From our Bakhtinian perspective, understanding requires an active process of talking and listening. Dialogue is a precondition for positive change in any form of therapy. Using the perspectives of dialogism and neurobiological development, we analyze the basic elements of dialogue, seeking to understand why dialogue becomes a healing experience in a network meeting. From the perspective of therapist as dialogical partner, we examine actions that support dialogue in conversation, shared emotional experience, creation of community, and creation of new shared language. We describe how feelings of love, manifesting powerful mutual emotional attunement in the conversation, signal moments of therapeutic change.

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This article describes an integrative, multisystem clinical approach to the psychological and relational problems that develop around learning disabilities. Positioned in relationships with children, families, and schools, the therapist addresses the emotions, interpersonal conflicts, and problematic beliefs that contribute to problems. Using clinical skills to contain and relieve painful emotions, the therapist soothes "inflammation at the boundaries" of relationships among children, families, and schools, depolarizing conflicts within and between systems. Familiar with developmental and educational psychology and developmental neurobiology, the therapist makes this specialized knowledge intelligible to children, families, and teachers. This article describes two specific methods, the chart of strengths and weaknesses and the map of learning functions, which facilitate communication of specialized knowledge about children with learning disabilities. The therapist uses expert knowledge to help members of the treatment system transform blaming, helpless, or hopeless interpretations of the problem into more hopeful constructions, which support healthy development.