Third‐Order Thinking in Family Therapy: Addressing Social Justice Across Family Therapy Practice

• Author: Carmen Knudson‐Martin,J. Maria Bermudez,Teresa McDowell
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12383
• Date: 01 March 2019
• Published date: 01 March 2019

Third-Order Thinking in Family Therapy: Addressing

Social Justice Across Family Therapy Practice

TERESA McDOWELL*

CARMEN KNUDSON-MARTIN*

J. MARIA BERMUDEZ

†

We contend that the field of family therapy is undergoing a notable shift from second- to

third-order thinking. We offer theoretical support and examples to demonstrate how third-

order thinking provides a framework for integrating heightened sociocultural attunement

into family therapy practice. We discuss the importance of third-order thinking relative to

being prepared to invite families into third-order change. Finally, we offer a case example

to show specific guidelines for third-order practice.

Keywords: Third Order; Thinking; Change; Family Therapy

Fam Proc 58:9–22, 2019

THIRD-ORDER THINKING IN FAMILY THERAPY

Family therapy instituted a new way of thinking that framed clinical problems as part

of a larger whole and enabled practices that targeted systemic change. Although many

family therapists and scholars still consider themselves systems thinkers, a first-order,

general systems approach was limited and relatively short-lived; primarily because the

metaphor of families as being similar to mechanical or biological self-correcting systems

was reductionistic. Feminist family scholars challenged first-order thinking by pointing

out how inequities in societal systems impact family roles and power dynamics (Hair,

Fine, & Ryan, 1996; Hare-Mustin, 1978). In time, Hoffman (1981, 1985) and others (e.g.,

Anderson & Goolishan, 1992; Keeney, 1983) called for second-order systems thinking; a

shift that included acknowledging the influence of our own context and viewpoint on how

we “know” families with whom we work. Second-order thinking opened the door for recog-

nizing the impact of the therapist’s role in the therapeutic system and understanding fam-

ily therapy itself as a situated, polyvocal, and potentially contested process. Social

constructivists ushered in yet another shift, challenging the very foundations of our

advent as uniquely relying on systems theory to understand families (Dickerson, 2014)

and expanding the focus on social context.

We argue that critical and social constructivist understandings of power and social con-

text are leading to another important shift that has the potential to influence practice

across family therapy models. What we are calling third-order thinking builds on our past,

drawing on Bateson’s (1972) idea of third-order learning to make visible systems of sys-

tems. By systems of systems, we mean the complex interaction within and between

To read this article in Spanish, please see the article’s Supporting Information on Wiley Online Library

(wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/famp).

*Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling, Portland, OR.

†

University of Georgia, Athens, GA.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Teresa McDowell, Ed.D., Chair Depart-

ment of Counseling Psychology MSC 86, Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling,

0615 S.W. Palatine Hill Rd., Portland, OR, 97219. E-mail: teresamc@lclark.edu

9

Family Process, Vol. 58, No. 1, 2019 ©2018 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12383