ABSTRACT
This chapter argues for the importance of paying attention to how societal context and power dynamics affect mental health and relational well-being. The field of family therapy challenged the dominant system of its time, such as the medical model. Psychotherapists were trained to understand and treat dysfunction. Common change factors have received a great deal of attention in the helping fields, including family therapy. Debates have ensued regarding the relative importance or unimportance of models, including the argument that common factors work through or enhance models. Although the same factors are not uniformly defined across theorists, they are frequently categorized as client and extratherapeutic factors, therapist factors and therapeutic alliance, hope and expectancy for change, and use of models and techniques. Sociocultural attunement improves the ability to use existing models in ways that support social equity. Models enhance change by offering clients and therapists a coherent framework from which to understand and find relief from problems.
