ABSTRACT
First introduced by Hinkle (1965), laddering represents an assessment strategy at the personal-agentic level that directly elicits hierarchical features of the individual's personal construct system, linking concrete perceptions, behaviors or role descriptions with the higher-order issues they imply. As such, it is frequently helpful in the course of therapy for deepening a client's inquiry into a particular complaint or revealing subtle ways in which a person's sense of self becomes tied up with a symptom. Conversely, as is true for most constructivist methods, it can also help identify important client values and strengths that can provide anchoring points for a ``preferred self'' (Eron & Lund, 1996), in keeping with the precept that every meaning system embodies both problems and prospects, and the most effective therapy entails drawing on the latter to address the former.
