A number of theoretical orientations to family business consultation have been proposed and developed. This article acknowledges these contributions but sets out to take afresh look at the process, using the interconnected notions of relationship and context to organize the discussion. Case examples are provided as illustration.

The social constructionist ideas currently reshaping the practice of family therapy are also relevant for supervision. However, if, as postmodernists assert, there is no privileged, expert position, how can supervisors evaluate their trainees? This question-a most pertinent one for university-based supervision, where evaluation is necessary and constant-is addressed both theoretically and pragmatically in this article. Ethical issues are explored, and an evaluation form, developed by the authors for use in a family therapy doctoral program, is presented and discussed.

This article illustrates the use of qualitative research methods in the field of thanatology. The authors--a former doctoral candidate and her dissertation chair--describe their ongoing naturalistic inquiry of terminally ill persons and their family members. By describing the reasoning and decision-making informing their study, the authors provide an instructive "how to" on the following topics: finding a research question and a method; assessing risks and benefits; sampling; gaining entry/access to research informants; participant observation; interviewing; analyzing data, and establishing "relational integrity." In a final section, the first author offers reflections on the personal challenges she faced while conducting her research.

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Despite ongoing efforts by clinicians, researchers, and theorists to resolve fundamental disagreements about what hypnosis is and how it works, a diversity of theories and approaches remains. For example, experts still disagree about whether hypnosis constitutes a special or altered state, whether hypnotizability is best conceived of as a stable trait, and whether the clinical application of hypnosis is appropriately conceptualized as hypnotherapy. Drawing on the ideas of Gregory Bateson, Daniel Siegel, and others, the author articulates a relational characterization of mind and self as a vantage from which to reexamine common assumptions about hypnosis and to reconsider several questions still animating the field.