ABSTRACT
Relapse prevention (RP) originated treatment of substance abuse but is now applied to therapy generally. A relapse is a complete return to a previous problem state, lapse is a partial return to a previous problem state. By the time therapy is drawing to a close, clients have learnt, if they did not know it already, that change is not a smooth, linear process but a series of advances and setbacks which they already have experienced in therapy. Therefore, RP promises too much, prefer the term 'relapse reduction or management' as these terms more accurately describe the post-therapy progress of fallible human beings. Relapse reduction is a realistic strategy to pursue by future that could trigger a relapse and helping clients to develop coping plans to deal with these situations. Leahy suggests reframing a relapse as learning or natural experiment, For example: what happens when the client does not follow the guidelines for maintaining progress after therapy has ended.
