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Simple Therapy. a step beyond SFBT Plamen Panayotov Solutions Brief Therapy and Counseling Centre Rousse Bulgaria. ‘ Improvisation requires . a profound process of assimilation verging on forgetting. ’ Paolo Pandolfo.
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Simple Therapy a step beyond SFBT Plamen Panayotov Solutions Brief Therapy and Counseling Centre Rousse Bulgaria
‘ Improvisation requires a profound process of assimilation verging on forgetting. ’ Paolo Pandolfo
What is the most useful definition of SFBT ? A psychotherapeutic approach A way of thinking A life philosophy A toolbox (Steve de Shazer)
How is this definition useful ? It allows for … • Discovering new tools • Trying them out in practice • Evaluating them • Sharing them with others • Adding them to the toolbox … thus developing the SFBT practice.
Solution Focus Question: Who needs to be solution-focused ? The therapist ? ( not necessarily ) The client ? ( preferably )
Question: Can we help clients become solution-focused without necessarily asking them SF questions ? The obvious answer : No . Paradoxically : Yes . If yes, how ?
Question: How do you know the right TIME
to ask a certain question ( to use a particular tool ) ? Answer: You either guess, or you follow the client. Question: Which one is better ?
How do we follow clients ? by Listening to them and Observing their reactions
DON'T THINK, BUT OBSERVE ! http://brianmft.talkspot.com/aspx/templates/topmenuclassical.aspx/msgid/362961
By including in most of our questions to clients: … what do you think … ?
Examples: • ‘… what do you thinkyou will notice after the miracle …’ • ‘… where do you thinkyou are on a scale from …’ • ‘… what do you thinks/he would say (see, notice) …’ • ‘… what do you thinkthe next step might be (look like) …’ • ‘… when do you thinkit was a little bit better …’, etc.
The Basic Question ( Main Theme ) : What does the client want … • to talk about in her session ? • to be asked about ? • from our conversation ?
The Opening Questions : What do you think is the most useful question I can ask you as a beginning ? What do you think we need to talk about first ? What do you think we need to do first ?
What do you think is the most common answer to the Opening Questions ? ? ?
Most clients reply with Laughter or at least a Smile
Insoo and Steve About Laughter video
How does this question/tool“What do you think is the most useful question I can ask you as a beginning ?” provoke laughter ?
By changing the focus from the client to the therapist and the conversation at hand. It’s implicit meaning is: I don’t know anything about your problem, about the possible solutions, but I don’t know also … what to ask you !
When the client tells us the most useful question , we just … R e p e a t I t
What happens if the client replies to the Opening Questions with : ‘ I don’t know . ’ This works as an invitation for us to use
The Classical SFBT Tools : Exceptions-finding Qs Miracle Question Scaling Questions Relationship Questions Coping Questions Compliments Tasks EARS
What happens if in response to the Opening Question the client asks W H Y her problem is there ?
Historically When talking about why problems exist used to say:
Shit A habit Happens. http://en.solutions-centre-rousse-bulgaria.org/files/The_Vomiting_Girl.pdf
Exercise Try to think of an exception to this ‘explanation’ : It happened first , and then became a habit .
The Final Cut of the Ockham’s razor : Everything happens first , and then becomes a habit .
Instead of saying this to clients … we ask them the Why Clearing Questions: When did this habit happen for the first time ? How often does this habit happen lately ? When did this habit happen for the last time ? because of ...
the Process: Clients come with their questions … Most therapists reply with cleveranswers SFB Therapists reply with usefulquestions (a Jesuit habit)
What do you think happens when the ‘why’ is cleared ? After answering one, two, or several echoing questions what usually happens is … A Miracle:
Clients BECOME Solution-Focused, and THEYask …
The Awakening Question : What are we going to do about it ?
Then the therapist simply writes down their answers to the Awakening Question on … what, do you think ?