Brief Counseling: Solution Focused Techniques Jane Webber, PhD' LPC

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Brief CounselingSolution Focused
TechniquesJane Webber, PhD. LPC

• If you want truly to understand something, try to
  change it. -Lewin
• The little engine that could

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Action-oriented

• Accentuate the positive
• Eliminate the negative
• And say no to Mr.. In-Between

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• Minimal change in clients life leads to change
  in the family or group
• Jay Haley Irvin
  Yalom
• Therapy is often a matter of tipping the first
  domino
• Milton Erickson

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Benefits

• Quick, time limited, often single session
• Empirically validated
• Focus on problem-free future
• Client as expert strength-based

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Benefits

• Every contact is an opportunity for change
• Every contact in school is an opportunity for
  counseling
• Respects the clients culture and worldview fits
  counseling to the client

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Mans search for meaning

• We who have lived in concentration camps can
  remember the men who walked through the huts
  comforting others, giving away their last pieces
  of bread.
• They may have been few in number, but they offer
  sufficient proof that everything can be taken
  from a man but one thing the last of the human
  freedoms--to choose ones attitude in any given
  set of circumstances, to choose ones way

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Mans search for meaning cont.

• Fundamentally, therefore, any man, can even under
  such circumstances, decide what shall become of
  him--mentally and physically
• The prisoner who had lost faith in the
  future--his future--was doomed. With his loss of
  belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual
  hold he let himself decline and became subject
  to mental and physical decay.
• (Frankl, 1946, pp.86-87,95).

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Negative vs. Positive Focus

• People will continue to feel bad unless they make
  positive changes
• Insight awareness, and emotional catharsis not
  essential
• What are they doing that seems to be
  helpful-action oriented

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Dont keep doing what doesnt work

• If it aint broke, dont fix it
• If it works a little, build on it, and try to do
  more of the part that is working
• If it is broke, do something different to fix it.

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Solution-based triple A

• Accept unconditionally
• Acknowledge listen and validate
• Accommodate Work with clients choices and world
  view.

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Focus on solutions not problems

• Future not past
• Success not failure
• Strengths not deficits
• Whats going right not going wrong
• Collaborate not isolate
• Change not blame

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The skeleton key metaphorGeneralizing solutions
that work

• Keys possibilities vs. locks obstacles
• Open many doors vs. dwelling on each locks
  details
• Between now and the next time we meet, I would
  like you to observe so you can describe to me
  next time, what happens in your life (job,
  family, school) that you want to continue to have
  happen (deShazer,
  1985, p. 137).

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The Miracle Question

• Suppose that one night, while you were sleeping,
  there was a miracle and this problem was solved.
• How would you know?
• What would you be doing?
• (deShazer,
  1988, p.5)

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Invite to visualize and focus on positives

• I would like to have you think about your life
  recently and the things that have happened to you
  that you would like to have happen more often in
  the future.
• Please think about what you would like to get
  done in counseling and how you will know if
  counseling is helping.
• Picture the last time things were good. What
  were you doing? Where were you?

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Franks miracle F to A.

• To earn an A in English
• I will ask to move my seat to the front row. I
  will attend class every day.
• I will complete each days HW assignment,
  answer at least one question per day during class
  discussion.
• My parents will let me go out.
• My teacher will keep me in class.
• I will be able to play video games after my
  homework is done.

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The Johnsons miracle A calm evening

• Mom will take a 15 minute time out when she comes
  home from the train station
• We will welcome and kiss mom at the door quietly
  and walk her to her time-out chair, with seltzer
  and lime, and Natalie Cole music.
• We take turns each day making dinner and inviting
  mom to eat dinner with the family.
• We wait till dessert to talk about our day.

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Juanitas Miracle A part of vs. apart

• (Not be all by myself)--Hang around girls on the
  playground
• (Stop their mean comments)--Be complimented for
  my clothes or just ignored
• (Not play alone)--Be included in games, I will
  invite them to play. Im the best Chinese jump
  roper.
• My teacher and my mom will see me happy and not
  crying.They will see me walk home with someone.I
  will invited them to stay and play.

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Kathies miracle Good Night, Sun. Goodnight
Moon.

• Go to bed together together calmly.
• Her husband will know she is talking only
• about the current problem and not the laundry
  list from the past
• Her husband will not leave and slam the door
• They will kiss and hug and not throw things
• She will start with 2 compliments, asking her
  husband about his day, saving little problems for
  the problem jar.

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Unproductive Client Goals

• Negative goals
• I dont want to yell all the time
• I would like to stop getting so many detentions
• I dont know goals
• I dont know why they wont let me go out
• I dont understand why Im so unhappy.
• Others goals
• My parents want me to try harder at school
• My husband wont let me grow

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Rescripting, Redirecting

• If you stopped doing all those things that you
  said cause you to get poor grades (get fired)
  what will you be doing instead?
• What would I see you doing at school that would
  let your husband (teacher, friends) know that you
  were acting differently?
• If I watched a movie of your good times, what
  would I see you doing?

