ABSTRACT
This chapter explores various aspects of the persons are working with, including their motivation for being in therapy, ideas about change, and expertise on their own experience. Psychotherapy's history is filled with therapists who were trained as medical doctors. Contemporary family therapists tend to refer to the people they work with as clients or possibly as customers. There are many ways to think about the connection between therapist and client. The practitioners described three types of client-therapist relationships: visitor, complainant, and customer. Besides the types of client relationships, therapists can also assess for the client's motivation for change. Recently, therapists have been acknowledging the expertise of the client and building on that local knowledge to help the client. This may come in the form of extratherapeutic factors, aspects of the client and his environment that lead to change. Therapists have expertise in being able to open space in a conversation that provides alternatives for clients.
