As published in “A Practical Approach to Therapy with the Chemically Dependent Person” by Al Greene, ACSW, Appalachian State University and Gene Saussure, Ph.D, About Recovery Incorporated, Wellspring Chemical Dependency Treatment Center. Publication Date Unknown1.
Note: The following is a partial list as Greene’s rules are subject to change, revision, addition, and deletion at a moment’s notice based upon my capricious and arbitrary mood of the moment.
- If you want to help someone, never do anything for him that he can do for himself. This caveat is particularly important for new counselors to keep in mind, since in our efforts to be helpful we frequently overdo and encourage inappropriate dependency on our client’s part.
- When in doubt, whip it out. No, it doesn’t mean what you’re thinking, it means simply to be straightforward and direct with clients. It means ask when you don’t know something you need to know from the client. It means say you don’t know when clients raise issues or ask questions that you cannot answer. It means if you are uncertain or unsure, say so.
- When asking questions, gathering history information, and in general, seeking information from clients, we always move from the general to the specific in as open-ended a questioning approach as is possible. For example, instead of asking a question such as: “Do you drink a lot?” or “Do you and your wife get along well?” or some similar style of questioning, it is much better to begin with a very general question or comment such as: “Tell me about your drinking,” or “Tell me about your marriage,” etc. And then, following clients’ responses, we ask more specific questions only as we must.
- Never ask a question of a client to which you do not need to know the answer. We have no right to ask questions of our clients that we do not need to know. For example you might find it very interesting to know your client’s favorite position for sexual intercourse; however, you certainly do not need to know that information unless you are assessing very specifically for some aspect of sexual dysfunction.
- Always be prepared to give your rationale as to why you need to know t h e answer to any specific question which you may ask. Clients always have a right to know why we need to know whatever information we ask of them.
- Never go into a client session without a clear concept of your specific purpose or goal for this session. And then communicate that purpose to the client initially. Even if your purpose is to find out what’s going on with the client today and then react to whatever that may be, it is important to state this purpose to the client particularly early in the session.
- The more formal and informal resources a client is utilizing in his recovery program, the more likely he is to avoid relapse and maintain recovery progress. The point here is that addiction is a complex process which creates complex problems for our clients in many areas of their lives and we need to make frequent and numerous referrals to all sorts of formal and informal resources for our clients. Unilateral treatment plans or approaches do not work!
- People just won’t do right. In this context, what this means is that many times our clients will not do exactly what we want them to when we want them to do so in their recovery programs. A related corollary of this rule is that people do things in their own time. Thus, our own schedules for our clients and their recovery work frequently does not coincide with their schedules.
- What goes around comes around. In this context, this means that many times when we “work” an issue with clients in therapy, the issue may reappear some weeks or months down the road, but the more effectively we addressed it initially, the less disruptive and the less additional work may be needed when the issue resurfaces.
- You cannot be a wimp and be an effective therapist. All of us have the potential to impact people (clients) positively, and one of the tasks of becoming an effective therapist is learning where our personal power lies and how to use it appropriately (not manipulatively or exploitatively, but appropriately).
- No doubt the publication date exists, it’s simply not on the material I have in my possession. ↩︎