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Working with Involuntary Clients 3rd Edition
Many social workers are employed in positions where they deal with
involuntary clients. These positions are demanding, and require a
specific set of skills. The new edition of this successful book provides
an accessible and practical guide for managing difficult and sensitive
relationships and communicating with reluctant clients.
The author directly links theory to real-life by adopting a jargon-
free and accessible guide to working in partnership with involuntary
clients. Written in a lively and engaging style, the book is relevant
across the curriculum and richly illustrated with case examples drawn
from a variety of service-user groups, such as work with people with
addictions, young people who refuse to go to school and mental health
patients who refuse treatment, as well as examples from criminal
justice and child protection.
The author’s integrated and systematic approach promotes prosocial
values; emphasises clarifying roles; and deals with issues of authority
and goal-setting. Fully revised and updated throughout to reflect
contemporary research and practice, the book includes increased
emphasis on risk assessment, cognitive behavioural approaches,
including manualised intervention programs, and reflective practice.
The result is an invaluable practical guide for social work and
social care students and professionals to working with both clients
and their families.

Chris Trotter is Associate Professor at Monash University, Australia,

where he coordinates the Bachelor of Social Work Honours Programme.
Page Intentionally Left Blank
Working with Involuntary Clients
A Guide to Practice

Written by Chris Trotter

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 1999
by SAGE Publications, Inc.

This edition published 2015

by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

And by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2015 C. Trotter

The right of Chris Trotter to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him/her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered

trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Trotter, Chris, author.
╅ Working with involuntary clients : a guide to practice / written by Chris Trotter. ╉
— Third╉ edition.
â•… p. ; cm.
â•… Includes bibliographical references and index.
â•… ISBN 978-0-415-71564-5 (hardback)—ISBN 978-0-415-71565-2 (pbk.)—╉
ISBN 978-1-315-88058-7 (e-book)
â•… I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Counseling--methods. 2. Mandatory Programs. 3. Evidence-Based
Practice--methods. 4. Social Work--methods.╇ WM 55]
BF636.6
361’.06--dc23 2014033668

Typeset in 10.5/14 pt Caslon 540

by Bookhouse, Sydney
 Contents

Acknowledgementsix

1 Introduction1
Who are involuntary clients? 2
The dual role of workers with involuntary clients 3
Direct practice 5
Sources of knowledge in work with involuntary clients 6
Evidence-based practice 8
The purpose of this book 15
The structure of the book 17

2 What works and what doesn’t? 18

Approaches that work 21
Cognitive behavioural strategies 27
Approaches that sometimes work 34
Client factors 55
Approaches that don’t work 62
An evidence-based practice model 64
Research evidence, theory and other practice models 65
Summary 76
3 Role clarification 78
Dual role: Social control and helping 80
What is negotiable and what is not? 83
Confidentiality84
Case manager, case planner or problem-solver? 86
The client’s expectations 87
Helping the client to understand the nature of the
professional relationship89
Organisational expectations 91
Theoretical approach to the work 92
Summary100

4 Promoting pro-social outcomes 101

1. Identify pro-social comments and behaviours 103
2. Reward pro-social comments and behaviours 105
3. Modelling pro-social behaviours 108
4. Challenging undesirable behaviours 109
Advantages of the pro-social approach 112
Criticisms of the pro-social approach 113
Summary123

5 Problem-solving125
Steps in the problem-solving process 126
Problem-solving, risk assessment and case planning 145
Criticisms of a problem-solving approach 152
Summary162

6 The worker–client relationship 164

Empathy164
Touching168
Optimism169
Humour172
Self-disclosure174
 Worker safety and client violence 177
Summary180

7 Working with families 181

When is it appropriate to work with family groups? 182
Collaborative family work 184
A home-based model 185
The collaborative family counselling process 186
Pro-social modelling 197
The worker–client relationship 198
Summary205

8 Evaluation206
Single case study evaluation 208
Case analysis 213
Conclusion215

Appendix Principles of effective practice 217

1. Role clarification 217
2. Pro-social modelling and reinforcement 218
3. Problem-solving 218
4. Relationship 218
References219
Index239
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 Acknowledgements

T he third edition of Working with Involuntary Clients continues

to be inspired by the late William Reid’s work on task-centred
casework and by the late Don Andrew’s work on pro-social modelling.
While they come from different perspectives, their publications have
inspired much of my research and the material contained in this book.
In writing the third edition, I remain indebted to those people
who assisted me with this edition and the earlier editions, including
Michael Clanchy, Jan Mumford and Phillipa Evans, as well as the
many other colleagues, students and welfare professionals who
provided me with case examples and helped me develop the ideas
and practices which are outlined in this book. Thanks also go to
Rosemary Sheehan and my colleagues at Monash University, and to
Lizzy Walton, Kathryn Knight and Katy McDevitt at Allen & Unwin.
Finally, thank you to Joan, Rebecca and David for your ongoing
love and support.

Note: For seminars on working with involuntary clients, Professor

Chris Trotter can be contacted via email at [email protected].
edu.au.

ix
Page Intentionally Left Blank
 Chapter 1

Introduction

H ow do you help someone who has no interest in being helped?

