Commentary—daily experiences of relationships and illness: Reflecting on our focus.

Abstract

I )e mindful of what you see. Always_U remember, your focus determines your reality." Admonitions to healthcare practitioners-in-training? No, this advice comes from Jedi master, Qui-Gon Jinn, to his young ward, Anakin Skywalker in the recent Star Wars movie (Brooks, 1999, p. 241). Now part of popular culture, this message has had a long tradition in our clinical work with families and health, and receives compelling support from David Young and David Rosenthal's exploration with couples who experience illness (1999).Young and Rosenthal set out to illustrate John Rolland's "Family Systems Illness Model" (1994) through a unique and exciting methodology-the Experiential Sampling Method (ESM). This methodology is one of the few that could do justice to Rolland's elegant, powerful model for families' experience of illness and disability. This study affirms what theorybuilding pioneers, like Rolland, and "rank and file" systems-oriented healthcare practitioners have held dear for nearly 30 years. That is, when you look at the daily behaviors, thoughts, and emotions of families who experience illness, patterns emerge which suggest that illness is not