Using Circular Questioning in Family Therapy: Techniques and Tips
Mar 09, 2023
How To Use Circular Questioning in Family Systems Therapy.
Updated 28/03/26
If you have ever felt stuck in a family therapy session where everyone is pointing fingers at the "identified patient," you are not alone. Circular questioning is a systemic therapy technique designed to break this cycle by asking questions that reveal the hidden patterns, interactions, and relational dynamics maintaining the family's problem.
By shifting the focus from individual blame to systemic interaction, circular questioning acts as a game-changer for clinicians. It helps you understand all of the moving parts in a family system, allowing you to formulate what patterns are in place that support the current dysfunction.
In this guide, I'll explain what circular questioning is, the four main types of circular questions, and a step-by-step framework for using this technique in your very first sessions.
If we've not me, I"m Oliver, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California and I'm a family systems therapist, clinical supervisor and former Clinical Director. I send out a free weekly family systems newsletter that I'm determined to make the most helpful email you get all week, so they're packed with handouts, pdfs and frameworks - sign up for free here.
What Is Circular Questioning?
Circular questioning is a therapeutic technique used in systemic family therapy to explore relational patterns, communication dynamics, and underlying beliefs within a family system. Rather than asking direct, linear questions that seek simple facts, circular questions invite family members to reflect on how their behaviors influence and are influenced by others.
The goal is to get everyone in the family thinking about how they are contributing to the situation, not just blaming someone else. By seeing how their own actions trigger others, families can start to break unhealthy patterns and find new ways to communicate and resolve conflict.
This technique was pioneered by the Milan Family Therapy Group (also known as the Milan Associates) in Italy during the 1960s and 1970s. They developed circular questioning as a way to understand family dynamics as interconnected systems rather than linear cause-and-effect chains.
- Structural Family Interventions
- Family Sculpting - with or without the family!
- Family Therapy Activities For Teenagers
Circular Questioning In The First Sessions - online course
To find the full video along with PDF handouts with a PDF of circular questioning examples that I STILL take into family sessions with me here- it's available here. Click here to find more
Linear vs. Circular Thinking
Often, families come to treatment with a linear thought pattern, which is how most of us naturally think. As a systemic therapist, your job is to shift them toward circular thinking.
| Feature | Linear Thinking | Circular Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Cause and effect (A causes B) | Interconnected patterns (A influences B, which influences C, which influences A) |
| Example | "Jimmy is struggling at school, so we need to help him focus." | "What is going on at home between Mom and Dad that might be impacting Jimmy's sleep so he can't concentrate?" |
| Goal | Find the root cause or "the problem person" | Understand the cycle of interaction maintaining the symptom |
| Therapist Stance | Detective looking for facts | Scientist observing relational dynamics |
Why Circular Questioning Is a Game-Changer for Family Therapists
I use circular questioning in the first few sessions to try to create a sequential description of events around how members of the family behave and feel before and after an episode of the problem behavior.
I refer to this as a pattern of interaction. Identifying this pattern implies that we firstly need to identify the problem around which we are investigating interactions. Strategic family systems only target one problem at a time; if you are successful and deal with that problem, you can move on to the next one or terminate therapy.
Circular questioning gets family members to describe, allude to, and elicit descriptions of interactions around events that trigger the problem behavior. It helps us understand:
1.How the identified patient (IP) is treated while the problem behavior is exhibited.
2.How members of the network try to deal with the problem.
3.The outcome of any solutions they have tried in the past (so we know what does not work).
Once this cycle of interaction has been identified—usually in the first few sessions—the rest of the time in treatment can be spent on developing and finding ways to interrupt the pattern so the behaviors stop.
Examples of Circular Questioning in Systemic Family Sessions
1 "What happens when..."
This type of questioning encourages individuals to reflect on their behavior and the behavior of others in specific situations.
For example, "What happens when your partner doesn't respond to your apology?" This question encourages reflection on the impact of specific behaviors on the family system and can lead to improved understanding and problem-solving.
2. "What happens then?"
Circular questioning encourages the family to think systemically - often families come to treatment with a linear thought pattern, which is actually how we all think.
Linear thinking is - Jimmy is struggling at school, so we need to help him focus"
Circular thinking is more like "What is going on at home, between Mom and Dad that might be impacting Jimmy's sleep so that he can't concentrate at school?"
"What happens next" is a way of finding out the links in behaviors and in relationships - "So Jimmy goes to be and slams his door, what happens next?"
3. "How Do You Explain that?"
This type of questioning encourages individuals to reflect on the behaviors of people in their family, and promotes reflection of dynamics. I call this 'zooming out' - and tell families we are putting on our lab coats, becoming scientists who are watching and studying our own behaviors.
