Systemic psychotherapists as expert witnesses in the family court: ‘visitors to another world’?

摘要

This article is based on research on the interface between systemic psychotherapists who as expert witnesses write reports for the family court in England and the judges who receive them. It explores how well a systemic stance is suited to this type of work and whether there is scope for more systemic therapists to involve themselves in it. The research was conducted through semi‐structured interviews with systemic psychotherapists with experience of acting as expert witnesses and with family court judges. The results were analysed using grounded theory. In the process of the research the focus expanded from an abstract epistemological enquiry to include more practical aspects of connection and difference. Findings indicated that whilst a systemic and relational approach would seem particularly well suited to this work, it was not ‘visible’ as such to lawyers involved in commissioning expert witnesses. This raises the question as to whether there is an ethical responsibility on practitioners to highlight the potential usefulness of systemic thinking in this context. Practitioner points An approach which promotes relational thinking and addresses issues of marginalization is under‐represented in family court work but is well suited to and needed in it Systemic practitioners face theoretical, personal and practical challenges in undertaking it The systemic community has an ethical responsibility to consider whether there is scope for it to make a greater contribution in this area