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Jaakko Seikkula (2008) has pointed towards the importance of practitioners working in the present moment in dialogical therapy. Extrapolating from Seikkula's work, this article considers the significance of the qualities of therapist attentiveness, generosity and negative capability in dialogical family meetings for psychosis. It is proposed that these qualities are of particular importance when family meetings occur in crisis situations, as when under pressure practitioners can easily be drawn into prematurely interventionist stances that may unintentionally promote chronicity for the person experiencing psychosis. The value of co-working arrangements in enabling practitioners to maintain attentiveness and negative capability in this work is also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meeting a service user with his or her family in acute care settings to discuss their thoughts, hopes and concerns provides important therapeutic benefits. It can help counter some of the potentially negative consequences of hospital admission for the service user and family. Because people usually enter hospital during a period of crisis, approaches that are flexible and responsive to the specific needs of each client and family are required. To practise in this way, staff require access to training and continuing supervision that also needs to be delivered flexibly and responsively. INSETS: Case study one;Case study two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presenting dialogical approaches to therapy calls for training approaches that are themselves participatory and dialogical. The use of chance operations is one way of enhancing an interactive and co-constructive learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a single session aimed at helping participants on a family therapy foundation course to move from a position of anxiety and discomfort about completing a written assignment to a position of safe uncertainty. Evaluation from the perspectives of course participants, course facilitators and assignment markers has shown participants engaging more enthusiastically with the writing of the assignment and expressing less anxiety about the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the authors reflect on the impact of differences in accent, dialect, and vocabulary in a family meeting that occurred in a family therapy training clinic. Some ways in which these linguistic factors may provoke social distancing between participants and impede the development of meaning between therapist, family, and reflecting team are examined. Because language is constructive of our personal and social worlds, dilemmas associated with these aspects of communication are framed as ethical in nature. Some tentative implications for a relationally responsive ethical practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]