Does Everyone Deserve to Be Happy?

Is happiness a basic human right we all automatically deserve or does it depend on what it is that makes us happy?

When working with counseling clients, at some point I always include the statement, “You deserve to be happy,” or “You deserve to enjoy life,” something along those lines. I never really sat down and thought about it before as to whether everyone actually deserves to be happy or if there are those who don’t.

I think that working with the people I have worked with who have come to me for help, the issue didn’t arise. I was committed to helping them and so of course I believed they deserved to be happy.

There is a misconception that if someone comes to a therapist for help, they are required to see them if they have an opening. But the truth is that as a therapist, I didn’t have to work with a client if I chose not to.

Realistically, the only clients I ever turned down were those I didn’t feel I had the knowledge to help such as those from different cultures who had culture specific syndromes and were in a crisis such that they didn’t have time for me to learn what I needed to know.

I did see one man with narcissistic personality disorder who had been required by his boss and wife to get therapy…