Confronting or not

You are right in that I was thinking of clients such as the one in Mosak's video. I am also oriented towards short term therapy, so this means that I do better with clients that are willing to improve their situation. The key, is that they be "willing" to try.

I am still completing this program, but I have also worked for quite a few years in the health field, and I have always gently, but surely discouraged dependence of my clients.

I do not see how avoiding to confront the client can end up in dependence. I believe that somehow, you confused the meaning. Encouragement is something different to confrontation, yet, it can have much better results.

I just fail to understand how telling a client he/she is not telling the truth can help someone to gain self-esteem, and the encouragement needed to overcome difficult times. I will include an example:

I mother of 2 small children is not doing her homework. She arrived to the clinic with very good purposes, but now, she will do nothing to overcome the problems she is facing. You know that she will do better if she put in some work, yet, she is "stuck’ and has become "resistive". An aggressive therapist may use confrontation: " What have you done to overcome the difficulties?" "You told me you were going to work in your home work, and you have not done any work yet". I would use encouragement: " You have made progress in such and such area, and I see that you have some difficulty working in this other area, perhaps we should talk about it"

Replies:

Encourage or Confront, by tcumming, 2/16/97

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