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• If I were to wave a magic wand or rub a magic
  lamp and wish all your problems away, what would
  I see you doing if I could videotape you
  tomorrow? (6 months)
• If the problem you brought to counseling were
  solved tomorrow (in the next 6 months), how would
  you know things were OK, and what would you be
  doing differently

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Exceptions

• Picture some times when some of the miracle
  already happened a little bit. How were you able
  to make that happen?
• When did the problem occur less or more or not at
  all?
• What would you need to do to go up one step,
• What might work to prevent you from moving up one
  step,?

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Techniques for children

• Preoperational and operational stages visual,
  concrete, not abstract
• Behavior/action first before thinking
• Thermometer
• Feelometer
• Red, amber, green light
• Smiling/frowning face

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Miracle Question

• Magic wand
• Genies lamp
• Inspector Gadget/CSI/ detective clues
• Camera rolling!
• Trading Spaces/Places
• Experiment
• Open the Door and what do I see?

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• Aaron I would like other kids in my class to be
  friends with me and I dont want detention all
  the time. I never get any free play time.
• Counselor Well, if that miracle occurred, what
  was going on in your classroom so these goals
  could happen.
• Aaron Other kids would choose me to work with
  them on stuff.
• Counselor So, if other kids were choosing you
  for a work partner, what would you start doing
  differently?

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Rewriting the script

• If we videotaped you after the miracle happened,
  what would we see you doing?
• Who would be the first to notice the difference
  in your behavior?
• What would they notice?
• How would they respond to you?
• How would you respond to them?
• What would be happening after the miracle?

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Guidelines (Murphy,1997)

• 1. If it works, do more of it. If it doesnt
  work, do something different.
• 2. Students, parents, and teachers have the
  necessary strengths and resources to change
  school problems
• 3. A small change in any aspect of a school
  problem can initiate a solution.
• 4. A focus on future possibilities and solutions
  enahnce4s change.
• 5. There are many possible meanings and
  interpretations for any given behaviors. If one
  view or theory is not working, toss it and try
  another.
• 6. Cooperation enhances change.

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• Aaron I guess I would be nice about sharing my
  stuff with them and not being such a pain.
• Counselor That sounds like a good goal. What
  else would you be doing?
• Aaron I would be working at my desk and getting
  my part done.
• Counselor Thats another good goal, because you
  would know right away if you did your share of
  the work in your group. What else would I see on
  the video?

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• Aaron My teacher would be complimenting me and
  putting my name up on the free choice board
  instead of the detention board.
• Counselor I can imagine seeing Mrs.. Jones
  smiling as she writes in that scene.
• Aaron Yeah and kids would be telling me what a
  good job I did helping them finish the project
  because I am really good at computer graphics.
  They would like me because of the real me and so
  would I.

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Four step self-help solution based model

• What happened?
• John bumped into me accidentally and I
  dropped my project. It broke apart.
• How did you feel?
• I was startled and mad.
• What did you do?I slugged him and made his nose
  bleed,
• What could you do differently?
• I could have counted to 10 first. He said he was
  sorry. I could have let him help me put it back
  together when he asked. Hes my friend.

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Practice

• 1. Think of a problem. What would we see you
  doing and saying?
• 2. How do you feel about this problem?
• 3. If a miracle happened, how would we know that
  your problem was fixed?
• What would you and others be doing?
• 4. What steps would you like to try next?

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Suggested resources

• Bruce, M. (1995). Brief counseling An effective
  model for change. School Counselor, 42, 353-364.
• Campbell, J.,Elder, J., Gallagher, D., Simo, J.
  , Taylor, A. (1999). Crafting the tap on the
  shoulder A compliment template for
  solution-focused therapy. American Journal of
  Family Therapy, 27, 35-47.
• deShazer, S. (1985). Keys to solutions in brief
  therapy. New York Norton
• Frankl, V. (1946/1984). Mans search for
  meaning. Boston Washington Square Press.
• Haley, J. (1976). Problem-solving therapy. New
  York Norton.
• Murphy, J. (1997). Solution-focused counseling in
  middle and high schools. Alexandria, VA American
  Counseling Association.
• Selekman, M. (1997). Solution-focused therapy
  with children Harnessing family strengths for
  systematic change.New York Guilford,
• Talmon, M. (1990). Single session therapy
  Maximizing the effect of the first (an often the
  only) therapeutic encounter. San Francisco
  Jossey Bass.
• Williams, G. (2000). The application of solution
  focused brief counseling in a public school
  setting. Family Therapy Journal, 8, 76-78.

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