ABSTRACT
Family therapists are well acquainted with the idea of "information". This chapter suggests that Walter Benjamin's distinction between "information" and "experience" is helpful. This is because, as in Benjamin's story of Psammenitus, images, sentiments, experiences, and stories that emerge during therapeutic sessions offer the therapist the opportunity to gain some experience of the meaning of cultural codes. The realm of experience in the therapy-room contains two opportunities for cross-cultural work. First, the possibility that the therapist may be able to join with the client, not by being the same as the client, but by connecting with some aspects of the client's experiences in the manner of Benjamin's story. This signals a common human predicament. Second, from the common ground arises the possibility that the therapist will be able to be curious about some of the less obvious aspects of the client's culturally constructed orientations.
