In existential psychotherapy, responsibility assumption is the doctrine, practiced by therapists such as Irvin D. Yalom where an individual taking responsibility for the events and circumstances in their lives is seen as a necessary basis for their making any genuine change.
[1] From the therapist's viewpoint, the goal is to identify these events and circumstances, always operating, in Yalom's words, "within the frame of reference that the patient has created his[/her] own distress".
[1] The problem that Yalom seeks to address is that of seemingly passive patients, with therapists shouldering the entire burden of the therapy because they think that that is what they must do.
[1] A "sluggish" patient can be "galvaniz[ed] into action" by asking the simple question: "Why do you come?".
[1] In detail, techniques involve: Assumption of responsibility does not by itself motivate behavioural change.