Reflecting team

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · Tom Andersen · 1985 · Tromsø, Norway

What it is

A way of organising a therapeutic conversation so that the people seeking help alternate between talking (about their concern, with an interviewer) and listening (to professionals, the "reflecting team", talk openly among themselves about what they heard), and then talk again about what struck them…

Format

• There are no treatment phases or fixed session numbers in the sources; the structure is the sequence within a meeting, repeated as often as useful.
• Number and spacing of meetings. Not specified in the sources. Andersen is commonly reported to let the family decide whether and when to meet again, often at longer intervals than weekly. A practicum version runs a ~100-minute block: 30 min team pre-session, 30 min session, 15 min intersession, 15…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• It is more a framework than a fixed therapy. Andersen preferred "reflecting processes" to "reflecting team", because a team behind a mirror is only one of many ways to arrange talking and listening; he resisted its reduction to a technique. It is used inside family, couple, individual, network, supervision and training work, and became a core element of Open Dialogue network meetings. No licence, certification or…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Family deferring to you on timing; give them options rather than deciding.
• Team members forming a shared hypothesis before the reflection (loses multiplicity).
• Evaluation of the trainee disguised as reflection; keep it tentative and non-judgemental.
• Team members drifting into generic praise; assign one member to monitor and redirect the format.
• Cleverness for its own sake. Working when people take up the question with some interest and energy.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.