ABSTRACT
The issue of `time' can be approached in a number of different ways. First, as highlighted above, there is the issue of putting linear time to one side when working therapeutically, emphasizing what Michael Jacobs refers to as `the presenting past' (Jacobs, 1986). The assumption is that issues which are brought to therapy, while possibly arising from earlier experiences, are likely to manifest themselves in some form in the room with the therapist, possibly through a co-constructed process where the therapist may know something of these dif®culties in their own life. Through an exploration of present encounter it becomes possible to discern the subtleties of exchanges and ways in which older patterns may be changed in the present. Many of our earlier points bring out both the complexity as well as the potential for healing of adopting such a perspective.
