Strength‐based assessment in clinical practice

Strength‐based assessment can enhance clinical clarity, improve the range of information, and provide a more complete picture of clients and their circumstances. Deficit‐oriented assessment has improved the assessment and treatment of a number of disorders but, at the same time, has created a negative bias, considered strengths as clinical peripheries or by‐products, tended to reduce clients to diagnostic categories, and created a power differential, which could be counterproductive to clinical efficacy. Strength‐based assessment explores weaknesses as well as strengths to effectively deal with problems. We present a number of strength‐based strategies for use in clinical practice. These strategies, we hope, will help clinicians to operationalize how strengths and weaknesses reverberate and contribute to a client's psychological status, which is comprehensive and guards against negative bias. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 65: 1–11, 2009.