Category: Family

This Q & A discussion at the end of 2 days of the FSI conference drew from Victoria Harrison’s presentation on her research: the Observations of Change project. This project aims: To investigate changes that can be observed in physiology and in functioning for an individual and his or her family that accompany working on […]

Couples in Conflict = Clarifying the distinction between violence and frequent conflict *This is a version of a blog published by Jenny Brown on her site: www.jennybrown.info I’m sitting down to write about couple conflict.  With so much important publicity recently about the serious end of the spectrum of domestic violence I’ve thought it useful […]

As our conference on addictions and the family system approaches it is timely for each of us to ask: What patterns in our family, can contribute to misuse of tranquilising substances (or behaviours & activities)? Many families can look back over the generations and see that there have been people who have been over reliant on […]

Lily Mailler “Symptomatic individuals play a functional role on behalf of the equilibrium of the family unit; in other words the symptom serves to regulate the instinctual forces of emotional distance and closeness in the family.” “In contrast to an individual psychology approach like CBT, the focus in therapy is less on changing or fixing […]

 by Jenny Brown “focuses on what happened, and on how and when and where it happened “ in order to see the bigger picture In October 2014 Mark Driscoll, a prominent US pastor of a mega church resigned. Unlike many examples of clergy falling from grace this was not prompted by exposure of a criminal or […]

Lily Mailler –  The media had a field day when Harriet Wran, the youngest daughter of well-known Labor politician and ex NSW premier Neville Wran (deceased), was implicated last year in the murder of a man inside a Redfern housing commission flat. In many of the newspaper articles I read it was clear that this young […]

Since starting the Certificate Program at the Family Systems Institute, I have struggled to understand my own primary triangle- that is the triangle of relationships between me, my mother and my father, because such a critical person in this puzzle, my mother, had died when I was only six years old. The first, and probably […]

Blog post written by Lily Mailler. “Becoming a less anxious and more thoughtful parent goes beyond technique and changing others” In a recent talk I attended at a local school on ‘Anxiety and children’ the presenter, Associate Professor Jennifer Hudson, shared with the audience some interesting research findings and observations. Here are but a few […]

“Are more of my energies going into reading and trying to manage relationships than going into my responsibilities?”   The topic of resilience has been getting lots of attention over the past years. It seems that many have realised that it is more helpful to aim for improved resilience than increased happiness. The core of […]

Blog post by Martina Palombi Member of FSI Certificate program. Psychotherapist in private practice. www.affinitypsychotherapy.com   I recently attended the Family System Institute’s Annual Conference 2014 on Leadership in the Family, Community and at Work with keynote speaker Walter Howard Smith, Ph.D.The first day focused on Leadership in the Family whilst the second day focused […]