The support of family and friends during difficult times can be invaluable, but even the most well intentioned friend or family member cannot offer what psychotherapy does. Besides issues about confidentiality, the lives of our loved ones are inevitably intertwined with our own, and communication takes place within the framework of a set of basic assumptions about our place within our family or social system. This system may be threatened if an individual within it starts to challenge those assumptions. Psychotherapy, however, aims to empower the individual.