Editorial: Be (a) Patient

I R EAD B OSCOLO A ND B ERTRANDO ’ S The times of time when it was published in 1993, and enjoyed exploring clinical dilemmas through the time lens they offered. I was made aware of how easy it was to become stuck with families discussing the past or the future; and became interested in the different preoccupations with time we find across therapy models and across the families we work with. Boscolo and Bertrando began their work by exploring time from the standpoints of many disciplines including philosophy, anthropology, physics and history, and their journey led them through a fascinating ‘plurality of times’. They wondered if these different (for example cultural/personal/social) ways of understanding time could lead to difficulties if they were not coordinated. They suggested considering the relationship between the three dimensions of time ‐ past, present and future ‐ as reflexive. They saw taking a reflexive stance about time in therapy as facilitating opportunities to consider hypothetical pasts and futures in the present. Recently, a number of encounters prompted me to revisit some of these ideas and to think about a time lens when considering the experiences of chronically sick children, their families and health care staff. What follows are briefly described scenarios based on clinical encounters in a children’s hospital which I will use to develop emerging time themes. The first group of scenarios highlight different perceptions of time passing; the second are examples of clashes between people running on different time frames; the third set highlight different time values; and the fourth set show how illness may precipitate preoccupation with the past or the future. Time passing