The therapist produces change by joining the family, probing for areas of flexibility, and
then activating dormant structural alternatives. Joining gets the therapist into the family;
accommodating to their style gives him or her leverage; and restructuring maneuvers trans-
form the family structure. If the therapist remains an outsider or uses interventions
that are too dystonic, the family will reject him or her. If the therapist becomes too much
a part of the family or uses interventions that are too syntonic, the family will assimilate the
interventions into previous transactional patterns. In either case there will be no structural change.