Teaching Systemic Therapy: Integrative Approaches for Family Therapists with Dr. Leonie White

Learning and Teaching Systemic Therapy

Dr Leonie White is a Clinical Family Therapist and Psychologist with almost 30 years’ experience. She works in private practice and as the Director of Phoenix Family Therapy Academy.

Leonie has spent more than a decade in AAFT-accredited family therapy training programs and has taught, trained, and supervised across multiple university programs. She brings a practical, integrative, and attachment and neuroscience-informed systemic lens to support both emerging and experienced practitioners with teaching that reflects a deep commitment to adult learning and experiential approaches.

Leonie offers a broad range of professional development initiatives across Australia and New Zealand, including foundational, advanced, trauma-informed, and systemic family therapy workshops. She also provides individual and group supervision, mentorship, and consultancy to mental health, education, and child protection professionals.

Leonie has presented at national and international conferences, including keynote addresses. She has contributed to the field through academic publications, as Guest Editor for a special issue of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) on integrative practice, and she is currently working on a special issue of the ANZJFT on teaching family therapy in Australia.

Find out more about Leonie and connect:

www.drleoniewhite.com

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-leonie-white-9a915489/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/drleoniewhite

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/drleoniewhite

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@drleoniewhite4202

Find out more about Phoenix Family Therapy Academy here

www.phoenixftacademy.com

https://www.youtube.com/@PhoenixFamilyTherapyAcadem-s9y

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61566716197513

Questions we discussed in this episode:

1. In your training courses and certificate programs, you center a multi-positioned, integrative stance in systemic practice. Could you walk us through your approach and what teaching methods you use to train clinicians in it?
2. You offer industry-specific trauma-informed trainings, such as for maternity services, emergency departments and schools. What adjustments to language, pacing, and alliance building have proven most critical when translating systemic and trauma-informed principles into these specific contexts?
3. You have developed practical tools such as the Helping Families Thrive cards and strength cards. What design principles guided these resources, and how do you integrate them within sessions to shift talk from problems to resources without bypassing risk or trauma cues?

Other resources discussed by Dr. White:

ANZJFT special issue on Integrative Practice - free to read https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14678438/2022/43/1 Glenn Larner's articles are available freely on ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247831055_Integrative_Family_Therapy_With_Childhood_Chronic_Illness_An_Ethics_of_Practice Roger Lowe's book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Roger-D.-Lowe/author/B001KHDCMA?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1763684043&sr=1-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=de2aa50e-09dc-4535-a59b-a131241ea959