Socioculturally Attuned Collaborative-Dialogic Family Therapy

This chapter identifies core enduring concepts of collaborative-dialogic practices and integrates tenets of socioculturally attuned family therapy into the practice of collaborative therapy. Third order change in the context of the collaborative approach means attuning to external forces that affect our ability to engage, working toward understanding, and responding with humility and compassion. It requires naming what is unjust or has been overlooked, and intentionally sharing space and voice as a collaborative conversational partner. Collaborative practitioners value and acknowledge the worth of what has been ignored, minimized, or devalued. Socioculturally attuned collaborative therapists work to intervene through questions and transparent statements that support relational equity and disrupt oppressive power dynamics. They create space with clients to imagine and envision and transform relationships to achieve more “just” alternatives. The chapter ends with a case example that illustrates these ideas and demonstrates an application of socioculturally attuned collaborative family therapy, including integrating an understanding of the influence of sociocultural systems of culture, contexts, power, and space.