I consider this to be very important information and welcome more “news of difference” that may inform all aspects of the marriage and family therapy profession.”
“As a Professor in a School of Social Work I act as a bridge between professions, licensed as both a marriage and family therapist (MFT) and a clinical social worker

and teaching systems theory and family therapy to social work students. As I write this editorial I am continuing in that role only now I am doing so in a very different context. As part of a sabbatical leave I am spending the month of October as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Social Work at the National Lazertinib University of Singapore. BIX 1294 nmr Thus, I also am something of a bridge between cultures, one Western and one Eastern. However, despite the many distinctions between these two cultures, I find that here, as at home, the students with whom I have the opportunity to work are very similar in terms of both their eagerness to learn

and the challenges they experience as they encounter and attempt to internalize a new way of thinking. I suspect that over time we tend to forget what it was like to enter the unfamiliar new world of systems theory and family therapy. Certainly I see it in the eyes of students wherever I teach, but that is not the same as living it. However, I now am AC220 reminded every day, at least metaphorically, of this experience as I attempt to find my way around an enormous campus with its maze Oxaprozin of buildings, learn to use appliances that work differently, adapt electrical sockets to accommodate my computer and cell phone, negotiate on foot through traffic that flows in a direction that is opposite to what I am used to, and eat food (delicious by the way) that

is totally unfamiliar to me. Being a stranger in a strange land is a marvelous experience for many reasons. Relative to the marriage and family therapy profession it certainly has been significant for me. On the one hand it is helping me to remain mindful of the confusion and muddled feelings most of us experienced during our initial training. It also reminds me that in some small way this experience is probably isomorphic to what the original creators of our field encountered as they introduced and began to practice using a totally different paradigm. And on the other hand, it helps me to remain cognizant of how far we have come both as individuals and as a field in terms of our comfort level with systemic thinking and our sophistication as practitioners, theorists, and researchers. This certainly seems evident in the wealth of information provided in this issue of the journal. The initial focus is on training issues as described in two articles.