ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 defines and illustrates the power of client centeredness and client-need-driven processes that feature a collaborative therapeutic alliance at their core. Clients will often become a customer in therapy when their agenda, elicited through neurolinguistic question sequences, has been acknowledged and prioritized. Court orders or a referral agency’s priorities are not ignored, but the client’s agenda must take center stage. Effective interventions are those tailored to fit the individual client and reflect “what the client really wants.” The therapist helps the client to refine a picture of change by asking questions that will further define the change in concrete, measurable behaviors. Those behaviors become the goals, which then can be further defined by small increments of change. We can ask about and process exceptions to the problem, or create “deliberate exceptions” through tasks. Tasks that feature what a client wants to see happen can incentivize clients to participate and practice their solutions.
