This paper describes several disagreements among approaches to family therapy and proposes two conceptual shifts providing a more integrative perspective. The first shift focuses on the implications of different ways therapists orient themselves to the developing structures of the therapy system and to the disabled structures of the client system. The second shift reconsiders theoretical approaches in terms of the types of distance they require of the therapist and the types of information these distances provide and ignore. Finally, the paper also discusses a means for classifying the different types of goals therapists establish for their clients, emphasizing that these goals must be consistent with the clients' views of themselves and the world.
This paper presents a framework for thinking about interactions between client and therapist systems in terms of the participants' personal explanatory systems and models of reality. The therapist's contribution to forming structures throughout the therapy is examined. The elements of a covert interview of the therapist performed by the client system are described. A model is presented for training therapists to think systemically about client/therapist fit in the context of the client's interview. A case presentation illustrates the value of the interview.
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