Human Systems: The Journal of Systemic Consultation & Management

The Positioning Compass: A Tool to Facilitate Reflexive Positioning

Karen Partridge

Co-Director of the School of Therapeutic Studies, The KCC Foundation, London

Consultant Clinical Psychologist in Systemic Psychotherapy
CNWL Mental Health Foundation Trust, London, UK

“Understanding is like knowing how to go on, and so it is like an ability: but ‘I understand’,
like ‘I can go on’ is an utterance, a signal.” Wittgenstein, 1980b,I, no.875.

Abstract
This paper describes the development of an idea called a Positioning Compass, constructed to help the
therapist or consultant to “go on” in a session by facilitating reflexivity and reflexive positioning; that is,
the ability to reflect on action and use those reflections to inform future action. By listening to semantically
rich words used by the client/s and/or participants in the session, “pointers” can be constructed with a “rich
word” at one pole and its opposite at the other. A number of pointers constructed during the session can be put
together to create a Positioning Compass, which illustrates the discourses that may be positioning participants
in the conversation. Constructing a Positioning Compass can help clients and systemic practitioners to shift to
“talk about talk” (second order positioning) or to create new direction in a session, (third order positioning).
The use of the Positioning Compass is illustrated with examples from therapy, teaching, supervision and
consultation.
Introduction
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling 1998 p. 108) Neville’s Gran sends him
a “rememberall.” A rememberall is a glass ball the size of a large marble filled with white smoke
that glows red when you have forgotten something. This paper describes the development of a
kind of rememberall, a “Positioning Compass” which I have found useful to facilitate reflexive
positioning. Applications of the Positioning Compass will be described using case examples
from therapy, supervision, training and consultation.

The Idea of a Positioning Compass

“If I bring all my suffering into this room what are you going to do with it?“ my client challenged
me. I was caught between the plea in her words and the sense of anger and accusation with which
they were spoken. I felt stuck between discourses, my professional side thinking I should and
must respond to the plea, whilst my personal side felt angry and put upon, as though she was
expecting me to do all the work for her. As I struggled in silence with my response my client
exclaimed, “Are you a piece of cardboard or a human being?” For a moment I had been unable to
“go on” in Wittgenstein’s terms (1980b). This small incident set me thinking about how we make
decisions about what to say next in our work and what informs the choices we make.
As systemic therapists and consultants we are continually making choices in terms of the
approach we take towards therapy, the theoretical ideas and techniques that we choose to
privilege and the stories we foster, challenge or neglect. We privilege some decisions over others
according to the opportunities and constraints available to us in a given context. The right to

© LFTRC & KCCF Volume No. 18, 2007 pp.96-111

The Positioning Compass and Reflexive Positioning 97

make choices and the duty to choose what will be most beneficial for the client means that every
action constitutes a moral choice, which will enable or prohibit the way in which we go on
together with our clients.
The aim of this paper is to illustrate the way in which a Positioning Compass can be used as
a tool to facilitate reflexivity and re-positioning, that is, the ability of the therapist to reflect on
action and use those reflections to inform future action.
These ideas have been informed by the rich and varied theoretical base of systemic therapy,
and in particular by the work of Peter Lang (Lang and McAdam 1997), as well as Cecchin’s
(1987) notion of curiosity (1987), Burnham’s (2000) relational reflexivity, Tomm’s (1992)
ethical postures in therapy and the Fifth Province approach (McCarthy and Byrne 1988). What
these ideas have in common is a strong commitment to the development of a reflexive aesthetic,
a moral stance to systemic work. The process of ethical decision making in practice has been
described by Oliver (1996) as systemic eloquence and by Lang, Little and Cronen (1990) as
aesthetic practice.
Finding Your Way in a Fog
Charon (2003) talks about having to peer through a fog in which we find ourselves, whilst
Foucault (1970) talks about the positive unconscious and Wittgenstein (1980) talks about the
background. Shotter (2004) sees this background as a ceaseless flow of expressive-responsive,
dialogically structured space. He states that as living, embodied beings, moment by moment we
can go out to meet the other and have an evaluative and anticipatory sense of “where” we are
with them, and of “where next” we might go with them. Being able to anticipate introduces the
moral element in terms of the choices to be made about how to orientate ourselves.
Wittgenstein (1980b) talks about “how to go on” in the multiplicity and complexity of many
voices and Shotter (2004) talks of the need for signposts in the fog for orientation. I will explore
this idea further in the development of a Positioning Compass. Since a signpost in the fog needs
to rely on senses other than sight, I am interested in how our embodied selves can help us sense
how to “go on,” through “sympathetic resonance.” This term, borrowed from acoustics, is a
harmonic phenomenon which describes the way in which a formerly passive vibratory body
responds to vibrations to which it has a harmonic likeness, (Lewcock 2006). It fits with the
Buddhist idea of “deep listening” (Nhat Hanh 1993).

