Interviewing For Solutions

by De Jong, Peter; Kim Berg, Insoo

• ISBN13: 9780495115885
• ISBN10: 0495115886
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-02-28
• Publisher: Brooks Cole

Summary

Written in an informal, conversational style, this respected text features a solutions-oriented approach that views clients as competent, helps them to visualize the changes they want, and builds on what they are already doing that works. Throughout Interviewing for Solutions, authors Peter De Jong and Insoo Kim Berg present models for solution-focused work, illustrated by examples and supported by research. The authors' proven approach provides you with a step-by-step description of how to build solutions with clients collaboratively, so you can see how to apply the skills in your own practice. Generous excerpts from actual interviews illustrate solution-focused techniques, and outcome data highlights the usefulness of the approach with a wide range of clients and client difficulties. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. XIII
About the Authors	p. XVIII
About the Chapter 14 Contributors	p. XIX
From Problem Solving to Solution Building	p. 1
Helping as Problem Solving	p. 5
The Stages of Problem Solving	p. 5
A Caveat: The Importance of Trust Development	p. 6
The Medical Model	p. 6
Problem Solving: The Paradigm of the Helping Professions	p. 6
Helping as Solution Building	p. 8
Concerns about the Problem-Solving Paradigm	p. 8
History of Solution Building	p. 11
Solution Building: The Basics	p. 13
A Second Interview with Rosie	p. 13
Solution-Building Interviewing Activities	p. 16
The Stages of Solution Building	p. 17
Describing the Problem	p. 17
Developing Well-Formed Goals	p. 17
Exploring for Exceptions	p. 18
End-of-Session Feedback	p. 18
Evaluating Client Progress	p. 18
The Client as Expert	p. 18
Skills for Not Knowing	p. 20
Basic Interviewing Skills	p. 21
Listening	p. 21
Formulating Questions	p. 22
Getting Details	p. 24
Echoing Clients' Key Words	p. 25
Open Questions	p. 26
Summarizing	p. 21
Paraphrasing	p. 29
Practitioners' Nonverbal Behavior	p. 29
The Use of Silence	p. 30
Noticing Clients' Nonverbal Behavior	p. 31
Self-Disclosing	p. 32
Noticing Process	p. 33
Complimenting	p. 34
Affirming Clients' Perceptions	p. 36
Natural Empathy	p. 39
Normalizing	p. 42
Returning the Focus to the Client	p. 43
Noticing Hints of Possibility	p. 45
Exploring Client Meanings	p. 46
Relationship Questions	p. 47
Amplifying Solution Talk	p. 48
Leading from One Step Behind	p. 50
Getting Started: How to Pay Attention to What the Client Wants	p. 52
When You First Meet Your Client	p. 52
Names and Small Talk	p. 52
Clarifying How You Work	p. 54
Problem Description	p. 55
Asking for Client Perceptions and Respecting Client Language	p. 55
What Is the Client's Understanding of How the Problem Affects the Client?	p. 56
What Has the Client Tried?	p. 57
What Is Most Important for the Client to Work on First?	p. 58
How to Work with Clients on What They Might Want	p. 58
When Clients Want Something and See Themselves as Part of a Solution	p. 59
A Word of Caution	p. 60
When Clients Say Someone Else Needs to Change	p. 60
When Clients Seem Uninterested or Resistant to Changing	p. 63
What if Clients Want What Is Not Good for Them?	p. 70
What if Clients Do Not Want Anything at All?	p. 71
Influencing Client Cooperation and Motivation	p. 71
How to Amplify What Clients Want: The Miracle Question	p. 75
Characteristics of Well-Formed Goals	p. 77
Importance to the Client	p. 77
Interactional Terms	p. 78
Situational Features	p. 78
The Presence of Some Desirable Behaviors Rather than the Absence of Problems	p. 79
A Beginning Step Rather than the Final Result	p. 80
Clients' Recognition of a Role for Themselves	p. 81
Concrete, Behavioral, Measurable Terms	p. 82
Realistic Terms	p. 82
