The central theme of this presentation was delineating a therapeutic strategy for use with the crisis characteristic of the performance-dependent client. Performance-dependency is defined as a narrowly limited area of functioning on which self-esteem is based to the exclusion of most other sources of self-validation. The task of the crisis therapist is to defuse the immediate crisis resulting from a powerful negation of the self while removing the vulnerability that produced the crisis. The role of performance-dependency in people who are talented in some way was also discussed.