Support for employers and commissioners
What you might need to consider if you’re thinking of employing a family and systemic psychotherapist and how we can support you.
Family and systemic psychotherapy – also known as family therapy – can help the people you support whether you work for the NHS, a charity or a private company. It helps people in close relationships to better understand and support each other. That includes families, colleagues, individuals, young people, groups and couples.
Family therapy can support people to challenge their relationship with a range of issues, including eating disorders, domestic abuse, divorce, obsessive-compulsive disorder, conflict and parenting.
- Find out more about what family and systemic therapy is and its evidence base.
A mother on the benefits of family therapy:
“Prior to family therapy, my relationship with my son was at breaking point. Now, 6 months on, we’re listening to each other, getting on better. We have a different type of relationship.”
Family and systemic psychotherapists and systemic practitioners
A systemic practitioner is a different role to a family and systemic psychotherapist. Systemic practitioners use systemic thinking but don’t necessarily deliver therapy. A family therapist is a clinician who delivers therapy to families.
If someone does the systemic practitioner pathway of the Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) programme, they qualify as a systemic practitioner.
Standards of practice
- Discover more about the 4-year masters training you need to do to become a family and systemic psychotherapist.
- Read guidance on what continuing professional development (CPD) family and systemic psychotherapists need to stay registered with professional bodies.
- Find out how many people family and systemic psychotherapists can see in a week by downloading our guidance on clinical caseloads (PDF, 234KB).
Recruiting family and systemic psychotherapists
You can use our job descriptions and person specifications to help you advertise positions for family and systemic psychotherapists.
Sample job descriptions
The sample job descriptions below can help you recruit different levels of family and systemic psychotherapists. We have drawn them up using the national profiles for clinical psychology (2005) (PDF, 463KB) which apply to all psychologist jobs in the NHS.
Although training routes for family therapists are different to clinical psychology, the levels of knowledge are equivalent. So psychotherapist jobs can be considered equivalent to clinical psychology roles.
The job descriptions are also based on the NHS’s Job Evaluation Handbook (September 2018). This is a system for comparing different jobs, applying agreed rules and establishing an internal rank order of roles.
Download job descriptions and person specifications
- Band 6 trainee family and systemic psychotherapist job description (PDF, xxMB)
- Band 7 specialist family and systemic psychotherapist job description (Word, xxMB) and person specification (PDF, 215MB)
- Grade band B and 8a highly specialist family and systemic psychotherapist job specification (Word, xxMB) and person specification (PDF, 204KB)
- Grade band B and 8b principal family therapist job specification (Word, xxMB) and person specification (PDF, 205KB)
- Grade band 8C consultant family and systemic psychotherapist job specification (Word, xxMB)
Salary
Take a look at the NHS pay scales for 2026/27 to guide your decision about what salary to pay your family and systemic psychotherapist.
Specialist support from the Association for Family and Systemic Psychotherapy (AFSP)
We have a panel of National Assessors who provide free support for employers to recruit systemic family psychotherapists. The panel are qualified and experienced UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)-registered family and systemic psychotherapists who are all members of AFSP.
The National Assessors can support your trust, social care service or voluntary sector organisation by:
- Advising you how to set up a new post
- Assisting you with shortlisting candidates
- Attending interview panels in an advisory capacity, with payment for expenses
- Providing advice about the banding of a systemic and family psychotherapy post
- Suggesting where to advertise
- Thinking about the future structure of your team
To request support from a National Assessor, download and complete our National Assessor request form (PDF, 155KB) and email it to hello@theafsp.org
If you have any questions about this service, have a look at our guidance document about working with National Assessors (PDF, 159KB).
Also of interest
Advertise your job with us
Advertise your job on our website, in our membership magazine or in an email to members.
What is family and systemic psychotherapy?
Find out more about this type of psychotherapy and who it can help.