Family Systems In 15 Minutes

This episode of Family Systems in 15 Minutes , hosted by Oliver Drakeford LMFT CGP covers complementarity — a concept from Minuchin's family systems theory. Core idea: Every person's behavior organizes everyone else's in a family, like a mobile where pulling one piece moves all the others. Problems don't live in one person; they live in the space between family members. Sign up for...

In this episode of Family Systems in 15 Minutes , I’m looking at one of the sneakiest structural problems in family therapy: what happens when parents stop being in charge. In family therapy, the authority issues are usually much harder to spot. They show up as “communication problems,” school refusal, anxiety, conflict, curfew debates, or one parent being “too harsh” while the other becomes “the...

Reframes in family systems therapy are one of the most powerful tools a therapist can use — and one of the least explicitly taught. In this video I break down FRAME, a five-step framework for formulating and delivering reframes that actually land, using a single family case study from first session to intervention. Whether you're new to family therapy or looking to sharpen your structural fami...

This week I get into circular questioning, the approach I reach for most when I want a family to stop handing out blame and start noticing the pattern they're all standing inside. I sort it into five types, something I wish someone had laid out for me years earlier, and I talk through the one thing that separates a question that moves a family from one that only sounds clever. Oh and I include...

Parental alienation is one of the most heartbreaking dynamics therapists encounter when working with divorced families. In this video, I break down the five structural stages of parental alienation through the lens of Salvador Minuchin's family systems theory—so you can recognize it early, assess it accurately, and intervene effectively. Whether you're a therapist working with teens who refuse to...

I want to make the case that everything you've already learned as a family systems therapist transfers directly into working with teams and organizations. The theory, the clinical instincts, the assessment approach: it all applies. In this episode I break down the eight structural areas I examine when I'm consulting with managers and workplace teams, all drawn directly from structural fami...

Have you ever walked out of a session knowing something felt off — tense, charged, heavy — but struggled to find the clinical language to describe it? In this episode, I unpack a deceptively simple framework that gives therapists a more precise lens for what's actually happening in the room. This is the audio version of my free weekly family therapy newsletter. Subscribe to it here: https://ww...

Learn the essential techniques that make structural family therapy so effective. In this comprehensive guide, I break down each core technique with practical examples and real-world applications to help you work more effectively with families. Whether you're a seasoned family therapist or just starting out, these techniques will transform how you approach family sessions. From establishing rap...

I break down a practical, real-world structural family systems therapy assessment kit built from a mistake I made early in my career. Despite strong rapport and supportive techniques, I completely missed what was actually driving change in the family. What I learned is that without a clear structure for assessing what’s happening in the room, therapists get pulled into the family’s story instead o...

Every family faces stress at some point, but the way they handle it is often part of the reason they come to see a family therapist. Understanding where stress comes from is important. In my experience, most assessments look at just one area, but families often face stress from several sources at once. In this post, we’ll explore where stress comes from and how to see how a family is handling...

When a child in your caseload is lying constantly, the first question most parents want answered is how to stop it. In this episode, I want to offer a better one: what is this lie actually doing? From a family systems perspective, lying is almost never just bad behavior — it's a signal embedded in a pattern. I walk through the two main types of lying that show up in family work, five specific patt...