Systems-Centered Therapy (SCT) is an innovative approach to psychotherapy that synthesizes a finely tuned awareness of the defensive roles of anxiety, depression, and other common presenting problems with a groundbreaking analysis of the phases of group development. This seminal volume from SCT originator Yvonne M. Agazarian introduces the author's theory of living human systems and explicitly maps out its operationalization in a structured treatment model applicable to work with any population. Shifting the central focus of the therapy group from self to system, the book explicates essential new methods, such as functional subgrouping and boundarying, and shows how active intervention in the group process can direct the energy of members toward the goals of therapy. Extensive illustrative dialogues elucidate the ways that the SCT approach both frees groups from unproductive patterns and helps members achieve a more authentic, integrated experience of the here-and-now.

In contrast to most therapies, which encourage the therapist to observe and follow the movement of the group as it unfolds, the SCT approach requires therapists to immediately bring defenses to clients' attention while simultaneously teaching them the skills they need to modify them. The book identifies three discrete phases in group developmentauthority, intimacy, and work - and shows how treatment in each phase comprises a sequenced hierarchy of defense modifications, beginning with the simplest and progressing to the most complex. Portraying SCT work as a partnership in which the therapist governs the structure of the therapy and clients make a series of manageable choices at different "forks-in-the-road," Agazarian describes each group meeting as a cohesive "minitherapy" which allows participants to work on problems of varying degrees in a timely and efficient fashion.