ABSTRACT
Empathy is a system of mutual cues and responses that regulate each participant's experience of self and the other in the system. The power of empathy makes relational therapy a versatile way to work. Relational therapy is not intent on unearthing clients' memories. It does not go after their feelings in hopes of release or catharsis, nor does it try to change their faulty belief systems and negative thought patterns. Relational therapy does not push a client to make specific changes in his life unless that's his agenda. Therapists who work with abuse survivors have a special body of knowledge about the symptoms survivors suffer-dissociation, hypervigilance, crippling anxiety, flashbacks, and intense shame and self-hatred, regulated through self-harm. Relational therapists can extend empathy freely and equally to all the members of a family or a group in a consulting room, even if their subjective truths all differ and they are all feeling misunderstood.
