| The purpose of this study was to complete a critical review of the literature on Ecosystemic theory and explore how change arises in both the therapist and client so that a more complete model may be developed of how Ecosystemic therapy may be used. Unlike early therapeutic practice which adopted a linear cause and effect thinking between the client and the client's problem, systems theory began looking at larger issues or relationships as the root cause of an individual's problem. Ecosystemic theory expands on systems theory, enlarging the field of inquiry to many sociocultural factors which compose the client's environment. Ecosystemic theory focuses on the "goodness of fit," or match, between an individual's ability to perform and the environmental demands. The goal is to improve this "goodness of fit."; Ecosystemic theory considers the individual's family relationships, race, ethnicity, culture and religion, and regional systems such as geography, national, and political systems, and the context of historical time. Ecosystemic theory has lacked a model which demonstrates how the process of change arises in an ecosystemically oriented therapy. To gain a deeper understanding of change theory and its learning environment, theories of change and the process of how one incorporates information was explored through the use of journal articles, books, and published research.; In this paper, emphasis was placed on how change occurred in Ecosystemic therapy, particularly as the therapist's and client's mutually interactive ecosystemic experience processed a model of reality in which the ecosystems of therapist and client joined. As the therapist and client engaged in a process of mutual learning, theory, environmental change, learning, and assimilation were explored. The therapist and client became part of each other's ecosystems and joined each other's frames of reference, introducing a new way to gain "goodness of fit" in the client's world. Case examples which incorporated ecosystemic therapy were included to demonstrate how ecosystemic questioning was utilized in the psychotherapy process. |
