In this respect, social work theory and research has surprisingly little to say. Most social work approaches either explicitly or implicitly assume client cooperation; they rarely have much to say about how social workers should work with potentially resistant or hostile clients around sensitive issues (see for instance, Payne, 2002, for a review of social work theories). Even the very best guides to social work communication skills have little to say about how to respond to resistant clients (e.g. Trevithick, 2000; Coulshed, 1991). This is a major gap within social work theory, as much of current social work with parents and children involves working with resistance.