ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Steps 3 and 4 in the therapy process: accessing the unacknowledged feelings underlying interactional positions, and reframing the problem in terms of the negative cycle and these underlying feelings and attachment needs. At this point in therapy, the first task of the therapist is to access the music of the couple’s dance, that is, the primary emotions that are usually excluded from individual awareness and not explicitly included in the partners’ interactions. The second task is to use these emotional responses, and the attachment needs reflected by such responses, to expand the context of the couple’s problems. The problem is
framed in terms of the way the couple interacts, and the emotional responses that organize such interactions.
