ABSTRACT
All versions are neither right nor wrong. Our task is as much as pos sible to engage in a dialogue in order to understand how the various persons came to create their descriptions and their explanations. Thereafter, we invite them to a dialogue to discuss whether there might be other not yet seen descriptions, and maybe even other ex planations not yet thought of . . . . The appropriate unusual questions are our best contributions. (Andersen, 1990, p. 52)
In this chapter, reflexive family therapy (both languaging and reflecting models), solution-oriented family therapy, and narrative family therapy will be discussed. Together, these models of family therapy are the collaborative language-based models of family therapy. They are also sometimes called postmodern (Anderson, 1997) or social constructionist models (Hoyt, 1994), because they posit that agreed-upon cultural realities develop through conversation, and that different individuals and cultural groups may per ceive reality very differently. Therapists working in these models consider all possible points of view and do not assume there is one “correct” reality.
