What Do I Say?: The Therapist's Guide to Answering Client Questions [Paperback]

The must-have guide to honestly and sensitively answering your clients' questions

Written to help therapists view their clients' questions as collaborative elements of clinical work, What Do I Say? explores the questions—some direct, others unspoken—that all therapists, at one time or another, will encounter from clients. Authors and practicing therapists Linda Edelstein and Charles Waehler take a thought-provoking look at how answers to clients' questions shape a therapeutic climate of expression that encourages personal discovery and growth.

Strategically arranged in a question-and-answer format for ease of use, this hands-on guide is conversational in tone and filled with personal examples from experienced therapists on twenty-three hot-button topics, including religion, sex, money, and boundaries. What Do I Say? tackles actual client questions, such as:

• Can you help me? (Chapter 1, The Early Sessions)

• Sorry I am late. Can we have extra time? (Chapter 9, Boundaries)

• I don't believe in all this therapy crap. What do you think about that? (Chapter 3, Therapeutic Process)

• Why is change so hard? (Chapter 4, Expectations About Change)

• Will you attend my graduation/wedding/musical performance/speech/business grand opening? (Chapter 20, Out of the Office)

• Where are you going on vacation? (Chapter 10, Personal Questions)

• I gave your name to a friend . . . Will you see her? (Chapter 9, Boundaries)

• Should I pray about my problems? (Chapter 12, Religion and Spirituality)

• Are you like all those other liberals who believe gay people have equalãe