ABSTRACT
This is the first of three chapters that use one couple and family therapy case to illustrate the Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy (SERT) clinical sequence from beginning to end. This chapter details phase 1, positioning, which addresses how people locate themselves in relation to social ideas and beliefs and how these are connected to identity, emotion, and power. The chapter demonstrates responsible positioning that counters dominant discourses that prioritize individuality and competition at the expense of relationships, resists colluding with social messages and practices that perpetuate injustice, and is accountable for how the therapy positions family members in relation to each other and their larger social worlds. The case example outlines steps for each of three phase 1 clinical competencies: (a) attune to sociocultural emotion, (b) expose relational consequences of power inequities, and (c) explore sociocultural discourses. It shows how therapist use of language, questions, and ways of engaging create a relational process that encourages equity through contextual awareness and mutual care and responsibility. The family begins to see their lives and the nature of their problems through a broader sociocultural lens and reposition from problem/failure discourses to relational ones.
