ABSTRACT
We assume that clients come to us with a vast array of learnings, resource experiences and useful patterns of thinking acquired and developed in the course of their lives thus far and stored in their memory. Erickson was well known for his typical statement to clients that 'your unconscious contains a vast storehouse of learnings and resources.״ He would usually elaborate about a representative few of these learnings, mentioning in detail such undeniable basics as learning to walk, learning the alphabet, etc. In the course of his discussion the client would typically begin to feel capable, confident, etc. regarding abilities and learnings which had simply been ״forgotten״ and taken for granted. Having thus ״retrieved״ or pulled into the foreground those resource experiences, the client was optimally ״fortified״ and ready to tackle a variety of therapeutic tasks. These ״therapeutic tasks״ often involved the reassociation of experiential life we have mentioned already. Erickson believed that ״clients are clients because the conscious mind does not know how to initiate desired psychological experiences and behavior changes to the degree that one would like״ (Erickson & Rossi, 1979, p. 18). In other words, we're not dealing with a shortage of desired psychological processes but with a shortage of associative links to initiate psychological processes in specific situations.
