ABSTRACT
The orientation for the context out of which this article comes is the Virginia Satir paradigm: a system generic to the entire field of family therapy and beyond. It is my belief that the very first intervention, the most basic one any of us makes regardless of our therapeutic orientation, is making contact with another person. It sets the tone for the process or fate of the relationship. It is also the beginning of translating strangeness into familiarity. Since life talks to life, within the context of making contact we free up energy and free ourselves to take risks. Because our energy is free, the risks become minimized, and more options are possible. It seems to me that most of our education has been done holding in energy, not releasing it!