A Challenge to the Client	p. 82
Conclusion	p. 83
The Miracle Question	p. 83
Ah Yan's Miracle Picture	p. 85
The Williams Family	p. 89
The Art of Interviewing for Well-Formed Goals	p. 100
Avoiding Premature Closure	p. 101
Exploring for Exceptions: Building on Client Strengths and Successes	p. 102
Exceptions	p. 102
Definition	p. 102
Interviewing for Exceptions	p. 103
Ah Yan's Exceptions	p. 104
Client Successes and Strengths	p. 105
Respecting the Client's Words and Frame of Reference	p. 106
Scaling Questions	p. 106
Presession-Change Scaling	p. 107
Scaling Motivation and Confidence	p. 108
Exceptions: The Williams Family	p. 110
Building toward a Difference that Makes a Difference	p. 113
Formulating Feedback for Clients	p. 114
Taking a Thinking Break	p. 115
The Structure of Feedback	p. 115
Compliments	p. 116
The Bridge	p. 116
Suggestions	p. 117
Deciding on a Suggestion	p. 117
Does the Client Want Something?	p. 117
Are There Well-Formed Goals?	p. 118
Are There Exceptions?	p. 119
Feedback for Ah Yan	p. 119
Feedback for the Williams Family	p. 121
Feedback Guidelines	p. 125
Common Messages	p. 126
When Clients Do Not Perceive a Problem and Do Not Want Anything	p. 126
When Clients Perceive a Problem But Not a Role for Themselves in a Solution	p. 127
When Clients Want Something and See Themselves as Part of a Solution	p. 130
Other Useful Messages	p. 133
The Overcoming-the-Urge Suggestion	p. 134
Addressing Competing Views of the Solution	p. 134
Decisions about the Next Session	p. 136
Cribsheets, Protocols, and Notetaking	p. 137
Later Sessions: Finding, Amplifying, and Measuring Client Progress	p. 139
"What's better?"	p. 140
Ears	p. 141
Ah Yan	p. 142
Doing More of the Same	p. 148
Scaling	p. 148
Scaling Progress	p. 149
Scaling Confidence	p. 149
Next Steps	p. 150
Termination	p. 153
The Break	p. 155
Feedback	p. 156
Compliments	p. 156
Bridge	p. 157
Suggestion	p. 157
The Second Session with the Williams Family	p. 157
"What's Better?"	p. 158
Break	p. 164
Feedback	p. 165
Bridge	p. 167
Suggestion	p. 167
Setbacks, Relapses, and Times when Nothing Is Better	p. 168
Conclusion	p. 169
Interviewing Clients in Involuntary Situations: Children, Dyads, and the Mandated	p. 170
Taking a Solution Focus	p. 172
Key Ideas for Solution Building with Clients in Involuntary Situations	p. 172
Begin by Assuming the Client Probably Does Not Want Anything from You	p. 173
Responding to Anger and Negativity	p. 173
Listen for Who and What Are Important	p. 174
Use Relationship Questions to Address Context	p. 174
Incorporating Nonnegotiable Requirements	p. 175
Giving Control to Clients	p. 175
Guidelines, Useful Questions, and a Protocol for Interviewing Involuntary Clients	p. 176
Building Solutions with Children	p. 176
Children as Involuntary Participants	p. 177
Getting Prepared to Meet a Child	p. 177
Getting Started with Positives	p. 178
Enlisting Adults as Allies	p. 179
Getting the Child's Perceptions	p. 180
Other Tips for Interviewing Children	p. 184
Interviewing Dyads	p. 188
Focus on the Relationship	p. 189
Getting Started	p. 189
Work toward a Common Goal	p. 192
Other Tips	p. 199
Conclusion	p. 201
Working with Those Mandated into Services	p. 201
Getting Started	p. 202
Getting More Details about the Client's Understandings and What the Client Wants	p. 205
Asking about Context with Relationship Questions	p. 206
Coconstructing Competence	p. 208
Back on Familiar Ground	p. 210
What about Making Recommendations that the Client Opposes?	p. 210
Final Word	p. 212
Interviewing in Crisis Situations	p. 213
Solution Focus versus Problem Focus	p. 214
Getting Started: "How Can I Help?"	p. 215
"What Have You Tried?"	p. 216
"What Do You Want to Have Different?"	p. 217
Asking the Miracle Question	p. 219
Coping Questions	p. 220
The Case of Jermaine	p. 220
Coping Exploration	p. 221
Connecting with the Larger Picture	p. 223
