ABSTRACT
How therapists choose to conceive and construe their clients and their work together not only profoundly impacts the clients, but also the therapists. Especially in this "age of accountability" (L. D. Johnson, 1995) and "managed care" (Hoyt, 1995a), fatigue and demoralization can be common experiences for therapists. However, while the pressures are considerable, we agree with Michael White ( 1995a, 1995b, 1996, 1997) that therapist burnout is not inevitable but has to do, in part, with how the therapy project is structured. Approaches that allow therapists to work in ways consistent with their best intentions for entering the therapy field-
ones that emphasize client autonomy and choice, that highlight respectful collaboration, that speak to issues of justice, and that avoid therapist isolation and conceptualizations of pathology and deficit-are more likely to avoid burnout in favor of an enhanced sense of what the dictionary defines as joy: "a feeling of delight, happiness, and gladness, and a source of pleasure." This invigorating aspect of human awareness (Schutz, 1967) is especially important in the face of the problems we confront.
