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The tension between powerlessness and creative power: »First do no harm, second be careful, third heal!« Beyond an increased sensitivity to the issue of boundary violations and abuse in therapies in recent decades, there often seems to be little awareness that psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and counselling can also cause harm. The seemingly naïve conviction that well-intentioned things are always helpful is deceptive. The author offers a critical reflection on the attitude in today's culture that exaggerates individuality and the victim role. Even across various psychotherapy methods and counselling approaches, the zeitgeist is often dominated by a focus on the understanding of clients as (current or biographical) victims of, for example, violence, disregard, bullying, discrimination or a lack of parental response and unfavourable developmental conditions. The »creative power« of the individual in the individual processing of favourable and less favourable environmental conditions is lost from view. Thus there is a danger that sufferers are restricted to a one-sided perception of themselves as passive victims, fixated and thus once again objectified. This article aims to encourage psychotherapists to perceive clients more fully as subjects of their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]