Yes it is possible and happens a lot.

We get clients all the time that come in because they are court mandated. I hate working with those folks. they don't want to be there and they make it real hard to work with them. they dont think they have a problem, they dont want to talk they dont want to make any changes in their lives they are just there because the court said they have to be. We try to get them to open up and all we get for our efforts for ages is glares, sarcastic remarks and F this and F that. When I hear Im getting assigned a court case I cringe, Take a deep breath and say here we go again.

One type of client many of us here complain about is the ones that come in just because they have a friend who is in therapy so they want to be in therapy. What do they want to work on or change nothing, what do they talk about usually downgrading the friend that is in therapy. you just want to take them by the shirt and shake um and say you don't have to be here just because your friend comes to see us. If you don't have a problem and your life is hunky dory then you really don't need to be here. but of course we cant do that. We smile and let them ramble on or sit quietly for the hour then ask them if they want to come in again.

Another kind of client I get that I don't like is those that come in complain about problem, we work on ideas for solving that problem then they come in the next week with the same problem, didn't bother trying any of the suggestions, didn't bother trying to fix the problem their self. Week after week same problem with no attempts to do anything about it. Then they get upset when their insurance money runs out for the year and they are still stuck in the same problem that they started to see us for 8-10 months ago. I dont let it go for the whole year. if after two months the client hasn't put in any effort and hasn't accomplished any goals. I transfer them to another therapist in the agency, Some people just need more boundaries, and structure than others. I don't like to play the cold hearted strict type therapist but we do have a few therapists here that can pull that off and most times get results with these kind of clients. and if that doesn't work we just tell them sorry we cant help you if you don't want to help yourself come back when you are ready to get rid of this problem. Then we leave it up to them to call us. Usually they don't because they know if they do come in to see us we expect them to work on their problems. We did have one client that recently came back to us after seeing a few other therapists around the community. By this time they were ready to get rid of their problem.