ABSTRACT
Mattering is a practice with the purpose of engaging with families in ways that make them feel welcomed and respected, enabling families to participate on equal grounds with the professionals. Our purpose is to make collaboration work in a relationship that, from the start, is inherently hierarchical. Mattering involves the creation of treatment goals that are based on the person's own dreams, hopes, and values, accepting and embracing that each treatment goal will be unique and idiosyncratic. This chapter focuses on different mattering practices and explains why they matter. Three stories describe different mattering practices in the family therapy course. The last story focuses on team-mattering practices, and how making colleagues know that their work matter to the team and to the families we serve, ensures their ability to matter to the families.
