Client resistance in outreaching social work in Hong Kong

This paper reports the survey findings of a study on the outreaching social workers’ perceptions of client resistance. In light of their social work practice with youth-at-risk in Hong Kong, resistance is generally recognised as a natural phenomenon in the counselling process and to a certain extent, is an obstacle to engaging in purposeful worker-client relationship as well as effecting behavioural changes. On Pipes and Davenport’s (1990) classification, the respondents were more likely to classify client resistance as innocuous behaviours like “missing appointments” and “refusing to discuss problems” than disarming and proactive behaviours. The implications of these findings are discussed.