In this article,
we reflect on how various lessons learned from our clients have affected us as individuals and
as participants in our most important personal relationships. In writing this
piece, we also realized that changes in the ways we view our relationships and ourselves have
come about from not only our practice as therapists, but also our teaching, our research, and our
supervision of psychotherapy. Moreover, there is reciprocity in the lessons we offer others and
those we learn from them.That is, our work with couples and families informs our academic work
as well as our personal lives, and what we learn from our academic and life experiences affects
our work with clients, which in turn affects us as individuals. Not surprisingly, it’s systemic!