ABSTRACT
It is hardly surprising that disputing or trying to change the way clients think about their unhelpful thinking could be one of the most dif®cult parts of the therapeutic process. When challenged, clients are often able to support their thinking or beliefs with evidence, due to the selective and habitual nature of their thinking process. It has been suggested that if the client is resistant to change, the therapist can `psychologically remove' the client from his or her subjective `territory' to a `different' psychological territory (Figure 21.1). When a disputing technique being used in the `different territory' can highlight an experience or an example that the client can relate to, the client is likely to become more objective and less emotionally charged. This objective thinking would then act as a catalyst or a mirror for the client to re¯ect on his or her unhelpful way of thinking when the disputing is shifted back to the client's territory. This approach has the positive effect of reducing the client's resistance to change (Lam 1997; Lam and Gale 2004). Therapists often ®nd it dif®cult to help those clients who are highly emotionally upset or those who seem to have evidence to support their way of thinking.
