ABSTRACT
Most clients come to us with the expectation, or at least the hope, that we will be able to help them contain or cure a problem that they locate inside of themselves or someone else. We respect our clients and work hard to develop an empathic understanding of their experiential world; however, we never accept such a request at face value. Problems, from our perspective, are best conceived not as things that reside inside of people but, rather, as patterns of relationship, unfolding through time. 1 Such relationships are comprised of interweaving strands of both intrapersonal experience (thoughts, sensations, emotions, behaviors, images, perceptions) and interpersonal experience (verbal and nonverbal communications within a couple, a family, an extended family, a group, and so on). 2
