The authors aim to ‘describe a therapeutic encounter with a family in which they felt issues around growth were a central theme to the work’. It is clear that this family presented many complex issues and the case in itself was far from being as straightforward as, ‘the problem the parents were having with their elder son Martin’. This was a very stimulating paper and, commenting as a systemic practitioner, I was struck by a wide range of issues in this paper. For example, there is the family's relationship to the therapists and the therapists' relationship to one another. There are issues in relation to culture, gender and the influence on parenting. There are family values, parental/marital relationship and adolescence. This family system can also be seen within a wider social and economical context.

I was intrigued by the application of a psychodynamic group model to working with this family. As this is not a model that I currently use in my practice I was interested