Yavis

YAVIS (sometimes "YAVIS Syndrome") is an acronym that stands for "Young, Attractive, Verbal, Intelligent, and Successful." The term was coined by University of Minnesota professor William Schofield in his 1964 book Psychotherapy: The Purchase of Friendship in which he claimed to have demonstrated that mental health professionals often have a positive bias towards clients exhibiting these traits. In other words, individuals with these characteristics are assumed to represent a psychotherapist’s “ideal patient.” Schofield explained that such a bias may in turn predispose the professional to work harder to help these clients. Such an inclination, although mostly unconscious, was thought to be driven by an expectation that clients with such traits would be motivated to work harder in therapy, thereby increasing the therapist's hope that the treatment would be effective. Further, this process would work to enhance the therapist's experience of him/herself as competent, which may help explain why YAVIS clients are unconsciously seen as more desirable.