Reflexive Positioning
According to Harre and Langenhove (1988), positioning is the discursive process in which
social acts and icons are reproduced and generated. The way in which we position ourselves
and each other in conversation will enable certain actions and prohibit others. Discourses make
available positions for subjects to take up in relation to one another. A “position” is a context for
meaning and is linked to the story line; it is also a conversational strategy to “place” the other.
Davies and Harre (1990), introduce the idea of different person positions in relation to a
discourse. First order positioning or the “I” position relates to the discourse set up by the first
person in making an utterance which invites the other to enter the discourse in the “you” or
second person position. Harre uses the term reflexive positioning or second order positioning
to describe what happens if the second person declines this opportunity and shifts the discourse
98 Human Systems Karen Partridge

to the story itself. This can be described as “talk about talk.” Third order positioning occurs if
the observer challenges the original discourse from a third discourse, or third person, “they”
position.
First order positioning does not require the actor to be aware of their positioning but second
and third order positioning requires awareness or reflexivity, in making the decision not to join,
or to challenge the current discourse. Choices are connected to moral orders, (Cronen and Pearce
Lang 1994), the patterns of rights and duties, affordances and constraints available to us at any
one time, which make our actions coherent. When my client challenged whether I was “human”
or “cardboard” I had hoped to position myself reflexively and talk about my dilemma, but my
slow response seemed to her an affront, from a second order position and she experienced me
as “cardboard”.
Diamonds in the Dust
The sense of being caught between positions reminded me of the Fifth Province Approach. This
approach was originally conceived as a way to map strongly opposing discourses in systems
where there had been child sexual abuse. Byrne and McCarthy used the Celtic legend of the Fifth
Province, an imaginary place where the four kings of the ancient provinces of Ireland met to
hold council, to represent a place where opposing discourses meet. Two discourses with opposite
poles are placed at right angles to each other, creating four quadrants or positions. A double line
connects the discourses that are allied more closely to each other. These positions illustrate the
dilemmas in which the system is caught. The Fifth Province is a fifth position at the centre from
which all positions can be observed without entering into the dilemmas.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to interview Nollaig Byrne about her work (1995)
and I recently attended a workshop by Imelda McCarthy (2002), in which we applied the
diamond representation of the Fifth Province approach (McCarthy, 2006) to work dilemmas. I
started wondering whether diamonds might be one way to add some sparkle in the dust of my
dilemmas.
Pointers to Reflexivity
Constructing diamonds led me to begin thinking about narratives as polarities. As soon as one
end of a context or narrative is evoked, the other comes into view, as one of the “shy stories” of the
session, or as the “unsaid” or “unknown,” (Pearce and Pearce, 1998). Awareness of the opposite
can enable a shift out of one discourse and into another (third order positioning). In the diamond
representation two opposing discourses create positions, which we as therapists and clients can
choose to enter or resist. The multiple discourses in a session provide opportunities to position
each other in many different ways. I began playing with polarities, which I called pointers,
discovering that the first five minutes of the session can create a compass, (see Figure II), which
can describe the positioning of the client and therapist throughout the session. A conversation
with Peter Lang helped me to develop the compass as a tool for reflexivity, a way to orientate
yourself and a guide to decide how to go on. In exploring this idea I have been informed by a
dialogical approach, (Bertrando 2007) and by deconstruction, (Larner 2005). However there are
echoes of earlier ideas from a more realist perspective, such as Kelly’s (1970) Personal Construct
Theory and the reciprocal roles in Cognitive Analytic Therapy (Ryle and Kerr 2002).
 The Positioning Compass and Reflexive Positioning 99

