In everyday language, the word challenge often carries aggressive or negative connotations evoking thoughts of conflict, disagreement, or confrontation. However, in a therapeutic context, challenge takes on a more nuanced and purposeful meaning. It spans a spectrum of responses, ranging from firm, direct confrontation to gentle, compassionate interventions, sometimes as subtle as a quiet, supportive glance. In her book Relational Integrative Psychotherapy, L. Finlay (2016) identifies four primary styles of challenge within therapeutic relationships, illustrating each with examples: strong confrontation, analytic-strategic, mild-emotional, and implicit. While Gestalt approaches are central to her discussion, Finlay also incorporates cognitive and relational psychoanalytic frameworks, ultimately exploring what makes challenges effective in a relational setting.
Styles of Therapeutic Challenge

1. Strong Confrontation
   
   The most direct and powerful form of challenge, strong confrontation, is employed to provoke awareness, draw attention to maladaptive patterns, and set firm boundaries. This approach is often necessary when addressing dysfunctional or self-destructive behaviors that require immediate attention. Yet, even in its intensity, this form of challenge is delivered with empathy and compassion, offering the client the space to reflect and make their own decisions. For example, when a therapist detects avoidance, they may use this method to interrupt the pattern while maintaining a supportive tone. Influenced by Masterson’s work on personality disorders, Gestalt therapist Yontef (1988) also advocates for using a range of challenges to foster growth and awareness.
   
2. Analytic-Strategic Challenge
   
   This form of challenge operates on a more cognitive level, encouraging clients to take responsibility for their choices and behaviors. It involves direct feedback focused on observable actions, such as body language or incongruities, rather than assumptions or interpretations of internal states. For instance, a therapist might address a client’s hesitation by stating: “You’re at a critical decision point. Do you want to keep avoiding or take a step toward something different?” This approach opens a space for exploration, helping clients connect their thoughts, emotions, and actions in meaningful ways.
   
3. Mild-Emotional Challenge
   
   A gentler, more emergent approach, the mild-emotional challenge is aimed at fostering awareness in a supportive, exploratory manner. It may take the form of subtle prompts like: “Always?” in response to a client’s statement, “I have always been a failure.” This style often addresses self-destructive emotional patterns or self-limiting beliefs. For instance, when a client is excessively self-critical, a therapist might respond with: “You’re being really hard on yourself.” The goal is never to shame or criticize the client but rather to invite deeper reflection and self-compassion.
   
4. Implicit Challenge
   
   Implicit challenges are present throughout the therapeutic process, even in the act of sitting with a client in a safe and supportive space. For some, particularly new clients or those wary of vulnerability, simply showing up for therapy can feel like a challenge in itself. The therapeutic relationship, with its inherent potential for healing, can evoke discomfort as clients confront fears of the unknown or experience compassion they may not yet trust.
   
   Principles of Effective Challenge
   
   The effectiveness of any challenge depends on the therapist’s ability to act in the client’s best interest, rather than out of frustration or impatience. Empathy and compassion must underlie every intervention, ensuring that the client feels supported, not attacked. Finlay emphasizes the importance of delivering challenges in a proportional, balanced manner—combining honest feedback or confrontation with nonjudgmental care to foster both awareness and courage.
   Asking for permission to challenge can also be a helpful strategy. For instance, a therapist might say: “I’d like to offer you a challenge. Are you okay with that?” This approach encourages collaboration and self-challenge, empowering the client to take ownership of their growth. Moreover, it can be beneficial to focus challenges on unused strengths rather than weaknesses, leveraging humor and sensitivity to avoid overwhelming the client.
   Finally, therapists themselves must remain open to being challenged—by clients, colleagues, or their own reflective processes. This willingness models the relational dynamics of trust and growth that are central to effective therapy.
   
   The Role of Challenge in Therapeutic Growth
   
   Through its various forms, therapeutic challenge helps uncover blind spots and inconsistencies that keep clients stuck in self-limiting or destructive patterns. Whether it’s a direct confrontation or a gentle prompt, challenge is an essential component of the therapeutic process. The art lies in balancing challenge with support, tailoring interventions to each client’s needs and capacity.
   Finlay captures this dynamic balance through the metaphor of Gestalt therapist Philippson:
   “In front of a closed door, you can wait, knock, or push. The decision to challenge depends on the amount of support—both personal and external—available to the client and therapist. Waiting is best when the client is terrified. Knocking helps test readiness. Pushing may be necessary when waiting would be too destructive, but only if the action is guided by care, not frustration.”
   Ultimately, the goal is to cultivate awareness, courage, and responsibility in the client, enabling them to open new doors at their own pace and in their own way. Challenge, when skillfully and compassionately delivered, becomes a transformative force in the therapeutic journey.

Maria Kabouri
Graduate of Department of Psychology NSCA

Source. Finlay L., (2016) «Relational Integrative Psychotherapy»