ABSTRACT
This is the second 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 2, interrupting, which interrupts the flow of societal and relational power to create relational safety as clients work on the issues that brought them to therapy. The author emphasizes how to identify and shift in-the-moment power processes as they present in session and shows that interrupting usually means asking different things of each person based on their power positions and which discourses you support. The case example outlines steps for each of three phase 2 clinical competencies: (a) highlight the value of relational work, (b) help powerful persons take the relational initiative, and (c) connect interruptions in the flow of power to contextual meaning. Interrupting the flow of power makes it possible for family members to risk engaging with each other; those in powerful positions experience the positive consequences of relational engagement, while less powerful persons begin to feel validated, safer, and cared about, and are more likely to be heard.
