ABSTRACT
While encouraging your clients to establish what their problems are and what they hope to gain from therapy is very important, it is just as important for you to elicit their commitment to effect change. This point combines the principle of taking a goal-directed stance in therapy with the principle of encouraging your clients to take responsibility for their own change. Encouraging your clients to make a commitment to effect change involves discussing with them what they are prepared to do to achieve their goals, and what sacrifices they are prepared to make. It may be a truism that there is no gain without pain, but it is invariably true and this truth can only be demonstrated by clients internalizing this truism in order to make therapeutic progress.
