Context magazine
In this edition
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
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.
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Writing for Context
Interesting in writing an article for the magazine? We welcome views on family and systemic psychotherapy from everyone, regardless of where you are in your career or what your background is.
Back issues
Contents snapshot
Editorial – Nick Pendry
Stronger families, safer children – Alison Noble and Paula Newsome
Developing social work using systemic ideas – managing risk differently – Sam Howlett
“Have you got a minute?” – recognising the pressures of time in a safeguarding context – Karen Schiltroth
Can you be ‘systemic’ in a social work crisis? Liz Bosanquet
Safety, production and back again: A recursive relationship between social work and systemic practice – Sarah Favier
Systemic positioning within social care: Making the most of Munro – Mark Chidgey and Helen Mahaffey
Systemic landscapes for thinking and acting in inter-agency meetings – Barbara McKay
When social workers do the right thing: A whole cloud of philosophy condensed into a drop of grammar – Richard McKenny
Uncovering the invisible wounds of socio-cultural trauma in working with oppressed children and families – Kenneth Hardy
Simon, G. & Chard, A. (eds.) (2014) Systemic Inquiry; Innovations in reflexive Practice Research. London: Everything is Connected Press. Reviewed by Ged Smith
AFT Annual Conference 2014: Irrevence – (Dis)respect, freedoms, loyalty, ethics & survival. In association with Merseyside AFT.
The Family Institute honours Philippa Seligman; founding member of AFT
AFT news
Contents snapshot
Editorial – Kevin Hawkes, Val Jackson and Alex Reed
Open dialogues with clients with mental health problems and their families – Jaakko Seikkula
Open dialogue – a family perspective – Jen Kilyon
On being dialogical: An ethics of ‘attunement’ – John Shotter
An illuminated bridge to open dialogue in the fog of life – Ray Middleton
Getting on with it: The Early Network Response trial in Leeds – Val Jackson
Open dialogue in Somerset? Frank Burbach, Chris Sheldrake and Estelle Rapsey
Becoming dialogical in Nottingham – Corrine Hendy, Diane Wright, Linda Sunderland and James Shutt
Braiding hopes and intentions with people affected by intellectual disabilities and their networks of family and carers – Glenda Fredman and Henrik Lynggaard
Early contact family meetings in psychiatric services – Kevin Hawkes and Alex Reed
Peer-supported open dialogue – Mark Hopfenbeck
Getting ‘withness’– thinking through theatrical improvisation – Matt Selman
What constitutes an open-dialogue training? Education, education, education – Nick Putman
Breakthrough moments: Open dialogue in the Ridiculusmus play, “The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland” – David Woods
Combining the use of open dialogue with narrative therapy – Hugh Fox
Widening the dialogue: Psychoanalysis and open dialogue – Brian Martindale
Mindfulness and open dialogue: A common foundation and a common practice – Russell Razzaque
Montagu, R. (2014) A Humour of Love: A Memoir. London: Quartet Books – Reviewed by Alasdair Macdonald
Imelda McCarthy, Friends of KCC workshop: A day of retreat in the fifth province, 7 November 2014 – Mary Spence
Conference report: Parental alienation, October 2014, London – Nick Child and David Secrett
Memories of Luigi Boscolo (1932-2015) – Paolo Bertrando and Brian Cade
Interactions – news and updates from AFT project 4 – Karen Holford
Reflections on Clare Margaret Hawks, 1957-2014
AFT news
Contents snapshot
Editorial – Yoko Totsuka
Working as an expert witness within the family courts – the performance of giving evidence – Sarah Helps
So what about the children? Offender deportation and systemic social-work expertise – Alastair Pearson
Well-judged interventions? Sue Hickman
Under pressure: A child psychotherapist’s perspective on parenting assessments – Beverley Tydeman
A six-step invariant consultation model: Helping family workers have new ideas for going forward – Percy Aggett
Live supervision and the ‘team without the screen’: A home-based approach to training social workers in systemic practice – Jenny Summer
‘There is no room in CAMHS for providing intervention without an evidence base’: The case against – Bernadette Wren
One step at a time: Talking about strength-based approaches – Yoko Totsuka
The AFT project diaries:
