Beyond neutrality - A politically oriented systemic intervention

This paper focuses on the necessity to expand some perspectives of systemic interventions beyond the therapeutic room. It relates to situations where the problem presented by the client system arises from a political ideology that marginalizes the client system. The consideration of new alternatives requires a dialogue about the ideology of the client system and the ideologies held by others - the therapist, the people in the main stream, etc. Balancing between sharing therapist prejudices, i.e. political ideology, being neutral in understanding the narrative and meaning of the client system ideology, and being irreverent towards all ideologies, is useful in enabling the consideration of new alternatives. This is illustrated by the case of a supervisor/dialogue process with a group of Jewish family therapists living in the situation of political uncertainty on the West Bank of the Jordan, an area that has been occupied by Israel for three decades and a focal point of the changes proscribed by the Oslo Peace Agreement.