ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a quick survey of the broader landscape of the therapy process. It focuses on building safety, trust and agreement on a preliminary treatment plan, the goals. The chapter also provides crisis couples and families the tools they need to begin to resolve their learning problems and change dysfunctional patterns, and also moves them toward positive action and away from continuing to cycle around presenting complaints. One of the beauties of thinking in terms of systems and patterns, as well as the dynamics of the relationship triangle, is that if one person changes his side of the dynamics, the other person, by deliberately changing his behavior, can generally come to do the same. Focusing on emotional wounds is essentially moving away from the relationship triangle and defining the gap between the adult and what a client presents in a more detailed and deliberate way.
