Affordances and Opportunities for Relational Wellness

This paper explores the concept of “affordances” for relational healing that clients implicitly bring with them to therapy. It highlights the therapist's perception of such affordances as a first step toward conceiving of opportunities to take certain initiatives to enable relational wellness. As therapists become increasingly aware of the multiple possibilities that clients afford them to intervene, they are more liable to utilize such opportunities when doing therapy. By sharpening their observational skills to perceive these affordances, therapists may more readily conceive of associated therapeutic opportunities and initiate relevant interventions. We start with some background theory and then present a few vignettes of clinical work to illustrate the application of these concepts in the course of family therapy.