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Relating therapeutically in family therapy: pragmatics and intangibles
Author(s) -
Flaskas Carmel
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-6427
pISSN - 0163-4445
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6427.12108
Subject(s) - dialogical self , pragmatics , psychotherapist , family therapy , therapeutic relationship , empathy , psychology , context (archaeology) , psychoanalytic theory , space (punctuation) , epistemology , intersubjectivity , social psychology , linguistics , paleontology , philosophy , biology
This paper offers a set of theory reflections on the challenges of relating therapeutically and holding a therapeutic position in family therapy. The context is the relational space of family therapy, which shapes the possibilities and limits of therapeutic relating. Pragmatics unfold in the doing of therapy within this space, and processes of engagement, empathy and the therapist's capacities for resonance and reactivities are all considered as part of the pragmatics of therapeutic relating in family therapy. Yet these processes and the therapist's involvement of self are not simply pragmatic. The exploration turns to ideas that attempt to meet the intangibles of the intersubjective space of therapeutic relationships. Ideas from contemporary family therapy discussions drawing on psychoanalytic ideas are placed side‐by‐side ideas of dialogical therapy as a way of opening out different understandings of the intangibles of the space between in therapeutic relating. Practitioner points The relational space of family therapy shapes the possibilities and limits of therapeutic relating Practices in relation to engagement, empathy and the therapist's involvement of self unfold as part of the pragmatics of therapeutic relating within this relational space Complexities of the therapist's involvement and use of self, and the richness and potentials of the therapeutic relationship, also lie in the intangibles of the space between Ideas from psychoanalytic thinking and dialogical therapy offer understandings of the intangibles of the intersubjective space of therapeutic relating.