ABSTRACT
For most of us, coming into a helping profession came with a desire to help people make real and sustained positive changes in their lives. Watching someone make these changes and flourish in their lives can be immensely rewarding and gratifying. The underside to this is that there will be times where we are pulled into the ‘Fix-it’ trap. This trap is when we become overly focused on providing a fix to the client’s problems and the desire to fix the problem reduces our sensitivity to the context in front of us. When we’re stuck in the ‘Fix-it’ trap we lose sight of the client’s needs and our own needs, fusion, and avoidance become the key drivers of our behaviour. We tend not to notice when the client just wants to be listened to or have their distress acknowledged or validated. We can become overly persistent and persuasive in attempting to do what we deem to be the right thing. At its worst, this can lead to therapeutic ruptures and even the client terminating sessions.
