The development of the Reflecting Team Utterances Framework: Process, reflections and applications

Abstract

The Reflecting Team (RT) has been a common companion of systemic practitioners since Tom Andersen first described its use (Andersen, 1987). Despite the widespread acceptance of such ideas in modern Systemic Practice, there is limited research into the RT method.We hoped to contribute to the broader research aim of exploring how and why reflecting team conversations lead to change by addressing the following question: is it possible to reliably categorise the utterances of the RT to form a framework? We used a content analysis to analyse and categorise over three hours of reflecting team conversations from four different clinical teams. This resulted in the identification of eleven discrete categories including: 'they asked a question to you as a family', 'they highlighted something positive and they commented on their own emotions'. We go on to discuss potential applications of this Reflecting Team Utterances Framework and our reflections on the process.