ABSTRACT
The final classification of paradoxical interventions is probably the most difficult to master. They are reserved for those clinicians who have truly grasped the essence of nonlinear thought processes demonstrated by master clinicians, have a firm understanding of the other domains of competence, and also feel comfortable using paradoxical interventions. The challengers are that class of paradoxical interventions that are unsettling to a client’s status quo. In much the same way that a grain of sand causes an irritating challenge to an oyster (thus causing the creation of a pearl), so too do the challengers provide a positive unsettling feeling to a client in the name of therapeutic movement. As “disturbing” as they are to the client’s (maladaptive) status quo, challengers are meant to provoke positive therapeutic movement or prompt a greater sense of prosocial equilibrium to a client in maintaining her symptoms.
