Introducing SCT®:
Systems-Centered® Training and Systems-Centered Practice

Yvonne M. Agazarian

What is Systems-centered Training?

Systems-centered training introduces change Practitioners – consultants, psychotherapists, coaches, interested people – to the theory and practice of systems-centered methods for reducing the restraining forces to natural system resources (in families, individuals, groups, teams, organizations) for survival, development and transformation.

What is Systems-centered Practice?

Systems-centered practice assumes that self-centeredness is the major source of conflicts at work and at home and that personalizing is the major source of personal pain and difficulty in organizations.

SCT enables a shift from self-centered relationships to an increased awareness of the self in a systems-centered context. With systems-centered awareness comes an increasing ability to make the transitions in relationships that are required in the multiple contexts of every day, both at home and at work. As we learn to relate to each other in a goal-oriented way, we learn that every context has its own goals, and every change in goal requires a corresponding change in role.

Systems-centered practice is developed from a theory of living human systems and tests the hypothesis that by systematically modifying the restraining forces in the context of the phases of system development, participants will reduce the forces that inhibit change and release the drive so that energy can be directed towards the goals of change.

How does SCT Work?

Systems-centered practice systematically weakens the restraining forces to change by modifying them in a structured sequence that paces the person’s (and group’s) ability to choose. In the process of modifying each restraining force, members acquire skills so that they can develop a force field around their own conflicts, and thus identify and weaken the easiest of their restraints.

SCT practice requires people to explore their experience rather than explain it. This is the SCT “fork-in-the-road of choice”: either to explore the restraining force or to explore what is being defended against. In the individual, symptoms of anxiety, tension, depression and irritability are reduced and access to the common sense information that exists in the mind, body and emotions is regained. In groups and organizations, flight from the challenges of the work is reduced and access to the common sense resources of emotional intelligence is increased.

For the change practitioner, clear outcome criteria are identified for each step in the sequence of defense modification and thus it becomes possible to identify readiness before the next step is taken in the SCT strategy of intervention.

The goal of all the steps in Systems-centered practice is to keep taking the “fork-in-the-road of choice” away from personal wishes and fears and to enter every-day reality with common-sense, curiosity and a sense of humor.

Some questions people ask about systems-centered ideas and the theory of living human systems

What is a living human system?

A living human system is an idea - it comes into existence when you think about it and disappears when you don’t.

Why think about living human systems?

The purpose of thinking up new ideas is that they open the door to new ways of thinking and seeing. Ideas are only useful if they allow us to do things in the world that we couldn’t do before we saw the world through different eyes. Thinking “systems-centered” instead of “person-centered” is an example of this.

Why think about people as if they were systems?

Thinking systems-centered adds a new dimension to how we think about people. As therapists or consultants or managers or supervisors, thinking systems-centered will permanently alter the way that we think about how to influence the process of change in individual people and in the groups and in the many organizations that people develop.

For example: As therapists and organizational consultants we know that no work can be done until there is a good working alliance. Translated into systems-centered thinking we say that a goal-directed working system has developed, created by the way the client system and the consultant (therapist, coach, etc.) communicate to each other. It is the system that determines what work can be done. This is true for all communications, with oneself, with each other, with a group or in an organization.

For example: Thinking systems-centered means thinking about the dynamics of the system itself as the context in which the people exist when they are engaged in the process of change. From a systems-centered point of view it is the context, not the person, that determines what changes can be made and how. Recognizing this, we do not require of ourselves or others to make changes that the state of the system makes it impossible to achieve. Sometimes we must change the larger system before we can change others or ourselves.

What does it mean to say that all systems develop through predictable phases?

Each phase of system development has its own particular driving and restraining forces. By systematically weakening the restraining forces, the drive towards the next phase is released. Thus, the changes in each phase build on the ones before and prepare for the ones that come next. By identifying the phase, the practitioner knows which restraining forces to undo and which not.

What is system isomorphy and why is it important?

System isomorphy is the idea that all systems in a hierarchy (like an employee in a team in a division in a company) have similarities in how they function and in how their boundaries are organized. The technical definition of isomorphy is: systems in a hierarchy are similar in structure and function and different in different contexts. This idea is important because it means that when one has defined the structure (boundaries) and function (managing similarities and differences) for a system hierarchy, whatever one discovers about the structure and/or function of any one sub-system will apply to all other systems in the hierarchy. Influencing the therapeutic system or the work system (team or organization) as it is being built will make it more likely that the system itself will be a major driving force in reaching the goals of change at all levels of the hierarchy.