Handling Tough Questions in Therapy

lastly the two questions that can come up in therapy is and you can all imagine how you would deal with these questions number one have you ever smoked pot and number two you're only doing this because you're getting paid those are two fun questions to deal with when or it's a comment but it's a question when you're working with this population so have you ever smoked pot have you ever smoked marijuana there's no good answer to that if you say yes then all they're going to do is focus on the fact that youve smoked marijuana in your life tell all their friends that you've smoked marijuana in their life figure out how to put an ad in the paper that youve smoked marijuana and that's all it's going to be about and you miss the whole point and number two if you say no and you haven't so then they're going to say well then you can't understand anything that I'm going through so why should I even talk to you you have no idea what it's like so in my opinion the right answer to that question of have you ever smoked marijuana in your life is you say the following you say good question I want to let you know that the reason you're asking that question which is a legitimate question is because you want to know can I help you if that's something you're doing or you're struggling with and the answer to that question is yes even if I've never done it before in my life I've dealt with so many people your age and at different ages and stages in life who are dealing with that substance I get it I've read a lot about it and I've dealt with real life people many many times who are struggling with this so yes I get it I can empathize with it I am not going to sit here and judge you and say like how could you be doing this I get it and I want to try to offer some suggestions to help you and to discuss it with you