Assertiveness training

Domain II · Behavioural & cognitive · Andrew Salter, Joseph Wolpe, Lange & Jakubowski · 1949

What it is

Assertiveness training (AT) is a skills-and-anxiety-reduction approach. It teaches clients to state wants, refusals, opinions and feelings, both positive and negative, directly and honestly, without violating other people's rights. It is a family of procedures rather than one branded therapy. It…

Format

• Format and dose. AT can be delivered individually, in groups, with couples, or as structured self-help. Published examples include 4 one-hour sessions over 3 weeks (McFall & Marston 1970), 6 weekly sessions of about 48 minutes for adolescents (Parr & Lundquist), and 12 group sessions for chronic…
• The phase goals come from the shared components in the sources. The session counts and transition criteria are synthesis.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• None of the sources lays down a fixed session-by-session protocol. The phase structure below is a synthesis of the components every major source shares: assessment, discrimination of response styles, rights and beliefs, rehearsal, and in-vivo practice. Lange & Jakubowski (1976) organise training around four procedures: teaching the difference between assertion, non-assertion and aggression; helping clients identify…
• Version followed: there is no single official manual. This guide follows the behavioural assertive-training tradition of Wolpe (1958; Practice of Behavior Therapy, 4th ed. 1990) and Wolpe & Lazarus (1966). It organises that tradition with the four-part cognitive-behavioural structure of Lange & Jakubowski (1976), the rights framework and self-help sequence of Alberti & Emmons (Your Perfect Right, 1970 onwards), and…
• Assertiveness training (AT) is a skills-and-anxiety-reduction approach. It teaches clients to state wants, refusals, opinions and feelings, both positive and negative, directly and honestly, without violating other people's rights. It is a family of procedures rather than one branded therapy. It sits inside behaviour therapy and CBT and later fed into social skills training.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Consequences that are worded as threats.
• Over-disclosure too early in a relationship.
• Interrogation or labelling ("You're unreliable").
• Compliments that are vague or carry an ulterior motive.
• Fear that "assertive" means rude or selfish. Go straight to B1.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.