Walter John L. - Becoming Solution-Focused In Brief Therapy

1992 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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International Standard Book Number-10: 0-87630-653-9 (Hardcover)
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-87630-653-6 (Hardcover)
Library of Congress catalog number: 91-43491

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

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T o the memory of Johns mother, Afra Walter, and to our parents, William Walter, Jonesy Wagner, Bert Peller, Victor Wagner, and Suzanne Peller, who in their own ways continually keep us optimistic and on track.

A book is never written by the authors alone. It is always a team effort and the authors just get to have their names on the cover. We want to thank family, friends, trainees, clients, and workshop participants, all of whom have contributed in their own unique ways.

We want to say a special thanks to Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer. Through our association and friendship with each of them, we have grown tremendously. We feel honored to be the spokespersons for many of their contributions to the development of Brief Therapy that they shared with us.

John wants to thank Insoo for first asking him, Why do you want to be a Brief Therapist? It could be a very upsetting change. Jane wants to thank Steve for reminding her to be simpleminded.

We also want to offer a special thank you to Eve Lipchik, who was the first to suggest that we write a manual. Her support was gentle in each reminder of You can do it.

We want to thank our friends, Jill Freedman and Gene Combs, who having struggled through the writing and publication of their own book, were a constant source of encouragement and helpful hints.

John wants to thank Michael Banks. Through Michaels outsiders curiosity and provoking questions, John sharpened and developed his own thinking about what we do. Michaels enthusiasm for our project was always there.

Jane wants to thank her chairperson at Northeastern Illinois University, Wanda Bracy, for giving her the release time to work on the book. She also wants to thank Wanda for enhancing Janes confidence in being able to take on any project by their mutual suffering through the self-study of their department.

We want to thank all the individuals who read some of the manuscript and offered us much appreciated feedback. We want to thank Bert Peller, who went over the manuscript many times and always managed to sneak in a compliment before making a suggestion. We also want to thank Victor Wagner, Mary Jo Barrett, and Goldie Lansky for offering not only their suggestions, but also their confusion as we struggled to give words to our ideas.

We want to thank du Ree Bryant, Kate Kowalski, and Kevin OConnor whose excitement continued to give us energy. We want to thank Jim Weiss who not only kept us in a frame of humor, but also kept our sometimes resistant computer up and running.

Of course, there is everyone else who simply asked How is it going? and then had the patience to listen.

Our final thanks goes to our editors, Natalie Gilman and Suzi Tucker, whose steady voices on the phone kept us focused during anxious moments.

This is a handbook for becoming solution-focused and for constructing solutions in brief therapy. Throughout the past several years, we have provided training for professionals who want to work briefly. They want to work in a positive way with people, and do not believe that pathologizing is useful. Workshop participants have consistently told us they wanted something more than just a workshop, something more than only an introduction, something useful they could look at between sessions, something they could use to practice with, something that would keep their learning going. The message was clear. This manual, Becoming Solution-Focused in Brief Therapy is our answer to all those requests.

In this manual, we describe how we came to a solution orientation. We describe the positive assumptions that inform our work, and then, in step-by-step fashion, provide a sequence of skill-building chapters.

reviews the historical progression of assumptions that have informed therapy models for the past hundred years. By examining the presuppositions within the major questions that led to model development, we describe several trends. This leads to the presuppositions of the founding question of a solution-focused approach, How do we construct solutions?

lists and explains the 12 assumptions that guide the authors thoughts and actions. In sum, the assumptions reflect the authors positive and future-oriented approach.

and the further direction of the therapeutic conversationis carried throughout the book.

describes our operating metaphor, that of movie-making, with our clients being both the directors and the principal actresses or actors. We assume that our expertise is not in evaluating normality or pathology but in facilitating movie-making processes. We assume that a well-defined goal is critical in order for movie-making to take place and for the therapy conversation to open up differences and possibilities. This chapter makes explicit the six criteria for a well-defined goal and how to make it easy for clients to create their goal within these guidelines.

provides an overview of the pathways of constructing solutions. The all-important distinction of wishes and complaints versus goals and problems is made first. Then the overview is laid out in terms of frames and the accompanying questions:

1. The goal frames question is, What is your goal in coming here?
2. The exception frames question is, When is it happening somewhat already? or When doesnt the problem happen?
3. The hypothetical solution frames question is, If the problem were solved, what would you be doing differently?

helps the reader develop skills in the use of the exceptions questions.

operationalizes even further our positive orientation by detailing how to offer positive feedback and solution-developing tasks.

describes how to keep change going and how to make sure the therapy is brief Suggestions are given for subsequent sessions, spacing sessions, and concluding therapy.