ABSTRACT
Most therapy is predicated on an assumption that the therapist is highly trained, knowledgeable and skilful in relation to managing the process of therapy, while the client is a person in crisis and in need of assistance who has few, if any, ideas about how to take the therapy process forward. A pluralistic stance invites reconsideration of this core assumption: both client and therapist have important contributions to make. Pluralistic therapy aims to help the client be the best client they can be. The use of language in that leaflet, for example the use of doing words, positions the client as active and purposeful, rather than as passive or helpless. Providing clients about information about how to complain, lists of alternative therapy providers and other community resources, and self-help books, articles and websites, represent further ways of reinforcing the idea that the client is making active choices around whether to remain in therapy and how to use it.
