Whilst talking with a lovely group this week a picture of a box came into my mind. This was not any old box. The image I saw was of a capacious box, a capacious box that was lined with fur and covered with red plush velvet. There may have been some sparkling jewels attached to the outside of the box and a wonderfully comfortable cushion, similarly covered in velvet and sporting tassels, lying at the bottom.
The idea that came to my mind was that such a box might be an essential accessory for any practitioner wishing to put the Solution Focused approach to work and in particular for those practitioners who have been previously well-trained in other modalities. The way the box can be used is simple, it can be placed just by the door of the practitioner’s consulting room and very carefully and gently as the practitioner enters the room they can lay in the box all the thoughts, the beliefs, and the assumptions that are embedded. sometimes almost invisibly and taken for granted, in their previous approach. The worker might like to check them into the box one by one, ticking them off. In goes the idea that some clients are not ready for change, accompanied by the thought that some clients say that they want to change but do not really. And when these two ideas are settled onto their corner of the cushion, the worker checks in the idea that change has to be difficult and that it is painful, ‘no pain no gain, and then in goes the idea that clients are typically resistant, followed by the assumption that problems might be ‘deep-rooted’ and that such problems will require long-term therapy. And when all of these are comfortably settled space must be found for ‘lack of motivation’ and ‘secondary gain’ and ‘difficult clients’. The words ‘information’ and ‘understanding’ and ‘hypothesising’ must all be fitted in, along with ‘getting’ and ‘tools’ and ‘tool boxes’. The word ‘really’ must join its friends in the box, along with ‘unmotivated’. And a corner is still required for the idea that what the client wants is less important than what they ‘need’ and what they ‘need’ only the worker can know. And when all of these and in all probability a few more have been settled in, the practitioner can proceed into the therapy room, perhaps feeling a little lighter, possibly even somewhat relieved, although sometimes, particularly at first, feeling exposed, their protective armour shed.
Now why is it so important that the box should be big enough, should be wonderfully comfortable, should be a place where we would only put valued objects? Because if the box is dark and miserable and cramped and uncomfortable the ideas might want to creep out and find their way, through the key-hole perhaps, or under the door, and into the therapy room, and if they do so successfully these ideas will undermine the Solution Focused process. We truly do not want these ideas and these words to feel jealous. Jealous ideas might try to get their own back! Ideas which might fit other ways of working, (maybe), if they find their way in, will get in the way of our capacity to listen intently to the client’s last answer and merely to concentrate on shaping the next useful question, which in Solution Focused Practice is all that we are doing. We might start, almost without noticing, having ideas about what is wrong with the client and what they really need and if this happens it is Solution Focus that is out of the window.
So the ideas in the box should not feel criticised, they should not feel scorned; it is just that they are not useful to us right now, when we are doing something different. And of course, after a period of ‘box-life’, even of gilded and comfortable ‘box-life’ our old ideas might begin to feel bored with their sybaritic existence and to wish for a more dynamic role and slip away to find another practitioner who will we pleased to take them out and give them a shine and put them back to work. Most of us want to feel useful.
Evan George
London
19th April 2026
