ABSTRACT
The core process goal of psychotherapy is very well expressed by Buber's concept of `inclusion' (Buber, 1923/1996). This is the process by which we develop the capacity to remain grounded in our own experience and simultaneously the capacity to enter into and be sensitive to the world of the other. This capacity enables us to evaluate and be aware of the impact we make on others and the impact they make on us, and to appreciate differences in our perceptions from those of other people. This concept has been taken up and elaborated upon by contemporary dialogical approaches to psychotherapy. Hycner (1993) explains that `inclusion is the back and forth movement of being able to go over to the other side yet remain centred in my own experience' (Hycner, 1993: 20). Such a meta-systems perspective on the relational process allows the therapist (and in time the client) to view self in process with another with a sensitivity to contextual factors. We see this as a process goal for clients in therapy as well as being an important relational skill for therapists. `The speci®c ``healing'' relationship would come to an end the moment the patient thought of, and succeeded in, practising ``inclusion'' and experiencing the event from the doctor's pole as well' (Buber, 1923/1996: 167).
