Change process in systemic therapy: a qualitative investigation

This study addresses the process of therapeutic change in individuals who received systemic therapy. This study is an exploratory qualitative study based on the client's perceptions and therapeutic experiences. The sample included 10 clients who had completed their therapy with systemic therapists. The method used for the collection of the data was semi-structured interviews (Change Interview; Elliott, Slatick, & Urman, 2001). The interviews were analysed using grounded theory analysis. The results showed that both specific and common factors in therapy function in a co-occurring mode, hence suggesting a synergy effect between common factors and specific techniques or therapist factors in psychotherapy. The core category ‘experience of therapeutic change, within the secure frame of therapy, is a process of deconstructing and reconstructing the house you live in: Yourself’ emerged based on self-exploration and self-discovery and is then discussed in a theoretical constructivist framework. Implications for research on the issue of the process of therapeutic change are discussed.