ABSTRACT
When clients come for therapy, the relationship that develops between therapist and clients is seen as a significant factor in whether there is a therapeutic outcome. Naming one person in the relationship as “therapist” does not automatically make it a “therapeutic relationship”. The responses of clients, supervisees, and therapists in training to this kind of collaborative conversation encouraged the author to include other aspects of a session and components of systemic practice within this frame. The term “warming” is not used to imply “cuddly” or “cosy”; it is being used to indicate that a context is being prepared for work so that the participants can go on to face experimenting with difference in a context that feels familiar. It is more than being friendly at the beginning to make people feel comfortable. The emergent popularity of narrative approaches to therapy and training has been immensely refreshing and inspirational to the field in general.