Using the Positioning Compass in Therapy, Supervision, Teaching and Consultation

In the first two examples I hope to illustrate the way in which I began to explore reflexive
positioning with two individual clients, by using a positioning compass with John (in Example
1) and in constructing a diamond from the Fifth Province Approach with Bairbre (in Example
2). The supervision example with Libby (Example 3) illustrates in detail how we used a compass
and diamonds in our supervision session. Example 4 shows how two trainees on a systemic
therapy placement were able to use the compass to create new directions for the therapist to
explore in a family session. Example 5 shows how a systemic team were able to use a compass
in a pre-session. The final example (Example 6) shows how a compass and diamonds helped to
clarify roles in a consultation to a staff group.

Therapy example 1: Diagnosis as Empowerment

John, who worked in the city as a stockbroker, had just managed to kick a cocaine habit. He came
to see me because he felt something was wrong but didn’t know what. He could quickly engage
in new jobs and relationships, but things fell apart when he was required to follow them through.
As we talked, he noticed me scribbling a compass. Next session he returned having generated
his own. He had demonstrated that he was extremely quick at grasping new ideas and holding on
to many threads. I reflected on this and discovered that he was very able at facilitating, chairing
meetings and getting people on board with new ideas; skills that were highly valued in the City.
But as soon as he was required to produce anything in written form, it fell apart; he lost the plot
WRONG
along with his job
(Adequate)
and relationships, and sought refuge back in cocaine.
FALL APART

FOLLOW THROUGHJohn said that the(Nocompass

Diagnosis)
fitted with the way that his brain worked, diagrams were easier than
the writing. Reflecting together he began to recall the history of his difficulty with the written
HUMILATION (Solutions)
word. He described a humiliating incident in which an old school friend had said, “John old
chap are you dyslexic?” At the time he had hastily denied this description, but recalling it in the
ritten word)
context of his abilities enabled him to explore it further. This time the description felt liberating
DIAGRAMS

to him, freeing him from fear and the self blame that he was victim of his own stupidity. He
PROBLEMS embraced the idea and decided (Pride)
to seek a formal assessment. Dyslexia offered an alternative
description of self and liberated him from some of the dilemmas he had been able to observe
DIAGNOSIS FACILITATE
himself getting trapped in.
(Hold together)
INADEQUATE
(Right)

