ABSTRACT
One of my favorite and frequently used interventions is based on the powerful transformational process, "Ingredients of an Interaction," developed by Virginia Satir in collaboration with Maria Gomori and myself. Some of the elements in this process had been used by Virginia for many years, but were only formalized during the last few years of her life, when many of the theories underlying her work were made more explicit. The basic assumptions of this intervention are that much of what we hear, feel, and react to is based on the past and that the sequence of the internal process of an interaction follows a specific and universal pattern. In this brief presentation, I would like to demonstrate how this process can be used as an instrument to facilitate interpersonal communication. I believe it is applicable to any situation in which the reaction of one family member to a verbal or non-verbal message of another family member does not seem to fit the message received or seems upsetting to the recipient.
