What do we mean by empowerment?

• Client Empowerment by Judy LCSW,LPC, 11/22/98
  
  

What is empowerment? I think its a buzz word us mental health types use. When doing solution focused therapy the shift is toward putting the client into the focus not the therapist and what the therapist does to the client. I think if we attempt to empower clients aren't we back into doing something to the client? How do we empower clients without doing something to them, rather than they do something for themselves. My hunch is that empowerment springs from the person of the therapist, it springs from their attitude toward the client, toward themself, toward the problem; That the problem is solvable. That the client can find a solution. That's just a guess off the top of my head. What do others think? JSM

• &lllaos;Empower&lllaos; is a verb by Mitchell W. Hicks, MA, 1/20/99
  • Those are supposed to be quotation marks by Mitchell W. Hicks, MA, 1/20/99