Figure I: Therapy Compass for the Client (John),

and Me as Therapist

CA PITA LS Indicates words used in the session

(Brackets) Indicates the opposite constructed by the observer

Indicates a hypothesised dominant narrative/discourse

Indicates a hypothesised subjugated narrative/discourse

100 Human Systems Karen Partridge

Therapy example 2: Living a life or Surviving a Life

Bairbre was a successful businesswoman who had recently been elected onto the all male board.
She self-referred following her first presentation to the board. She said she had broken down
and had been unable to go on, yet she recalled a disembodied voice continuing the presentation.
Later she realised that the voice was hers. This experience concerned her so much she sought
therapy.
We discussed the experience in terms of gender and power, being the first woman in a man’s
world and finding a “masculine” way to manage anxiety by separating herself from it. We also
talked of her remarkable ability to keep going and to deliver “in spite of herself”. Later we
connected this with her ability to survive and thrive in difficult circumstances, a skill she felt
she had developed early in life. Bairbre was born and bought up in southern Ireland as part of a
large family. Her mother had suffered with depression and had turned to alcohol, which made
her violent and unpredictable. As the oldest daughter Bairbre had taken a lot of responsibility and
had identified with her gentle and intellectual father.
Bairbre seemed preoccupied with the fear that she might be shallow; as though her success was
a charade and that the “out of body” experience at her first board meeting was evidence of this.
We talked of her fear of failure, which she associated with her mother. She was concerned that
rather than living a life, she was just surviving. This reminded her of the struggles of her earlier
life, in which she recalled, “never having had the luxury of wanting”. She said she was “one
of those people who rushes down the path of life without smelling the roses”. For homework I
invited her to write a list of what living a life meant to her and what surviving a life might mean.
She generated two lists, which we talked about as organising her experience, like a compass.
Bairbre’s Irish background reminded me of the Fifth Province approach. She was intrigued
by this idea and offered me the names of the four ancient kingdoms of Ireland, which I had
not known before. From the compass the dimensions that seemed to resonate most strongly at
an emotional level for Bairbre were living a life/surviving a life, open/closed and defensive/
The Positioning Compass and Reflexive Positioning 101

generous. Together we created a diamond for “living a life” and “surviving a life” and added
Bairbre’s lists to the diamond. As a result Bairbre re-appraised her situation, she felt that she had
been hasty in her initial conclusion; she was indeed living a life and was able to embrace the
abilities she had developed in earlier struggles. She consequently felt that she had no need for
further therapy at that point.

Supervision example 3: Neighbours from Hell

Libby, a very able trainee was describing a second session with her client Jessica, who had the
“neighbours from hell.” I asked Libby what constituted this description. Libby explained that
the neighbours in the upstairs flat had a leak in the plumbing that had flooded Jessica’s flat,
damaging the ceiling for a second time. Libby stated that the GP had referred Jessica because she
could not stop crying. I was aware of the resonance of the image of the client being flooded both
from upstairs and by her own emotions.
Libby began to talk about the client’s problems as “things outside her control”, which Libby
saw as “ordinary problems of everyday life.” I was struck by the irritation in Libby’s voice,
which was at odds with her usual therapeutic stance, but which fitted with her client’s description
of irritation. I noted the “rich words” that Libby used which seemed to resonate emotionally
for her, for the client and for me as audience to the story. These included hell, flooded, control,
ordinariness and irritation.
The description of ”neighbours from hell” triggered my curiosity about the use of language.
I had the idea that a powerful, “totalising” description (White 1992), such as this might be
subjugating other, potentially more fruitful descriptions. This led me to sketch a compass (see
Figure III), using the rich words that Libby and I were using to construct the pointers: flooded/
over responsible, heaven/hell, in control/out of control, ordinary/extraordinary and irritated/
soothed.
Semantically rich words (Fredman 2007), used by the client and Libby in the therapy session

Figure III: Supervision Compass for the Therapist Libby) the client (Jessica) and Me as Supervisor

IRRITABLE OUT OF
(Adequate) CONTROL
(Extraordinary)
(Powerful)

NEIGHBOURS (Solutions) CAPITALS Indicates words used in the session

(Brackets) I
 ndicates the opposite constructed
by the observer
(Heaven) HELL
I
 ndicates a hypotesised dominant
narrative/discourse

