ABSTRACT
We find it useful in brief therapy to think about what would be best in a given moment to identify, encourage, promote, amplify, and help maintain clients' desired changes. We seek collaboration and expect forward movement, a significant shift from earlier orientations. In 1904, Sigmund Freud placed the concept of resistance to change at the center of his evolving theory of therapy. Based on his observation that clients would frequently and often vigorously reject the interpretations he offered, he concluded that "patient[s] cling to [their] disease and ... even fight against [their] own recovery." Overcoming these resistances by provoking and then "working through" them was, he came to believe, "the essential function of [treatment] ... the only part of our work which gives us an assurance that we have achieved something with the patient" (Freud, 1915-1917/l961a) .
