Jeremy Woodcock
The unexpected benefits of combined systemic therapy with eye movement desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR) – Nicola Dyson
The relevance of neurobiology for working systemically with high-conflict separated parents and triangulated children – Chip Chimera and Rudi Dallos
The embodiment of therapeutic practice: A developmental step for the systemic tradition – Jim Sheehan and Brendan McKiernan
How clinical psychologists can draw upon systemic practice in perinatal mental health – Abbey Ashton
Systemic skills training – Lisa Rudgley and Anne Lion
Reports and reviews
News from the Journal of Family Therapy – Sarah Helps
A unified vision: The expanding role of AFSP branches in the UK – Sanah Bukhari and Beccy Holttum
International Family Therapy Association Congress, Bergen, Norway, 26-28 March 2026 – Sarah Helps, Shan Tate and Chip Chimera
Association news
Contents snapshot
Editorial
Editorial – Carole Payne
Feature articles
Paradoxes of progress: Systemic reflections on family, politics, and the economics of care – Charlie Azzopardi
Political identity in the social GRACES model – Daniel Absolon
Sitting in the middle – Kamaljeet (Kam) Kaur
Developing new insights: The impact of foundation level training in systemic practice on a music therapist’s clinical work – Jane Cooper
The best place to hide a tree: Professional grief and debriefing in a community mental health team – Alison Hall
Bridging the gaps in care for looked-after children: A systemic perspective and a model of good practice – Songul Güler Tas
Dads’ group: Creating a group intervention with men whose children are known to children’s services – Lauren Hills and Joseph Grabiner-Wolfson
The internal boardroom: A framework for developing conversations with anorexia and eating disorders – Robert Tyrer and Mark Garrard
Peer Open Dialogue Dorset: An invitation into a different kind of conversation – Dan Hallett and Cassie Smith
Beyond symbols and lines: Feeling seen and represented within genograms – Michelle Warner
Bells that ring and bells that clang: Some of my experiential and experimental encounters with systemic supervision, theory and practice – Phil Laing
Holding relational silence: A compass for practice – Daniel S. Ionescu
Eight things every therapist needs to know about family estrangement – Karl Melvin
Intuition and improvisation: A jammed journey and an ADHD adaptation – Roland Glover
Reports and reviews
Update from the Asian Academy of Family Therapy conference, 24-26 June 2026 – Sarah Helps
Association news
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