Clients, especially those who have tried other therapies, often
ask us why we do not ask a lot of questions about their problems or about
their history. Other therapists sometimes say that if we are not curious
about a person's problems and history we are not truly interested in the
person.
So why not ask about the problem? The obvious reason why therapists ask
about the problem and its history is because they want to try to understand
it and help their clients understand it. From this position of mutual
understanding they try to fix it. Different therapists have different
explanatory theories so each will have different ways of exploring the
problem and its history. Even though none of these theories represents
an actual scientific truth they serve their purpose and most clients are
helped in some way.
Solution focused therapy comes from a different starting point. If any
therapy works it leads to the client 'doing something different'. Without
that all the understanding in the world will make no difference. Solution
focused brief therapy starts by trying to discover what the 'something
different' might be. Instead of asking about the problem we ask "What
are your best hopes from this therapy?" The focus is on what our
clients want to achieve rather than what they want to leave behind. When
we have established the overall aim for the therapy we then ask questions
about how the person's life would look if their 'best hopes' were realised.
Many clients will spend much of their first session describing what life
would be like if the difficulties that brought them to therapy were resolved.
Many people get stuck with their problem because they can't imagine what
will replace it – "better the devil you know". Sometimes,
beginning to picture a viable alternative is all that is necessary to
start the natural process of change.
Probably the most important aspect of any counselling or therapy is the
client's sense of being properly listened to. Instead of listening in
order to understand what has gone wrong solution focused brief therapists
listen for clues about what going right would look like. Instead of discovering
the problem and helping someone fix it we discover a preferred future
and help someone reach it. The 'helping someone reach it' is the second
part of the task.
The people who first developed solution focused brief therapy in America
were Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg. Originally they were 'problem
fixers' trying to understand how problems worked. What they noticed was
that nobody's problem worked entirely to plan – there were always
exceptions. A depressed person wouldn't feel so depressed on certain days,
the naughty child would occasionally behave well, the agoraphobic person
would go to the shop and so on. De Shazer and Berg began to study exceptions
rather than problems and in these exceptions found potential solutions
already existing within a person's repertoire. This was the beginning
of solution focused brief therapy.
When a client begins to describe what a future without the problem might
look like the therapist will be looking for evidence of some aspects of
this future already being in place. And when a client talks about problems
the therapist will be seeking out exceptions, those times the client did
something different.
Our clients come to us because they are fearful about their future. They
have a problem, usually with a clear history and they fear that the problem
will continue to restrain them from living their lives as they would wish.
We help them envisage a different, more preferred future and then discover
the many hidden and unnoticed ways they are struggling towards it. If
we ask at all about history it will be the history of the solution rather
than the history of the problem. Instead of asking why have you had this
problem so long we might ask how come you have never given up trying to
do something about it.
Prof. Andrew Derrington writing in the Financial Times Weekend (3-4 April
1999 & 29-30 January 2000) compared solution focused brief therapy
with other therapies and said:
". . . in choosing a therapy I would steer clear of experts who
professed to be able to analyse my problem. It's not that I don't care
what the problem is. It's more that I don't think they would know any
better than I. And anyway, it's more important to identify the solution
than to understand the problem.
The therapy that takes exactly this view is solution focused brief
therapy. It helps clients to find solutions to their problem by using
two questions. The first is called the miracle question.
"Imagine you were to wake up tomorrow and a miracle had happened
during the night: your problem had disappeared. What would be different
about the way you feel?" The second question, known as the scaling
question, is simpler. It asks clients to put a number on how they feel
where 0 is the worst [it could possibly be] and 10 is the way they would
feel the morning after the miracle.
The sequel to the scaling question is to ask clients to imagine what
they may be able to do to move themselves half a point up the happiness
scale. Whenever I have a dose of the glums I ask myself this question.
The thing that amazes me, and convinces me that I shall never need therapy,
is that I always know the answer. Try it yourself. You will put your
therapist out of business.
It might not be quite as simple as Andrew Derrington suggests but it's
worth a try so here are some questions that might be worth asking yourself
(or, better still, get a friend to ask you.)
- Imagine a miracle sorted out your problem. What ten differences might
you notice about yourself the next morning. And ten differences your
partner (if you have one) would notice, ten differences your best friend
would notice, ten differences your closest work colleague would notice,
ten differences your boss would notice and even ten differences your
dog would notice. It is important that the answers describe what you
would be doing rather than what you wouldn't so if you hear yourself
answer with "I wouldn't feel so down" you would have to ask
"So what would you feel instead?"
- On a scale where 10 is the day after the
miracle and 0 is the total opposite, the worst it could possibly be,
where are you now and where would you need to get to to feel this is
not perfect but sufficiently okay. Then find fifteen things that are
preventing you going lower or helping you stay up. Now write down ten
good qualities those who know you best would say you possess. Finally,
imagine you have moved just one point up the scale and think of three
things each of the people featuring in your 'miracle day' would notice
different.
- Think of one quality that you have that
you would like to take with you into the future and keep a look out
for its appearances.
For a copy of Andrew Derrington's articles and others from many other
national newspapers email us at solutions@brieftherapy.org.uk
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