ABSTRACT
We make a case here for therapists to be more inquisitive about what is happening with their clients. Too often therapists tread too softly, as if somehow to speak openly is out of turn. But many of the children and young people who come to therapy have lost the capacity to speak openly. The self is a distant shore. It is not always viable to believe that each child has a natural sense of who they are, because many young children who come to therapy have had lives that have been out of kilter with what we would hope is the ordinary yield of human nature. For some children nature has not been fair. The presence of therapist needs to be purposeful and audible.
