ABSTRACT
Instilling hope in clients that they can change is an important part of therapy, addressing the likelihood of relapse is perhaps equally as important (Dryden and Feltham, 1992). Relapse prevention originated in the treatment of substance abuse (Marlatt and Gordon, 1985) but is now applied to therapy generally. A relapse is a complete return to a previous problem state, while a lapse is a partial return to a previous problem state. By the time therapy is drawing to a close, clients will have learnt, if they did not know it already, that change is not a smooth, linear process but a series of advances and setbacks. Therefore, relapse prevention – we prefer the term ‘relapse reduction’ as it more accurately describes the post-therapy progress of fallible human beings – is a realistic strategy to pursue by pinpointing future situations (e.g. interpersonal strife, intense negative feelings, being alone) that could trigger a relapse and helping clients to develop coping plans in order to deal with these situations (these coping plans are essentially the tools and techniques they have already learnt in therapy).
