This paper sets out an educational model for shared learning for professionals working in primary health care teams (PHCTs). It presents an outline of an experiential educational programme using a simulated learning exercise based on a genogram. Multidisciplinary programmes are inherently problematic and tend to be ad hoc in their choice of educational theory. It was therefore our intention to discover the educational principles and theory that underpinned our innovative educational experience and to offer some fundamental criteria for the planning of future shared learning sessions in PHCTs. The process chosen to make the theory explicit was, 'reflecting on a critical incident' (Reed & Proctor 1993, Tripp 1993).