What can you do with clients in the welfare or justice systems
who are not motivated to change? How do you counsel someone who
does not even recognise that they have a problem? How do you work
with someone who has a totally different set of values from yourself?
How can you help someone deal with their problems and at the same
time exercise authority over them?
These are questions which workers with involuntary clients face
on a daily basis. These workers are asked to help clients who have
not chosen to be helped and who may be resistant or even openly
antagonistic to the assistance they are offered; to help clients and at
the same time collect information which may subsequently be used
against them; to testify against clients in court and then to work with
them in a helping relationship; and to work in a collaborative manner
with clients, yet make authoritative decisions about their lives.
This book aims to help workers with involuntary clients come to
terms with these issues.

1
Working with Involuntary Clients

Who are involuntary clients?

An offender visits a probation officer; a child-protection worker visits
a mother following an anonymous report of child abuse; a drug user
attends for drug treatment under the direction of a court order; a man
who has abused his wife attends domestic violence counselling at the
direction of a court; a psychiatric patient who is a danger to herself
and others is directed to treatment as an alternative to hospitalisation;
a young person living on the streets agrees to go to a refuge with his
youth worker, knowing that the alternative is for him to be taken
to the police; or a child is placed in a children’s home despite the
protestations of the parents.
These are examples of involuntary clients. The clients (or recipi-
ents of welfare or legal services) in these examples can be described
as involuntary because they have not chosen to receive the services
they are being given. In fact, these clients might actively be opposed
to receiving the service. They might believe that it is unnecessary
and intrusive. The clients receive the service either because of a
court order or because they are under the threat of some other legal
sanction. They are sometimes referred to as mandated clients (Ivanoff,
Blythe & Tripodi 1994; De Jong & Berg 2001; Rooney 2009).
The clients in these examples are clearly involuntary. In many
instances, however, the distinction between voluntary and involuntary
clients is not so clear. In the following examples, the clients are not
required by a court order—or even the threat of a court order—to
receive services. Their participation is motivated by pressures other
than their own desire to address their problems: a mother whose child
has been removed by child-protection services seeks assistance from a
family counselling agency to help get her child back; a drug user seeks
rehabilitation counselling before a court appearance; an abusive man
seeks anger management counselling in response to his partner’s threats
to leave; or a pregnant teenager visits a counselling agency at her parents’
insistence. These clients are partly voluntary and partly involuntary.

2
 Introduction

Others who receive services are more obviously voluntary—for

example, a student who seeks assistance from a student counsellor;
a couple who seek relationship counselling; a parent who seeks
assistance with children who are out of control; or an alcoholic who
seeks assistance from a drug rehabilitation centre.
There may also be involuntary aspects of work with clients who
choose to receive services, as well as voluntary aspects of work with
court-ordered clients. For example, a student who seeks the assistance
of a student counsellor might feel compelled to do so in order to
pass her course; a woman might attend marriage counselling as a
result of pressure from her spouse; or a probationer might visit his
probation officer on a voluntary basis in order to discuss problems
in his personal relationships.
The distinction between voluntary and involuntary clients is
therefore not always clear. It is perhaps best viewed on a continuum,
with court-ordered clients towards one end, partially voluntary clients
in the middle, and clients who seek services on a voluntary basis
towards the other end.
This book is about working with clients at the involuntary end of
the continuum. Its particular focus is on work in the community with
involuntary clients—for example, the work of probation officers (or
community corrections officers) and child-protection workers. Few
clients in these settings are voluntary or even partially voluntary.
Many of the practice principles discussed also apply to work with
clients in institutions such as prisons, children’s homes and psychiatric
hospitals. In many cases, the principles are also relevant to clients
who might be described as partially voluntary or even voluntary.

The dual role of workers with involuntary clients

For the most part, workers dealing with involuntary clients work
in the welfare or legal systems for government departments or for
agencies funded by government departments. They generally have

3
Working with Involuntary Clients

two roles: a legalistic or surveillance role; and a helping, therapeutic

or problem-solving role.
A probation officer, for example, has a responsibility to ensure that
a probationer carries out the requirements of the court order. The
probation officer is required to take action if a client fails to report
or to comply with some other condition of the probation. The proba-
tion officer might have to report to a court about the progress of the
probationer or undertake a risk assessment, which will influence the
level of supervision offered to the client. Simultaneously, the probation
officer works towards the rehabilitation of the offender by assisting
with problems which may be related to the offending behaviour.
Similarly, a child-protection worker has the dual task of investig-
ating levels of abuse and assessing the risk of further abuse, taking
action to protect a child and possibly taking measures leading to
prosecution of a perpetrator of abuse; at the same time, they assist
the family with the problems that may have led to the abuse.
Reconciling the legalistic and helping roles in work with invol-
untary clients can be a difficult task. It is difficult for a worker to
fulfil a helping role with a probationer when they are also taking
action to have a probation order cancelled. Similarly, it can be
difficult to fulfil the legal role where a close helping relationship
has developed between the worker and client. A child-protection
worker who has worked with a family on a voluntary basis for a
period of time, for example, may find it difficult if they suddenly
have to take action to remove a child.
Coming to terms with this dual role is one of the greatest challenges
in work with involuntary clients. Often workers and organisations find
it easier to focus on one of the roles to the exclusion of the other.
There are examples of workers with involuntary clients who focus
almost exclusively on the legalistic role, and other instances where
they focus almost exclusively on the helping role (Thorpe 1994;
Trotter 1996b, 2004).

4
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