ABSTRACT

This process concentrates clients' minds on imprecision of their language in describing themselves or their problems. Some clients might complain that defining terms is just semantic clarity but, in fact, it has a very serious purpose. Using words like 'failure', 'useless', 'worthless' or 'no good' to define oneself are not only dangerous overgeneralization, a person might become depressed and consider suicide through such self-labelling, but are hopelessly inadequate and inaccurate in capturing the complexity and uniqueness of the self. Semantic precision helps clients to clear and correct about events and what can done about them instead of focusing on what they believe they are which will prevent them learning from their mistakes and restricting their self-development such as not persevering in the face of setbacks. Defining terms is not an end in itself: it is a means of establishing semantic clarity so that a more informed cognitive discussion of these terms can undertake.