t can compare their prior hypothesis to what actually occurred. The data obtained from the personal experiments also shows the therapist and the client whether their therapy techniques are working.The sixth task of therapy is to ensure that clients take credit for changes they have brought about. Clients may resist therapy by dismissing, discounting, and negatively reframing the outcomes of their personal experiments; clients do not readily accept their collected data as truthful evidence (Meichenbaum, 1996). It is critical for clients to take credit for the change and to provide self-explanations of how they brought about the change. A specific intervention that therapists can employ to ensure that their clients do take responsibility for and ownership of the changes they have brought about is to ask the clients what they specifically did to foster the improvements.The final step in CBT involves the therapist and client engaging in conduct relapse prevention. The final task should be an educational exchange about possible lapses and setbacks. The therapist explains to the client that lapses should be expected and anticipated, and should be viewed as opportunities for the client to practice their coping skills, rather than occasions to catastrophize (Meichenbaum, 1996). In addition, these final sessions serve the purpose to educate the client to anticipate high-risk situations, recognize their warning signs, and to further develop coping techniques. The therapeutic objectives for the cognitive-behavioral therapist are to make clients aware of the bi-directional, transactional, and reciprocally deterministic nature of their behaviors, and of the ways in which they may be biased and maladaptive (Bongar & Buetler, 1995). Cognitive-behavioral therapy proposes that if a therapist wishes to assist a client to change his/her behavior, there is a need for the client to develop awareness of unconscious maladaptive thoughts and feelings and thei...
