 The solution focused approach  Includes clinical methods and techniques  AND on another level is much more:  A philosophy, a lens through which you see not just our clients’ trauma and pain  But also amazing strengths and resilience Ellen Quick, Ph.D., BCC they already have. October 28, 2017

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 The solution focused perspective in general.  A few ideas or tools or techniques you can add to your toolbox.  Using it to grow resilience both after trauma and with the stuff of daily life.  Some ways of inviting clients to tap the courage and resilience they already have.  Practice this by interviewing each  Excitement about how powerful a solution other. focused perspective can be with people who  Some reflection… who’ve experienced trauma, both large and small.

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 Think of a specific person. 2 pieces of the solution focused approach:  Think of a strength or example of 1. Noticing a piece of the solution that’s resilience you’ve seen in that person. already happening. 2. Doing it again.  And another one. the “What else” question

Noticing another, and then another… “The most valuable answers after the 5th ‘what else’”…

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1  Most common response to trauma? Images and words of resilience…  Resilience! Notice which resonate most for you. ◦ Bannink: data from National Comorbidity Study ◦ 50-60% exposed to trauma ◦ Only 8% meet criteria for PTSD (Kessler et al., 1995)

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 From dialectical behavior therapy:  From sports, business, performance,  Tolerating strong emotions coaching more than from therapy  Trusting that they will pass  Precisely what makes it resonate for some!  Accepting without judging ◦ Doing what you need to do under pressure  Self-soothing ◦ Making fast decisions  Visualizing yourself in a safe place ◦ Endurance/focus, especially at critical moments  Tolerating urge without acting ◦ “Turnaround toughness”: bouncing back  Remembering what and whom you care about  Our clients have more than they realize  Sometimes it’s really hard to do  And you have a name for it…  And our clients do it anyway…

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▪ Milton Erickson How much do you already know about the ▪ Mental Research Institute solution focused approach? ▪ Richard Fisch, John Weakland, Paul Watzlawick ▪ a. I know a fair amount about it. Brief Family Therapy Center ▪ Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg b. I know a little about it. c. Other than hearing the phrase, it’s pretty new to me.

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2 ▪ No matter how severe a problem, there are  Variations on the miracle question: times it is less severe or absent.  “Best hopes” “Exceptions” When you notice and point them out, they happen more  Coping questions often. ◦ If someone has experienced trauma, hard times, it ▪ Not necessary to have a lot of information about can seem disrespectful to ask about a future where the problem. pain is gone or drastically reduced. ▪ Goal not to “eliminate problems” but to reach a ◦ Instead, “With what you’ve been through, how do goal. you get through the day?” ▪ What will it look like when the goal is reached? ◦ “How did you do that?” ▪ “The miracle question” Story about how it came to be ◦ “I don’t know. I just did it.” More Than Miracles… ◦ “What else?”  What you focus on grows…

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 Invites recognition of choices (the person who got up to go to the bathroom…)  How did you get here today?  “I had to get up to feed my baby.” ◦ They tell us about being nonfunctional. ◦ Not getting out of the house.  “The dog needed to go out.” ◦ Feeling hopeless, incompetent, overwhelmed,  We highlight that: “He needed you.” (implicit unable to resist substances compliment)  Again, what you focus on grows… …and this person is here…. ◦ “How did you do that?”

 John

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 Difference questions  Validation  Relationship questions  Highlighting of strengths  Scaling questions  Suggestion (if client is okay with that): ◦ 10 as the destination, 0 the opposite ◦ Do more of what works ◦ Where are you now? ◦ Notice when pieces of best hopes are already ◦ Why not lower? (NOT the question they think you’re happening going to ask…) ◦ If something isn’t working, do something different. ◦ Notice how doing these things makes a difference.

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3  Groups of 3 or 4: therapist, client, consultant(s)  Brittney  Clients: think of a small loss or discrepancy ◦ Adapted from Fredrike Bannink, Working from the between what you hoped for and what you got future back  Therapists: have a conversation about how you coped  Natalie ◦ Use solution focused tools, nuggets-but mostly do what you do  Consultants: watch for strengths and resilience in the client  10 minutes…then your next instruction

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 Consultants, tell the therapist the strengths and resilience you saw and heard in the client.  People talk about vicarious  Therapists, give your client some brief end of traumatization – but vicarious session feedback. resilience happens too. ◦ (Maybe highlight strengths and/or invite noticing more times resilience is happening)  Tenacity and resilience are contagious!  Clients, share with your therapist what was ◦ Hoyt most helpful about the process. ◦ de Jong and Berg

 What did you discover from this exercise?

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 Imagine a client who is a challenge  Strengths and resilience are already there ◦ (not because of a safety issue, but in some other way…)  In our clients  You acknowledge to yourself your reaction…and  In their worlds begin your session.  In ourselves  What is a detail you discover about this person?  So keep noticing them…  What do you find yourself liking about them?  Because what you focus on grows…  What is amazing about them?  What did you discover about vicarious resilience? Your own resilience? The power of solution focused conversation?

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4 [email protected] or [email protected]

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