Systems-Centered Practice

Yvonne M. Agazarian, Ed.D., FAGPA, FAPA, CGP, developed a theory of living human systems and its systems-centered practice. She has authored or co-authored six books and in 1997 she received the Group Psychologist of the Year award from the American Psychological Association, with the following citation: 'She exemplifies the finest in scholarship in the discipline of psychology...Her considerable body of work illustrates the highest blend of creativity and learning.'

'New innovations attract adherents who share the excitement of discovery, who practice amongst themselves these new ways of understanding the life we live in groups. Yvonne's work has significantly changed our understandings of sociality, and her contributions are receiving their well-merited recognition.'- Malcolm Pines, from the Foreword'Dr. Agazarian has done what few of us have dared. She has developed, watered, weeded and grown her own theory of systems and groups, and woven her work into a broad-based training environment that spans the globe. [...] We could ask for no better gift to the Academy, or for all of us trying to know and help people in groups.'- Anne Alonso, Ph.D. Clinical Professor, Harvard Medical School; Distinguished Life Fellow, The American Group Psychotherapy Association

• Foreword -- Author's note -- Introduction -- Group-as-a-Whole Theory applied to scapegoating -- Re viewing Yalom: an interpersonal tale retold from the perspective of the group-as-a-whole -- The difficult patient, the difficult group -- Group-as-a-Whole Systems Theory and practice -- The invisible group: an integrational theory of group-as-a-whole -- The phases of development and the systems-centered group -- Reframing the group-as-a-whole -- Book review of Koinonia: From Hate, through Dialogue, to Culture in the Large Group by Patrick de Maré Robin Piper, & Sheila Thompson -- A systems approach to the group-as-a-whole -- A systems-centered approach to individual and group psychotherapy