| Abstract: | This article examines the conceptual and practice relationship between medical family therapy (MedFT) and its parent field, family therapy, with MedFT viewed as the extension of relational sense‐making and understanding into a specific venue; that of medicine. The extension of this relational meaning system into medicine is typified by the ability of the therapist to negotiate and connect three main areas of conceptual difference that often account for conflictual relationships between mental and biomedical healthcare providers: (i) patient and provider conceptualizations of issues and goals, (ii) linear and circular understanding of issues and goals and (iii) consultative and expert positions on issues and goals. Two case examples are offered to describe how these three areas of tension are reconciled in practice. |
