Following the COVID‐19 pandemic, psychological therapies rapidly moved online in mid‐2020. The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice in the UK (AFT) surveyed the attitudes and practices of systemic therapists in the UK in early October 2020, exploring members’ views and gathered information about ongoing needs. A sample of 312 people were included in a mixed methods analysis. In total, 65% of respondents felt their overall experience of using online video technology professionally was positive, further reflected in responses to two open‐ended questions. Detailed thematic analysis revealed that many positive comments were related to the practical advantages of online working, whilst many negative comments were related to technique and the therapeutic relationship. Possible respondent biases are discussed, and the implications of this change in practice are explored. It remains to be seen if this marks the beginning of a more permanent shift in our field as we explore the potential of new technologies. Practitioner Points The vast majority of UK systemic therapists felt that their experience of online video technology was positive. They noted many practical advantages but also identified many challenges regarding therapeutic techniques and the therapeutic relationship. Therapists developed a range of creative solutions to maximise the therapeutic opportunities of online video.

Three semi-structured online focus group interviews were conducted with 17 systemic psychotherapists in the UK 1 year after the transition to videoconferencing therapy (or ‘teletherapy’) prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thematic analysis identified 23 themes within 10 superordinate themes including Advantages of working online; Changes to the therapeutic relationship; Comparison to in-person therapy; Using therapeutic techniques online; Disadvantages of working online; Adapting to the affordances and constraints of technology. Whilst experiences were mildly positive overall, participants responded with almost twice as many positive comments as negative ones and described themselves as likely to continue working online. This study explores the advantages of online delivery which were described in the focus groups and posits that these digital affordances will lead to the development of more collaborative and invitational approaches.

We outline a new approach to initial social work child and family assessment, focused on listening practices. The wider social context of contemporary children's services and, in particular, public concern about child death inquiries and the impacts of government's austerity policies create significant challenges for the development of listening practices. Our model seeks to develop listening practices which attend to these challenges, while retaining a focus on safe and effective social work practice. Our model develops principles of dialogicity and Open Dialogue, with systemic and narrative practices developed by Fredman and Jenkins. In crisis situations care must be taken to develop contexts for listening, where families and professionals are given opportunities to listen well to each other. Practitioner points Dialogicity principles and Open Dialogue practices can be applied in children's social care assessment contexts Listening is under‐theorised in children's social care contexts; listening theory can be applied in systemic social work assessment meetings Systemic practices can make valuable contributions to effective child and family social work Open Dialogue practices contribute to the development of communities of practice, and can be supported through manualisation

With a focus on 'screen and team' family therapy, we tentatively explore possible practice implications associated with family therapy moving from in-person to online delivery, with the intention of developing questions for further empirical research. By examining some of the affordances and constraints of the online medium in relation to the use of triadic questioning, we set forth a number of the epistemological and ontological consequences of this move. We argue that online therapy has particular features of a dialogical approach and method. We then examine the concept of joint action, the nature of the conversational processes, and the utterance chains that seem to be more likely to emerge when working online. We posit that a major advantage of the move to online delivery of family therapy is the medium's particular utility for generating more invitational, collaborative, and dialogical practices.

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