Strategies for Work With Involuntary Clients

Often in their careers, social workers will encounter clients who are either legally required to attend treatment services or are otherwise coerced or pressured into those services. Practitioners in settings from prisons to emergency rooms to nursing homes to child protection agencies will find themselves with involuntary clients. In an update to this classic text, social workers Ronald H. Rooney and Rebecca G. Mirick explore the best ways to work with unwilling clients.


While work with involuntary clients is common, it can be challenging, frustrating, and unproductive unless practitioners are well trained for it. This book provides a theoretical framework for understanding the legal, ethical, and practical concerns when working with involuntary clients, offering theory, treatment models, and specific practice strategies influenced by the best available knowledge. Animated by case studies across diverse settings, these resources can be used by practitioners to facilitate collaborative, effective working relationships with involuntary clients.

Ronald H. Rooney is professor emeritus at the School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, and coauthor of Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills.


Rebecca G. Mirick is a licensed clinical social worker and assistant professor at Salem State University. Her research focuses on client engagement and resistance, suicide prevention, and work with parents involved with child protective services.