What Types of Clients Do You Work Best With?

What Types of Clients Do You Work Best With?

This reflective questionnaire is designed to help you clarify the kinds of clients, needs, and therapy styles that tend to be the best fit for your way of working.

There are no right or wrong answers. Preferences can shift over time, across settings, and depending on clinical context.

Response Scale:
1 = Strongly disagree | 2 = Disagree | 3 = Unsure | 4 = Agree | 5 = Strongly agree

Section A — Emotional Intensity & Containment

1. I am comfortable working with clients who experience emotions very intensely.
2. I feel grounded and effective when clients become overwhelmed or dysregulated.
3. Providing emotional safety and containment is central to my work.
4. I am comfortable moving slowly when clients need time to feel safe.

Section B — Structure & Direction

5. I prefer therapy to have clear goals or a shared direction.
6. I naturally explain the rationale behind interventions or exercises.
7. I feel most effective when therapy is not overly open-ended.
8. I enjoy offering practical tools, strategies, or skills.

Section C — Depth, Meaning & Exploration

9. I enjoy working at depth rather than focusing only on symptom relief.
10. I’m interested in clients’ identity, values, and lived experience.
11. I’m comfortable sitting with ambiguity, complexity, and uncertainty.
12. Reflective, insight-oriented conversations are a core part of my work.

Section D — Interpersonal Pace & Style

13. I work well with clients who take time to build trust.
14. My presence tends to be calm and steady rather than highly energetic.
15. I am careful not to push clients faster than they’re ready to go.
16. Warmth and reassurance are central parts of my therapeutic presence.