Family therapy is a way of working with people with problems.
It is based on the idea that the behaviour of individuals and families is influenced and maintained by the way other individuals and systems interact with them. This way of working involves engaging with the whole family system as a functioning unit. But family therapy is more than this. It includes a much wider range of work than can fit under the heading of therapy. Understanding workers' agency organisation and inter-agency functioning allows a family systems approach to be adapted to other kinds of helping agencies.