ABSTRACT
It is imperative for a clinician working from this model to understand the (a) emotional context and (b) relational anxiety that frames all individual behaviors in a family system. Working from this point of view, the first thing that a clinician seeks to do is construct a genogram of the family system. This process is started as early in the first session as is practical. It is obvious that Mary, Fred, Johnny, and Bess are all currently operating under a high level of family tension and stress. Doing a genogram is a very effective clinical tool for reducing the immediate overall level of anxiety in a family system. By not immediately asking “What brings you here today?” the therapist prevents Fred, Mary, and Johnny from going into their well-rehearsed reactions to one another. This reduces the amount of automatic emotional reactivity in the emotional triangle that the three of them form. If the three of them cannot enact their automatic emotional postures with one another, it may then allow for a different kind of conversation than they have had with anyone else.