The 4 Types of Circular Questions
To effectively map out a family's interactional pattern, you need to use different categories of circular questions. Here are the four primary types used in systemic family therapy:
| Type of Question | Purpose | Clinical Example |
|---|---|---|
| Temporal Questions | Explores how situations, behaviors, or relationships have changed over time. | "Was anything different in how you were treated before the divorce, compared with now?" |
| Triadic Questions | Invites reflection on how two people's actions impact the behavior or mood of a third person. | "How does your father react when your mother cries?" |
| Mind-Reading Questions | Asks an individual to consider what someone else might be thinking or feeling. | "If your father didn't arrive home as expected, how do you think your mother would react?" |
| Interventive Questions | Introduces hypothetical scenarios to invite the family to imagine changing their behavior. | "If I had a magic wand and fixed the communication issue overnight, what would your family look like in five years?" |
How to Identify the Problem Using Circular Questioning
You might be tempted to skip problem identification, but getting very specific on the issue is going to set you up for the rest of treatment. It becomes an anchor that you hold onto ten sessions from the first one when you might feel a bit lost.
Don't Accept Surface Answers
Let's say I have a new family in my office, and I ask, "What is the problem?" and get the answer, "My son is acting out."
- •"If there were creepy Big Brother cameras in the house, what would I see that would let me know that acting out is occurring?"
- "Under what circumstances does he act out?"
- •"What happens after?"
- •"When does it happen, and when does it not happen?"
- •"Who is around when it happens, and who is not around?"
Building the Cycle of Interaction
If you start asking everyone in the room questions like this, you will get so much more information than "my son acts out." In fact, the real problem might sound more like this:
"I get worried about my son and his school performance, so I tend to ask him a lot of questions and bug him about his homework. This makes him irritable, and we often get into conflict which escalates to the point where I feel scared or powerless. At that point, I call my husband. Up until then, my husband has stayed out of the conflict, but when he gets that call, he comes in guns blazing and takes over. My son feels ganged up on and resentful, withdraws from our relationship, acts secretive, hides his grades, and doesn't come to me with problems. So, his grades drop."
10 Circular Questioning Examples You Can Use Today
Here are 10 highly effective circular questions you can integrate into your next family therapy session to uncover relational dynamics. If you want to learn even more, check out my full course on Circular Questioning here, or sign up for the Family Systems Newsletter I send each week1."What happens when..." (e.g., "What happens when your partner doesn't respond to your apology?")2."What happens then/next?" (e.g., "So Jimmy goes to bed and slams his door, what happens next?")3."How do you explain that?" (Promotes "zooming out" and observing their own behaviors like scientists).4."Who is most affected in the family by [Symptom]?"5."When Mom and Dad argue about [Symptom], what do the kids do?"6."Who agrees with [Family Member A's] view of the problem, and who disagrees?"7."If [Identified Patient] suddenly stopped exhibiting [Symptom], what would the family argue about instead?"8."Who is closest to [Identified Patient] when things are going well?"9."Who becomes most distant when the problem occurs?"10."How did your family handle conflict before this specific problem started?"Best Practices for Clinicians
To get the most out of circular questioning, keep these clinical best practices in mind:•Insist Everyone Attends:
You cannot do effective systemic work if key players are missing. Insist that everyone in the household comes to the family session—both parents, all siblings, and even Grandma if she spends a lot of time at the house.
•Use Hypothesis-Driven Questioning:
Circular questioning is most powerful when you use it to explore a speculation or hypothesis you have about what is going on in the family. Linking your questions to a hypothesis creates a purposeful interviewing pattern where information is revealed to both the therapist and the family simultaneously.•Remember All Behavior is Communication:
Often, we infer internal states with comments like, "She's depressed." Systemic therapists ask for elaboration: "What does she show when depression is present?" (e.g., "She slams doors and isolates.") Asking for specific behavioral descriptions provides much better clinical data.Frequently Asked Questions
What is circular questioning in systemic family therapy?
Circular questioning in family therapy is a way of asking questions that helps families understand how their actions and reactions affect each other. It is not about pointing fingers or finding fault, but about revealing the hidden patterns and cycles that keep problems going.What is the purpose of circular questions?
The goal is to get everyone in the family thinking about how they are contributing to the situation, not just blaming someone else. By seeing how their own actions trigger others, families can start to break unhealthy patterns and find new ways to communicate and resolve conflict.Who developed circular questioning?
Circular questioning in systemic family therapy is credited to a group of therapists known as the Milan Family Therapy Group (or the Milan Associates). Active in Milan, Italy, during the 1960s and 70s, they pioneered this approach to understand family dynamics as interconnected systems rather than linear cause-and-effect chains.What is the difference between circular and linear questions?
Linear questions seek direct facts and cause-and-effect explanations (e.g., "How long has he been acting out?"). Circular questions explore relationships, differences, and patterns of interaction over time (e.g., "When he acts out, how does your reaction differ from your husband's reaction?").
