ABSTRACT
When the therapist encourages the client to use paradox in single-session therapy, they do so by prescribing the very symptom the client wants to resolve and they encourage the client to tackle their problem by trying to stay awake and resist the inclination to fall asleep. If the person does this, they are approaching the problem in a different, albeit counterintuitive way, but this is often successful. Another use of a paradoxical technique is one known as reductio ad absurdum. Here the person is encouraged to exaggerate the problem, often in an extreme way. Using the paradoxical reductio ad absurdum technique, the therapist encourages the client to sweat more rather than less and to see if they can't drown other people with their sweat. As D. M. Foreman has argued, it is important to obtain the consent of clients before such techniques are employed and, thus, the therapist needs to make clear the rationale for their use.
