Fredrike Bannink - 101 Solution-Focused Questions for Help with Trauma

T H E 1 0 1 S O L U T I O N - F O C U S E D Q U E S T I O N S
S E R I E S O F B O O K S B Y
F R E D R I K E B A N N I N K

101 Solution-Focused Questions for Help with Anxiety

101 Solution-Focused Questions for Help with Depression

101 Solution-Focused Questions for Help with Trauma

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separately or as a set.

101 Solution-Focused Questions for Help with Trauma

Copyright 2015 by Fredrike Bannink

All rights reserved
First Edition

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Bannink, Fredrike.
101 solution-focused questions for help with trauma / Fredrike Bannink.
First edition.
pages cm. (A Norton professional book)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-393-71112-7 (pbk.)
1. Post-traumatic stress disorderTreatmentMiscellanea.
2.Solution-focused brief therapy. I. Title. II. Title: One hundred one
solution-focused questions for help with trauma. III. Title: One hundred
and one solution-focused questions for help with trauma.
RC552.P67B334 2015
616.8521dc23

2015023989

ISBN 978-0-393-71112-7 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-393-71113-4 (e-book)

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I am not what happened to me.
I am what I choose to become.

Jungs (1965) quote
will be the theme
of this book.

Contents

6Finding Competence

9Reflection and Feedback

According to Steve De Shazer, one of the founders of solution-focused brief therapy, differences in and of themselves are just differences. But some people (and some animals) have made a difference that has been significant in my life and my work. In one way or another, they all assisted me in writing these volumes.

I thank my colleagues, students, and above all my clients, who have helped me discover, apply, and improve my work over the years. I thank my publisher, Deborah Malmud, for her invitation to write these volumes; my friend and colleague Suzanne Aldis Routh for translating; and my colleague Kaz de Jong for reviewing this book.

To my husband, I am grateful for your continuing love and support. To my four Italian cats, mille grazie for keeping me company during the many pleasant hours of writing.

T his is a book to help clients use what happened to them to make their lives better instead of bitter . In psychotherapy with trauma survivors, there can be a range of outcomes. For some, there is full or partial recovery from symptoms of PTSD, and that is as far as these clients can go. For others, there is not only recovery from symptoms but also posttraumatic growth. For some people, the outcome involves finding a resiliency that allows them to go on with their lives.

This book aims to help clients struggling with trauma by being first and foremost a practical book aimed at all professionals working with trauma survivors, offering them solution-focused (SF) viewpoints and skills. The book invites them to change their focus from what is wrong to what is right with their clients and from what isnt working to what is working in their lives.

Traditional psychotherapy has been strongly influenced by the medical model. The structure of problem-solvingfirst determining the nature of the problem and then intervening to minimize sufferinginfluences the content of the interaction between therapists and clients; the focus is on pathology. However, it is not this negative way of thinking but clients strengths, competencies, and resources that are most important in bringing about positive change. The secret of change is to focus all energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

This is Volume 3 of a series of three books, each offering 101 solution-focused questions for help with a specific psychiatric disorder: anxiety (Volume 1), depression (Volume 2), or trauma (this volume). The serieswhich may in the future include more titlesis based on my book 1001 Solution-Focused Questions: Handbook for Solution-Focused Interviewing (Bannink, 2010a), originally written in Dutch and translated into English, German, and Korean.

I feel privileged that Insoo Kim Berg, co-founder of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), wrote the Foreword of 1001 Solution-Focused Questions in 2006:

SFBT is based on the respectful assumption that clients have the inner resources to construct highly individualized and uniquely effective solutions to their problems . .. The 1001 SF questions presented in this clear and well-written book will give the reader a very good idea of the importance of the precise use of language as a tool in SFBT. Readers are invited to open themselves to a new light on interviewing clients.

The focus in each volume is on creating preferred futures and the pathways to get there. In addition to a description of the ways in which SFBT may be applied, each book contains exactly 101 SF questions that lie at the heart of SFBT. Over the years, I have collected more than 2,000 SF questions. It has been quite a challenge to select what I think are the best 101 questions for each volume. I admit I cheated a little by sometimes grouping multiple questions together and by changing some questions to the first person (n this volume, only questions therapists ask their clients are counted). As a result, you actually get far more than 101 questions! Questions for therapists themselves and questions clients may ask themselves (sometimes invited by their therapists) or may ask their therapists are also described, but are not included in the 101 list. At the end of each chapter, an overview of the SF questions is given. Some of the questions overlap with those in other chapters. Rather than repeating these questions, I have chosen to mention each SF question just once.

SFBT is a transdiagnostic approach. The reason I have nevertheless written separate volumes for different psychiatric disorders is to accommodate the many colleagues who are working with specific client groups. To give readers the opportunity to integrate the SF approach, this book introduces 40 exercises, 25 cases, and 18 stories.

This volume is aimed at all professionals working with trauma survivors, as well as their families and friends, who would prefer to adopt a (more) positive approach and/or would like to simply increase the range of techniques available to them. SF conversations with clients have proven to be more lighthearted than other kinds of conversations, ensuring less burnout for professionals.

Although the book is primarily aimed at professionals, I hope that people suffering from PTSD who dont see a therapist may also find useful information and helpful exercises within its pages.

Its about time to turn the tide on trauma treatment and shift the focus from reducing distress and merely surviving to building success and positively thriving.

Fredrike Bannink

December 2014

The medical model uses the term patient ; SFBT uses the term client .

T rauma (from the Greek word meaning a wound) refers to either a physical injury or psychological shock or severe distress resulting from a traumatic experience. Psychological trauma is part of being human. Even so, most people dont develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Epidemiological studies of the prevalence of PTSD in trauma-exposed populations show that resilience is the norm, not the exception. In this chapter, a short description of PTSD is given, followed by myths about trauma. My concept of posttraumatic success includes the 3 Rs: R ecovery, en R ichment (posttraumatic growth), and R esilience. Understanding clients resources helps therapists foster positive development as opposed to focusing on what is wrong with them, and to enable them to use what happened to them to make their lives better instead of bitter .