Enacting relationships in marriage and family therapy: a conceptual and operational definition of an enactment.

Enactments are a potential common clinical process factor contributing to positive outcomes in many relational therapies. Enactments provide therapists a medium for mediating relationships through simultaneous experiential intervention and change at multiple levels of relationships--including specific relationship disagreements and problems, interaction process surrounding these issues, and underlying emotions and attachment issues confounded with those problems. We propose a model of enactments in marriage and family therapy, consisting of three components--initiation operations, intervention operations, and evaluation operations. We offer a conceptual framework to help clinicians know when and to what purpose to use this model of enactments. We provide an operational description of each component of an enactment, exemplifying them using a hypothetical clinical vignette. Directions for future research are suggested.