ABSTRACT
While some ‘why’ questions can be productive, using too many may well encourage your clients to become defensive in that they may experience your enquiries as criticism or interrogation. Also, their use may reflect a tendency to speculate on specious reasons for your clients’ behaviour which while interesting may not be useful or accurate (e.g. ‘Why do you keep avoiding intimacy?’)
Bombarding your clients with too many questions
This is a risk particularly in the disputing stage of therapy. Some REBT therapists that we have heard or supervised over the years sound like demented prosecution lawyers who just fire question after question at their clients as if they were hostile witnesses. This is rarely if ever productive. So when you ask questions, particularly while disputing the clients’ irrational beliefs, ensure that you do so with tact, sensitivity and in a way that enables your clients to think about their answers (Neenan and Dryden 2002).
