Positional responsibility in systemic-dialogical therapy

Abstract

Responsibility is a dimension often overlooked in systemic and family therapy, possibly because of its connection with blame, especially toward victims of violence or abuse. Systemic-dialogical therapy, however, gives relevance to responsibility, in the form of positional responsibility; that is, the responsibility one may take regarding one’s position in the relevant systems and contexts one is embedded in, and the ability to find one’s place within them. To help clients in such efforts, therapists must, in turn, take responsibility for the development of the therapeutic process. The process of taking responsibility in therapy, therefore, is twofold: it concerns clients, of course, but it also involves the therapist. This article proposes a method for working on positional responsibility in clinical work, illustrating it with clinical examples.