ABSTRACT
We have characterised the fundamental therapeutic stance of family therapy as that of being curious. More recently, this stance has been varied by the description that the family therapist approaches her work from a position of `not knowing'. There are various ways in which this concept or, more accurately, therapeutic stance can be understood. Using a metaphor from art, we might suggest that `not knowing' is the state of consciousness when the methods of creation are so ingrained, so part of the artist, that they are no longer consciously drawn upon. A similar metaphor exists within the literature about Zen enlightenment. Here, it is suggested that the heart of enlightenment becomes part of the marrow in the centre of the bones rather than the skin of the practitioner (Reps 1971).
