When the Context is in the Room: Extending the Relational Paradigm

Examining the approach to couples work described by Virginia Goldner, this commentary analyzes a number of the most significant interventions introduced by Goldner, pointing to her skillful use of paradox, the ways in which her focus on her own participation in the events of the session enables the members of the couple to take more responsibility in ways that point toward repair, and the ways her interventions share properties with what I have elsewhere called attributional interpretations. The paper also offers a critique of the ways in which the metaphors of left-brain and right-brain can be overused and misleading.