PROBLEMS (Enemies) I
 ndicates a hypothesised subjugated
narrative/discouse

ORDINARY POWERLESS

(In Control)
INADEQUATE
(Soothed)
102 Human Systems Karen Partridge

and by Libby and myself in our supervision are written in uppercase. For the purposes of creating
a compass I see all “talk” about the client as part of the relevant system of concern (Lang and
McAdam 1996), so I include all discourses on one compass. In this way, the compass illustrates
the potential “to and fro” of conversation and the ways in which the participants are positioned
and position each other. I like to add an observing eye at the centre of the compass to remind
me that this is my construction, at a given point in time. The discourses on the compass are
constructed and meaningful only within the context of the particular episode being discussed.
Heavy lines represent the discourses that seemed to me to be dominant or “boastful,” because
of their emotional resonance, or the frequency with which they are mentioned. Subjugated “shy”
stories are drawn in dashed lines. These are the impressions, feelings and thoughts that are sensed,
though not necessarily spoken, in the episode that is being explored. The focus on emotional
resonance (White 2000) keeps the compass grounded in the lived experience of the participants
and prevents the process becoming an intellectual exercise. For example, I became aware of the
power differential between us in the supervision session and guessed that Libby might be feeling
inadequate, as though she had nothing to offer her client, or me. I added powerful/powerless as
a dominant discourse and adequate/inadequate as a shy story to explore.
The opposite end of each pointer has been constructed by asking the question, “What could
be the opposite of that rich word?” This opposite, written in brackets, indicates other “shy” or
“unsaid” stories, which might be useful to explore. Like the head and tail of a coin “hell” exists
within the context of “heaven” and “problems” exist within the context of “solutions,” so I see
each end of the pointer as a context marker for a narrative.
The strong sense of irritation that I was aware of in our supervision led me to hypothesise that
irritation, power and control were dominant discourses. I used these to draw a diamond that we
shared (see Figure IV). It seemed to us that the client was positioned in the “over-responsible,
irritated” quadrant while her neighbours were placed in the “flooded and overwhelmed position.”
I had the idea that this positioning was being reproduced isomorphically in the clinical work

Dynamic tension between opposing ideas/narratives

Close alliance between ideas/narratives

Weak alliance between ideas/narratives

The Positioning Compass and Reflexive Positioning 103

(White and Russell 1997) with Libby stepping into “over–responsible, irritated” and the client
taking the “flooded, overwhelmed” position.
Libby continued to talk with an air of irritation about the ordinariness of the client’s difficulties.
In the hope of broadening the discourse I shifted to second order positioning, “talk about talk”
and raised the question of what makes a person react to “ordinary” difficulties in this way. Rather
than having the effect I had hoped for, this led into a discussion about the client’s sense of
entitlement, i.e. that she might have a set of stories that suggest that she ought not to have to cope
with such problems. I noticed that the shift to an internalised discourse seemed to increase the
sense of irritation and a flavour of blame was entering the discussion.
This made me curious about what Libby and I were bringing to the discussion from our own
personal and professional scripts. I invited a self-reflexive shift in our discussion by asking
Libby and myself, about our own assumptions about “struggle”. I became aware of Libby’s
struggle to complete her thesis before the impending deadline. I also guessed that she might be
feeling flooded by demands in finishing her placement with me, completing the training course
and organising the major move required at the end of the course. I surmised that this personal/
professional story had been triggered by the client’s story.
Shifting my attention back to the client I asked Libby what she felt the client wanted from her
and what she thought the construction of relationship was between them. This question had the
effect of enabling Libby to speak of her irritation, which up until now had been sensed though
not spoken. She began to erupt about the way in which she had received the referral, right at the
end of her placement when another psychologist, who was now sick, had been due to see the
client.
I was getting curious about the way in which the organisational context of the placement was
impacting on the therapy and the way in which the story of frustration and irritation was growing.
I invited Libby to “talk about talk” with me, to review the way in which we felt the conversation
was going. We noticed that we had lost all curiosity about the richness and detail of the client’s
story and had become “blinded by irritation.” This made us wonder what other stories might be
“obscured by irritation.” This helped to provide a framework for Libby to explore exceptions to
the problem in the next therapy session.
I also wondered about isomorphism between therapy and supervision, and began to question
whether we were also acting into the positions in the diamond. We shifted the compass to place
our relationship in the centre. We realised that we were in danger of being “blinded by irritation,”
about the ordinary everyday referral issues in the department and all the end of placement
administration we had to complete. Consequently we had barely discussed the meaning of the
end of the placement for us and for our relationship. We were then able to arrange some leaving
rituals, both to formally end the placement and to celebrate what had been a rich experience for
us both.
This example illustrates the way in which the compass was used to trigger reflexivity. First by
using the words and sensations generated in a conversation focused around a particular episode in
therapy to generate “pointers” for the exploration of dominant and subjugated discourses (Steps
1 and 2 in Figure V). Next, to take an observer position to those narratives by shifting to second
104 Human Systems Karen Partridge

order positioning and reflecting on

our talk so far (Step 3), and then by
shifting to third order positioning,
(Steps 4, 5 and 6) before connecting
back to action in Step 7. This process
included making connections
between our own personal and
professional narratives, exploring
the construction of relationship, both
between the therapist and client and
between the supervisor and trainee
and the influence of the organisational
context. Figure V outlines the process
that one might go through in using
the compass.

