ABSTRACT
Anticipation Dialogues were developed in complex multi-professional situations where the helping process seemed to be leading nowhere, in spite of attempts by a number of helpers to do the professionally right thing. The dilemmas occurring at the boundaries between the professional system and the life-world of the citizens and, correspondingly, within the professional system could be seen as late-modern dilemmas. The professionals had been encouraged to bring along clients. A meeting between clients and professionals is a direct intervention into the lives of the clients, and the minimum requirement for such an encounter is that the clients leave the session more empowered than they entered it. "Multi-problem situations" create client relationships with several agencies. Instead of single clients, families arrived, and many families brought people from their personal networks—children, parents, grandparents, significant friends, and so on.
