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Reply to "What's Wrong v. What Happened ?"

One of the many benefits of the question, "What happened to you?" is that it focuses on the client's needs, and doesn't pathologize, making the person and/or his/her behaviors, etc. the problem. It seeks, instead to uncover causes of suffering--for that person, and/or for others. Of course there is something not working in a life or lives if a person or family has come into therapy, the social services system, etc.There's a difference between "something" being wrong and a person being seen/treated as wrong, diseased, or the problem (which is too often the framework for the question/attitude of "What's wrong with you?"). After all (and unfortunately) the emphasis in this question is usually on the last two words, not the first.

Also (and unfortunately), given the difficulty ACEs-aware folks are having in building traction for policy and structural changes in treatment and other forms of care, I don't see the decades-old, blaming, diseased-focused mantra, "What's wrong with you?" being replaced by another anytime soon.

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