Another good option is to examine the pros and cons of of accepting compliments.

• First, list the advantages the client sees to discounting compliments, the disadvantages they see to discounting compliments, then the advantages and disadvantages of accepting compliments.
• Once you understand how the client sees it, you can use socratic questioning to help them look critically at the perceived advantages of discounting compliments and the perceived disadvantages of accepting compliments
• Finally you can use socratic questioning to help them identify additional drawbacks to discounting compliments and additional advantages of accepting compliments.

It isn't unusual for clients to respond at first that they just can't accept compliments. I usually say that the first step is to figure out if accepting compliments would be a good idea. If it turns out that it is a good idea, then we'll try to figure out how they can do it.