Teaching example 4: Theory as a Lens to Create New Directions in Training

At the start of a placement, Debbie and Claire were finding the idea of identifying narratives
within a family session challenging. In our supervision session we talked about the Positioning
Compass as a way that I had found helpful to map discourses. They looked dubious at my
assertion that the first five minutes of the session would enable them to sketch a compass. I
suggested that they listen for rich words in the session that appear to resonate emotionally for the
family and the therapist, and to draw them as pointers with an opposite, which they as observer
construct.
Later, Debbie and Claire reviewed the video of a therapy session with a family of Pakistani
origin, where Ahmed, the eldest son was having difficulties with obsessive hand washing. My
colleague suggested that they make some theory/practice links by constructing a compass. They
were surprised at the ease with which they were able to do so. My colleague invited them to
become reflexive to the compass that they had constructed by viewing it through the lens of a
particular theoretical idea. They chose Burnham and Harris’s Social Graces (2002) and generated
ideas and questions to explore differential power and culture with respect to the narratives that
they had mapped onto a compass. In particular they were interested to explore what it was like
to be Muslim in London and how recent political events had shaped this experience. They began
to think about questions to explore the way in which the events of 9/11 had repositioned the
family.
In the next session Debbie used these ideas to explore culture and identity. She heard that since
the London bombings, Mr and Mrs Baig had been, understandably, much more protective of their
son, taking him to and from college. Debbie’s questions led to a rich and fruitful discussion of the
experiences of growing up in London and Lahore and the different constructions of experience
The Positioning Compass and Reflexive Positioning 105

in terms of relationships, autonomy and responsibility. As a result Mr and Mrs Baig decided that
their protectiveness might exacerbate the fear that the world is unsafe, and that this might in
turn feed the anxiety which leads Ahmed to excessive hand washing. They resolved to gradually
back off to enable him to begin to travel by himself. They were able to recall a recent “unique
outcome” (White 1992), where Ahmed had surprised them by collecting his younger siblings
from school and taking them out to eat at MacDonald’s.
Debbie and Claire used theoretical ideas to “set” their compass, as you might if you were
setting it to true north, in order to determine your position and direction. Viewing the compass
through the lens of the chosen theoretical idea enabled them to increase their curiosity, generate
systemic questions and explore possibilities for future directions in the work with the family.

Live supervision example 5: Constructing Safe Hands in Teamwork

Hannah had been a client since a major traumatic event put her life at risk. As the anniversary
of the event approached, Hannah became increasingly fearful for herself and her small daughter.
Attempts by Hannah to protect herself and her daughter by seeking re-housing had not materialised
and Hannah’s frustration and distress reached boiling point at which point she took a serious
overdose for which she was admitted to hospital. We met with Hannah later that week.
In the next pre-session, I noticed that strong feelings seemed to be organising the team’s
thinking. One of the team raised a concern that we were trying to rescue Hannah, which she felt
might be undermining the resources that had enabled Hannah to cope up until this point. Others
disagreed and felt that we had a duty to protect Hannah and her daughter. I was interested in
these diverse views and I named some of the dominant discourses that had been expressed. I
invited the team to consider how we might be able to hold these dilemmas in mind during the
session. We began to construct an idea about the need for balance and another member of the
team volunteered to attend to this issue and let us know if and when the team began to take up
extreme positions.
Naming oppositional discourses (see Figure VI), and beginning to construct an alternative
discourse about the need for balance enabled us to pull together as a team and when Hannah
arrived, the team had allocated each other different roles in relation to the tasks of the session.
Hannah had struggled to get to the session; her eyes felt seriously irritated and had been causing
her problems for the past few hours. She asked for something to bathe them with and we bought
her some tissues and some water. We watched from behind the screen as Hannah lent back
and Sarah, the therapist, placed wet tissues over her eyes. Hannah remained in this position
throughout the session. We watched in awe as Sarah elegantly negotiated with Hannah the way
in which the session would proceed. She described every action in words, including drawing
the curtains and raising an arm to emphasise a point, so Hannah, who could not see, understood
everything that was happening around her.
Hannah began to talk about the way in which she sometimes becomes, “so strong that she
becomes weak.” She linked this with previous attempts to manage everything alone and the way
in which her family perceive her as “the strong one.” She described the way in which she had
challenged this notion of self, telling them that she was not always as strong as they thought. She
106 Human Systems Karen Partridge

