ABSTRACT
Therapy is about restoring freedom of choice in setting one's goals. This chapter focuses on helping the client to determine what he or she wants. In solution-focused cognitive and systemic therapy (SFCST), therapists do not set themselves the task of changing their clients, to solve their problems, to cure them. It presents a comparison between semantic choices and pragmatic choices. Instead, therapists try to help their clients create a context in which they will be able to choose to change what they want to change, and to keep what they do not want to change. In this regard, therapists must know that clients can ascribe different meanings to situations, symptoms, facts, and to relationships. Some clients have clear goals, but they have unrealistic expectations of themselves, the therapist, or their family. The chapter presents case examples that explore therapeutic relationship with the client.
