ABSTRACT
There are occasions when clients come to therapy of their own volition with a growth plan in mind, seeking a psychological guide through the maze of life. This article is not about those clients. Nor is this article about those clients who come to therapy to change anything about themselves. This article should be read only by therapists who have clients who are mandated and often resent having to "waste their time coming to therapy." After all, they aren't the problem, don't have a problem, and are not interested in changing anything about themselves — only the circumstances that coerced them into therapy. While they believe the problem to be imaginary, their covertly and overtly expressed sentiments of anger and denial are very evident. Confrontation, while making the therapist feel better, only makes the denial and anger worse. This article uses a case illustration of an incest offender to demonstrate the advantage of non-pejorative language in therapy to circumvent denial and better monitor the safety of the child.
