Relational-multigenerational therapy

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · Maurizio Andolfi · 1979 · Rome, Italy

What it is

An experiential, systemic-relational family therapy developed by the Italian psychiatrist Maurizio Andolfi and colleagues at the Accademia di Psicoterapia della Famiglia in Rome. The Accademia also teaches it, through a four-year training course. It draws on Bowen, Framo, Whitaker, Minuchin,…

Format

• Andolfi does not publish fixed phases or session counts. The sequence below comes from the phases his 2011 paper describes and the contents of the 2017 book (observation, assessment, therapeutic story, language, body, silence and touch).
• Format. Conjoint sessions with whoever lives with the problem, opened out to grandparents, siblings, extended family and other significant people as therapy proceeds. In the Rome clinical service, two or more therapists work in co-therapy. A team of about five or six observes behind a one-way…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: Maurizio Andolfi's multigenerational family therapy as set out in Multi-generational Family Therapy: Tools and Resources for the Therapist (Routledge, 2017; Italian original 2015), together with his "bottom-up" child-as-family-guide method (Andolfi 2011; Andolfi 2016 Springer chapter; Ackerman Institute workshop 2024). Earlier concepts (provocation and holding, trigenerational triangles, family…
• What it is. An experiential, systemic-relational family therapy developed by the Italian psychiatrist Maurizio Andolfi and colleagues at the Accademia di Psicoterapia della Famiglia in Rome. The Accademia also teaches it, through a four-year training course. It draws on Bowen, Framo, Whitaker, Minuchin, Ackerman and Satir. Andolfi's sources describe it as a clinical approach and a stance, not a session-by-session…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• 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

• Rituals imposed from outside the family's culture.
• Blurred boundaries, and services pulling the therapist into a control role.
• Escalation beyond safe limits. Stop and contain if conflict threatens anyone.
• Comments on the body that feel exposing. Keep them descriptive and tentative.
• Silence that feels like abandonment to an anxious client. Stay visibly engaged.

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.