While it takes a good deal of courage for clients to seek help and to express their desires for change, they will still exhibit signs of resistance.
Resistance is basically a manifestation of a fear related to uncovering unconscious material.
Some behavior therapists thus imply that the client was at fault for not taking responsibility in the process of getting well. One could speculate that any therapeutic failure is due either to the therapist or the method, or the resistance of the client, but it is important to remember that one does not sit in judgment and that resistance needs to be seen as a motivational factor. Thus, both client and therapist should be absolved from taking responsibility and being blamed for the failure. In order to examine sources of resistance and how to handle them, perhaps one of the most significant sources are described by Golden in an article published by the British Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy. He lists three sources of resistance and the following are some selected ones that occur most frequently and are recognized by the therapist.