told us how important it had been for her that she had had the session with us to come to after she
was discharged from hospital. She talked about the whole experience as, “leaving her stronger,
but in a different way, not in the way that left her weak.” She said she had been able to begin to
trust and she no longer felt afraid of asking for help. She said that she felt, “she had something
to offer this planet,” she felt “worth something, worth living.”
In the reflecting team discussion, (Andersen, 1987), one team member spoke for us all when
she said that she felt she had witnessed something beautiful in the room. We went on to talk
about Hannah’s idea, “of getting so strong she became weak” and explored what sort of strength
Hannah wanted to continue to develop for herself to enable her to do what she hoped for. Would
it be like a sapling that bends in the wind or like the strength of a spider’s web? What would this
look like and what would Hannah call it? We also wondered how the session would have been
different if Hannah had had her eyes open and spoke of the dilemma of having to open your eyes
eventually, not least to get home safely.
Having listened to our discussion, Hannah slowly sat up and opened her eyes. She said they
felt better, but still sore. She liked what we had said in the reflecting team. She talked about the
support she was going to receive from the CMHT; she thought that a month felt about the right
time for her next appointment. We had moved out of a position where we were trying to rescue
Hannah, and she was taking charge of the help she felt she needed.
Reflecting on the session afterwards, we felt that the pre-session discussion, in which we had
named the oppositional discourses we had been caught in, had been important. Becoming reflexive
to our positions and engaging in “talk about talk” (second order positioning), had enabled us to
begin to construct an alternative discourse (third order positioning) about balance. This helped
us re-position ourselves as a team to support Sarah and Hannah in the elegant work that they
had been doing. We had been able to step outside a discourse of strength versus weakness to
begin to construct with Hannah, an alternative discourse about trust and hope and the giving and
receiving of help.

Figure VI: Teamwork Compass for the Client (Hannah), the Team and Me as Supervisor

CAPITALS Indicates words used in the session

(Brackets) Indicates the opposite constructed

by the observer

Indicates a hypothesised dominant

narrative/discourse

Indicates a hypothesised subjugated

narrative/discourse
The Positioning Compass and Reflexive Positioning 107

Consultation example 6: Exploring Roles in Consultation

I had been consulting to a team of Clinical Psychologists who were interested in applying
systemic ideas in their work in a Special Needs service of a large teaching hospital. Their work
took place predominantly within multi-disciplinary teams, in which a core role was multi-
disciplinary assessment of children with developmental delay referred to the service. In addition
they provided single discipline psychology interventions with parents and children when this
was requested, or when identified as an outcome of the multidisciplinary assessment process.
During our sessions, the psychologists were enthusiastic about learning more about systemic
techniques and methods, but most of our conversation focussed on systemic thinking about
the system and the psychology team’s position within it rather than privileging technique. This
was leaving the team feeling frustrated about lack of opportunities to do “therapy” and curious
about the difficulty of doing so when an opportunity did arise. In becoming reflexive to the
conversation about the psychologist’s role in the team, the demands of the organisational context
and the meaning given to the families’ acceptance of the diagnosis, we were able to construct
a compass (see Figure VII). It struck us that perhaps families only tended to get referred for
therapy when they did not accept the diagnosis that they had been given by the multidisciplinary
team. This idea opened up curiosity about the professional stories of the psychologists and other
multidisciplinary team members. This enabled us to construct a diamond (see Figure VIII),
which elucidated their position with respect to requests for Assessment and Therapy. Becoming
reflexive to the work context and the role of the psychologist within it enabled them to enter
into discussions with each other and their team colleagues about the way in which they work
together.

