A review of the place of the therapeutic relationship within systemic approaches to therapy is provided. This serves to contextualize the findings of a research study that subjects therapy sessions to a discursive analysis. The purpose of the analysis is to learn more about the therapeutic relationship through an examination of what actually takes place in sessions. Moments in therapy where therapeutic engagement is stronger and moments when it is weaker are identified and analysed. The discursive contours of a robust therapeutic relationship are highlighted. A theoretical account of the constituents of a stronger therapeutic relationship is constructed from this analysis. But let me tell you something about experience. It outstrips all accounts of it. All ulterior versions. The weight of this sad time we must obey;Speak what we feel not what we ought to say.

Contemporary family therapy theorists have shown an interest in narrative metaphors and sought to situate systemic therapy within the terms of postmodernist, and specifically social constructionist discourses. By this fact a challenge is presented to the researcher: how to rigorously evaluate theoretical propositions while employing a methodology that is congruent with the assumptive base of family therapy. This paper represents an attempt to rise to this challenge. A research study is presented that seeks to subject family therapy theory to systematic scrutiny while avoiding the importation of a philosophical framework that is out of step with the roots that sustain this theory. Transcripts of family therapy sessions are subjected to a discursive analysis in order to demonstrate the actual enactment of theoretical premises in therapy and the effects upon all participants. The findings are discussed in relation to the adequacy of available explanatory frameworks and the implications for the researching of this form of psychotherapeutic activity are explored.

This article is drawn from a research project that examines cross‐cultural family therapy sessions in order to consider what constitutes culturally sensitive practice. A discourse analytic approach was adopted in the analysis of three sessions from two families where the family and the therapists originated from different ethnic backgrounds. This article is based around part of the research findings connected to one of the families, and focuses upon the ways in which ‘culture’ is talked about in therapy (the term ‘culture’ will be referred to in inverted commas in order to acknowledge its complexity as is emphasized in this article). This allows for an examination of the cultural assumptions that we hold as therapists, which are enacted in therapy with effects on all participants and upon the course of the therapy. The value of qualitative research methods in examining the cultural assumptions we bring to therapy is highlighted as one way of improving culturally sensitive therapeutic practice, especially with regard to therapist reflexivity.

The epistemological turn towards social constructionism has become well established within the field of family systemic therapy. Social constructionism has provided therapists with a theoretical rationale for the concentration upon the social context within which individuals and families live their lives. This is a philosophical position that pushes to the margins the positivist premise that individuals have fixed and measurable personalities in favour of a discourse which proposes that the person is encountered differently within different social contexts. Prompted by the growing interest in systemic practice with individuals and by the rediscovery of the psychoanalytic canon within family therapy literature, the adequacy of this position is examined and an attempt is made to open up a space within social constructionist discourse for a theory of individual subjectivity. Findings from a research project are the starting point for this venture. These findings are understood through the lens of psychoanalytic theory, with particular reference to the work of Jacques Lacan.

It has been a challenge to IAPT services to deliver psychological therapies that are accessible to all sections of the local community and that are culturally sensitive. This paper makes use of experience in Newham in offering some suggestions for working toward this aspiration.