The emphasis in nursing on behavioral dimensions of communication, however, has come under fire recently as overly mechanistic. Hartrick (1997) suggests an alternative approach, derived from humanistic values and focusing on relational capacity of nurses and their clients. Hartrick describes five relational capacities relevant to communication experiences of nurses with clients: (1) initiative, authenticity, and responsiveness: (2) mutuality and synchrony: (3) honoring complexity and ambiguity: (4) intentionality in relation, and (5) reimaging. Hartrick believes that an overmechanistic, behavioral approach to communication may limit spontaneity and ultimately “hinder the expression of the human caring values that the discipline of nursing in attempting to move toward” (p-524). While this chapter does indeed focus heavily on classic behavioral dimensions of family communication, family nurses must not lose sight of the essential human caring that must inform relationships and communication between nurses and the family they work with (Watson,1988) as well as within family themselves.