Figure VII: Consultation for Special Needs Psychologists and Me as Consultant

CAPITALS Indicates words used in the session

(Brackets) Indicates the opposite constructed by

the observer

Indicates a hypothesised dominant

narrative/discourse

Indicates a hypothesised subjugated

narrative/discourse
108 Human Systems Karen Partridge

Figure VIII: Diamond Illustrating the Positions of “Assessment and Therapy”

Client accepts
diagnosis

Assessment
Multidisciplinary
Team Psychology

Therapy

Dynamic tension between opposing ideas/narratives

Close alliance between ideas/narratives

Client doesn’t accept

diagnosis Weak alliance between ideas/narratives

In organisational consultation Campbell and Groenbaek (2006), have used semantic

differentials, (like my pointers), to invite teams to take up physical positions along a continuum
which represents their position in the organisation. They then invite team members to talk with
each other about the way that they are positioning themselves and have been positioned by the
other. This could be used as a way to further explore the pointers of a compass with families or
staff groups.

An Invitation to Theoretical and Organisational Reflexivity

I have begun to notice that the issues that trainees and professionals bring for supervision or
consultation often seem to fall into three broad themes, which invite a different focus in terms
of reflexivity. Some dilemmas link to the construction of relationship between the client and
the therapist, as in my opening example of my client who asked whether I was “human“ or
“cardboard,” the supervision example with Libby and her client, and the teamwork with Hannah.
Here self-reflexivity, which connects personal and professional stories and relational reflexivity
which explores the relationship, is helpful.
A second frequent theme presented for consultation connects to the theoretical approach that a
therapist is using or the stance that they are taking to that theory, for example when Debbie and
Claire lost curiosity and felt unable to track narratives. In this case becoming reflexive to theory
was helpful. A third theme connects to the organisational demands and constraints that a therapist
or consultant is working within. These issues demand reflexivity to the organisational context, as
in the example of the Special Needs Psychologists and Libby’s end of placement. I have found
that dilemmas presented for supervision or consultation often combine aspects of each of theses
area of enquiry. A further way to use the compass might be to view it through the different lenses
of self and relational reflexivity, theoretical reflexivity and organisational reflexivity
The Positioning Compass and Reflexive Positioning 109

Holding it lightly
I have described the way in which I have applied the metaphor of a compass with pointers, to
trigger reflexivity in my work in different ways. First, to invite reflexivity to the discourses of
the session (second order positioning), and to change direction by reflexive repositioning (third
order positioning). Second, to invite self and relational reflexivity, by making connections to
personal and professional stories and the construction of relationship. Third, to invite reflexivity
to theory and to the organisational context. I have used the compass as a way to find myself and
to generate ideas to know how to “go on”, with my clients.
The Positioning Compass can be a useful “rememberall”, although of course it is neither
possible nor desirable to really remember all. It is an invitation to play with polarities, to trigger
reflexivity and to explore alternative ideas and their implications for practice. Like a “rememberall”
a positioning compass exists in a magical domain. It is an ethereal idea, a punctuation in time,
which can be useful if you are lost or need directions. Like a map, the compass is not the territory,
(Bateson 1988). In keeping with a systemic position it is something to be held lightly to enable
space for the creation of future possibilities.

Please address correspondence about this article to:: Karen Partridge, The KCC Foundation,
2 Wyvil Court, Trenchold Street, London, SW8 2TG
karenpartridge@blueyonder.co.uk

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The Positioning Compass and Reflexive Positioning 111