- AFT project 4 – developing the membership – Karen Holford
- AFT project 1 – developing the profession – Tessa Jones
Honorary doctorate for Peter Lang – Sharn Tomlinson and Miriam Richardson
AFT news
Contents snapshot
Editorial – Brian Cade
Family therapy, the third wave and the day-to-day work of an outreach worker – Stefania Angela Parks
Reflections on the introduction of a loving-kindness orientation in an NHS CAMHS family therapy clinic – Jane Wilson
The declaration of interdependence: Remaking supervision – Paul Hackett
A leopard changing its spots, an old dog learning new tricks: Advanced brief-strategic therapy with a septuagenarian – Don Boardman
A window of hope: Capturing the ethos of a third sector well-being group from the perspective of a group facilitator – Julia Evans
Speaking as a listener: The dialogical word – Tanisha Curthan
Therapeutic space and the creation of meaning – Blanche Douglas
‘Culture’ in child mental health assessment – Begum Maitra and Muffazal Rawala
Course feedback in family therapy training as a transformative dialogue: Creating a context for reflexive learning – Gail Bradbury
AFT 40th Anniversary Conference, 16 – 17 April 2015, Durham: Daring to be Different – a time to remember, looking back to the future
Minutes of the 39th AGM of The Association For Family Therapy and Systemic Practice held on 18 September 2014 at the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool
Report of the Directors and Unaudited Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31st December 2014 for The Association for Family Therapy Ltd (a Company Limited by Guarantee)
2015 annual reports
AFT news
Contents snapshot
Editorial – Pat Gray
Culturally grounded therapy in the Palestinian context: Lessons learned by an African American therapist – Makungu Akinyela
Inspiration – Alison Herbert
The Noahgram – part 2 – Noah Solarin
Can the over-intellectualisation of racism within the context of the GRRAACCEESS be its downfall and that of the therapeutic community as a whole? – Calvin Malcolm
Placing black children with white carers: Does it matter? – Brenda O’Loughlin
Journeying self: Back to the future. Dedicated to my father, Md. Mosaddar Khan – Nasima Khanom
Reflection on self-identity and working with difference – Charity Tawodzera
Making visible the invisible – Parveen Kaur
Systemic film evenings – Noah Solarin, Lucy Cavanagh, Annette Barrett, Nasima Khanom and Liz Day
Whose family name? – Yvonne Ayo
A dolly like me – Kenyah Nyameche
Aspens noticeboard
AFT news
AFT Code of Ethics and Practice
Contents snapshot
Editorial – Ged Smith
The art of neglecting children: Passing the responsibility back – Brian Cade
Avoiding a complaint – is it good enough? Do we need a practical and useable framework for positive ethics? – Chris Burroughes
Using systemically-informed consultation in a residential older- adult care home to understand repeat referrals made to a community mental health team – Tim Clarke, Tal Moore, Dave Bennett, Julia Weatherley and Constantina Markides
PDQ-4, a diagnostic tool used in the individual systemic therapy of a patient with panic disorder: A case study – Dimitra Siousioura
Panic attacks: Some stories – Brian Cade
A multi-family workshop with donor-conceived teenagers and parents – Roni Pea, Lorna Brunstein and Nessa O’Mahony
Clinical psychology, power and position: A reflection at resignation – Chrissie Blackburn
“What are your best hopes?” Some developments in solution-focused brief therapy – Chris Iveson
Generations – a short story – Ged Smith
Simulating families: Building confidence and skills in working with families and networks – Christopher Kowalski, Isabelle Ekdawi, Claire Parry and Sabrina Phillips
Through the haziness of what is systemic: A critical self-reflexive question – Chiara Santin
Delivering the tree of life group as a pre-therapy intervention for clients from black and minority ethnic backgrounds experiencing first-episode psychosis – Chanelle Myrie and Louisa Codjoe
Branch reports: Annual reports from AFT branches
Mandy … a conversation – Christine Stupples and Ros Jackson
Life Appreciation for Brendan Flynn: 1958 – 2015 – John Hills
1st Systemic Postgraduate Research Conference – Karen Carberry and Maureen Taylor
Overcoming problems – creating possibilities through…wrestling with restraints and embracing resources in therapy and supervision – Report by Beryl Sanderson on workshop by John Burnham
AFT news
Also of interest
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