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This paper discusses the inclusion of ideas from mindfulness, embodiment, and associated brain research in poststructural family therapies. Connecting research and practice across diverse fields is presented as enriching therapeutic work, increasing clinical effectiveness, and broadening options for families seeking our assistance. Ways of incorporating mindfulness and embodiment are described and offer distinctively novel practices not typically used in traditional forms of poststructural therapies. These innovative practices are illustrated by clinical work with a mother and her five‐year‐ daughter who survived a dangerous health crisis and an extremely painful hospitalization. Therapeutic work with this family exemplifies how traumatic experiences are not always accessible through linguistic means alone. Working with interpersonal mind–body practices can uniquely contribute to relaxing the sympathetic nervous system and activating the social engagement branch of the parasympathetic nervous system. The inclusion of such practices can provide valuable opportunities to facilitate the emergence of preferred experiences of self for all family members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a brief personal reflective practice that may help, over time, to reduce the frequency and intensity of troubling emotions. The practice is offered as an extension of collaborative therapeutic process, for possible use as "homework" either between sessions or after treatment. Referencing recent discoveries in neurobiology, the article proposes a simple four-step process by which a person may activate, modulate, associate, and reconsolidate emotionally charged procedural memories. The practice may be imagined as transferring collaborative process between the consulting room and the reflecting mind. The practitioner may be conceived as embodying a reciprocal conversation between left and right cerebral hemispheres, and cortical and subcortical neural networks, constructing an evolving integrated personal reality less dominated by difficult emotions and potentially more able to negotiate a collaborative inter-personal reality. A clinical example illustrates a possible approach and outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes important features and benefits of pivotal moments, suggests how they may contribute to the co-construction of a hopeful story that is alternative to the problem story, and investigates particular ways to co-create such 'aha' moments in the context of narrative therapy. Examining the effects of 'therapist posture' and 'externalizing conversations' in this process, the text proposes possible convergences between aspects of narrative practice and findings of neuroscience, noting potential advantages of encouraging 'movement' across narrative 'territory' and between cerebral hemispheres and, as a result of such convergences, potential enhanced understanding, precision, and conviction with respect to therapeutic practice. A partial interview transcript illustrates observations offered in the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]