Blog

A thoughtful piece by Harvey Ratner which reflects on the question 'what are we doing when we ask clients about their best hopes?' His conclusions call into question some of our previous ways of describing our work.

Just recently I have had the pleasure of working with 2 Educational Psychology Services and of working with two groups both of which contained a number of ‘educationalists’, people working in schools and in education more generally. One of the things that I hope that all of us at BRIEF are good at is trying to shape our material, to shape our thinking about the application of the Solution Focused approach in such a way that it fits with the jobs of those attending. And so, of course, I have recently been talking about Solution Focus in the classroom, bringing to the front of my thinking all those thoughts and ideas about the application of the approach in teaching, which had been sitting at the back of my memory, gathering dust. It was good to bring them out, to give them a polish and to show them off again, because I believe that Solution Focus and teaching are a great fit.

When people come to see us they are often very clear about what they don't want. But what do they want? Clients have not always given that question quite so much thought and attention. Evan George proposes 5 simple steps when clients respond to us asking about their best hopes from our talking with 'I don't know'.

Do we have to be particular sorts of people to use the Solution Focused approach. Evan George argues that we do not. Using the approach involves adopting a position in a very conscious and determined way and this is based on a choice, It does not depend on the vagaries, the lottery of what sort of person we may happen to be.

Clients are not 'found', they are co-constructed and just as therapists can 'co-construct' clients who will struggle to find a way forward so can we 'co-construct' clients who are likely to be successful. It is a question of choice . . . and a question of ethics.

Terry Eagleton's recent book sparks off some thinking about the words that we use in the Solution Focused approach. Why is it that we talk about 'hopes' rather than 'dreams'?

Our friend and colleague Elliott Connie from Texas shares some of his recent thinking with us in this guest blog.

This is a 'guest blog' by Denise Yusuf. Denise is co-author with Harvey Ratner of 'Brief Coaching with Children and Young People' and draws here on her experience of working with children and school students.

What is the status of 'body language' in the SF approach. We know that the words we use are only a small part of the way that we communicate and that our understanding of those words in general conversation is mediated through our processing of 'body language'. So how do SF practitioners think about this?

How do therapists and counsellors and others manage when their clients have arrived at the conclusion that telling untruths may be the best strategy for managing their difficult lives. Harvey Ratner shares some of his thoughts.