ABSTRACT
Refraining is usually associated with strategic therapy, originally with the MRI group (Watzlawick, Weakland, & Fisch, 1974). In this model, reframing is seen as part of the communication process. It is designed to change the conceptual and/or emotional setting or viewpoint in relation to which a situation is experienced and to place it in another frame that fits the "facts" of the same concrete situation equally well, or even better, and thereby change its entire meaning. The change does not come from the confirmation of the client's reality but from creating a new one. The target in strategic family therapy is the system, the whole family, or the marital relationship. The way to do it is by disrupting the rules in organization around the "problem." For example, labeling a jealous husband as "loving" and "caring" may allow the wife to view his jealous behavior differently and thus respond to it differently.
