Thinking and Working Relationally: Interviewing and Constructing Hypotheses to Create Compassionate Understanding

In the initial interviews of family therapy sessions, the therapist faces the challenge of obtaining and organizing the information that is most relevant toward understanding the essential concerns that families and couples bring to therapy. This article describes the process of clinical interviewing and case conceptualization used in training family therapists at the Ackerman Institute for the Family. This approach helps the therapist bring forward, and organize, specific information into relational hypotheses, or systemic-relational conceptualizations, that allow both family members and the therapist to understand presenting problems within their relational contexts. While always provisional, relational hypotheses help anchor the therapist in a systemic-relational frame and provide a conceptual through-line to guide the ongoing work of the therapy. The process of interviewing and the construction of clear and complex conceptualizations of presenting problems are illustrated through case examples. En las entrevistas iniciales de las sesiones de terapia familiar, el terapeuta enfrenta el desafio de obtener y organizar la informacion mas relevante para comprender los problemas fundamentales que las familias y las parejas llevan a terapia. En este articulo se describe el proceso de entrevista clinica y conceptualizacion de casos utilizado en la capacitacion de terapeutas familiares en el Ackerman Institute for the Family. Este enfoque ayuda al terapeuta a transferir, y a organizar, informacion especifica en hipotesis relacionales o conceptualizaciones sistemico- relacionales que permitan tanto a los familiares como al terapeuta comprender los motivos de consulta dentro de sus contextos relacionales. Si bien son siempre temporarias, las hipotesis relacionales ayudan a ubicar al terapeuta en un marco sistemico-relacional y a ofrecer una linea de interaccion conceptual para guiar la labor constante de la terapia. El proceso de entrevista y la construccion de conceptualizaciones claras y complejas de los motivos de consulta se describen mediante ejemplos de casos.