ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a clinically important topic that has not been specifically addressed in the psychotherapy literature: the different ways and reasons patients coach their therapists during psychotherapy. In the most general sense of the word, to coach is to train someone, to give special instruction, to help prepare someone for an examination or an event. We use the term coaching to refer to those patient behaviors and communications that serve to attune the therapist to essential aspects of the patient's problems, conscious or unconscious treatment goals, and how the therapist can best help the patient attain these goals. When coaching, patients provide special information or instruction in order to help their therapists more effectively help them.