Using Coping Questions with Clients Who Talk Suicide	p. 223
Scaling Questions	p. 226
Scaling Current Coping Ability	p. 227
Scaling Presession Coping Changes	p. 228
Scaling the Next Step	p. 228
Scaling Motivation and Confidence	p. 228
Feedback: Doing More of What Helps	p. 229
Gathering Problem-Assessment Information	p. 230
When the Client Remains Overwhelmed	p. 232
Conclusion	p. 233
Outcomes	p. 235
Early Research at Brief Family Therapy Center	p. 236
1992-1993 Study Design Participants	p. 236
Outcome Measurement	p. 237
Results	p. 237
Length of Services	p. 237
Intermediate Outcomes	p. 238
Final Outcomes	p. 238
Comparative Data	p. 239
Other Studies of Solution-Focused Therapy	p. 240
Next Steps	p. 242
Professional Values and Human Diversity	p. 244
Solution Building and Professional Values	p. 245
Respecting Human Dignity	p. 245
Individualizing Service	p. 247
Fostering Client Vision	p. 247
Building on Strengths	p. 248
Encouraging Client Participation	p. 248
Maximizing Self-Determination	p. 248
Fostering Transferability	p. 249
Maximizing Client Empowerment	p. 250
Protecting Confidentiality	p. 250
Promoting Normalization	p. 251
Monitoring Change	p. 252
Conclusion	p. 252
Diversity-Competent Practice	p. 252
Outcome Data on Diversity	p. 254
Diversity and Satisfaction with Services	p. 257
Agency, Group, and Community Practice	p. 259
Solution Building and Agency Practice	p. 259
Case Documentation in Problem-Focused Settings	p. 259
Case Documentation in More Solution-Focused Settings	p. 262
Case Conferences in Problem-Focused Settings	p. 264
Case Conferences in More Solution-Focused Settings	p. 266
Solution-Building Supervision	p. 268
Relationships with Colleagues in Problem-Focused Settings	p. 271
Relationships with Colleagues in Solution-Focused Settings	p. 272
Relationships with Collaterals	p. 272
Group and Organizational Practice	p. 274
Group Practice	p. 274
Organizational Practice	p. 275
Applications	p. 277
Introduction	p. 277
Family Solutions: From "Problem Families to Families Finding Solutions"	p. 279
The Need for Something Different	p. 279
How We Did It	p. 280
Techniques Employed	p. 280
Differences Made	p. 281
Case Examples	p. 281
Katy McKeith	p. 281
Colin James	p. 283
Outcomes	p. 284
Feedback from Families	p. 285
Conclusion	p. 285
The Woww Program	p. 286
The Program	p. 288
Observation and Complimenting by a Coach	p. 288
Creating Classroom Goals	p. 289
Scaling Classroom Success	p. 290
Coaching	p. 291
Outcomes	p. 291
Conclusion	p. 293
Solutions for Bullying in Primary Schools	p. 293
The Support Group Approach to Bullying	p. 294
Case Example	p. 296
Making a Difference	p. 300
Evaluation	p. 301
Conclusion	p. 302
Implementation of Solution-Focused Skills in a Hawai'i Prison	p. 302
Program Description	p. 302
Restorative Circle	p. 303
Inmate Training in SF Skills	p. 304
Case Example: Restorative Circle	p. 306
Evaluation	p. 307
Satisfaction with Restorative Circles	p. 307
Satisfaction with Inmate Training	p. 308
Conclusion	p. 308
It's a Matter of Choice	p. 309
The Problem Drinking Treatment Program	p. 309
Techniques from SFBT	p. 310
A Case	p. 310
Follow-Up	p. 312
Conclusion	p. 312
The Plumas Project: Solution-Focused Treatment of Domestic Violence Offenders	p. 313
History	p. 313
Shifting to a Solution Focus	p. 313
Our Program	p. 314
Assessment Interview	p. 314
	p. 315
	p. 317
Assignments	p. 319
Program Outcomes	p. 320
Recidivism Rates	p. 320
Partners' Comments	p. 320
Group Members' Comments	p. 320
Impact On Practitioners	p. 322
Impact on Our Agency	p. 323
Conclusion	p. 323
Transforming Agency Practice through Solution-Focused Supervision	p. 324
Why Change was Necessary	p. 324
How I Introduced Solution-Focused Practices	p. 325
Therapists' Views	p. 330
Further Developments	p. 331
Differences We have Noticed	p. 331
Youthcare Drenthe	p. 333
Becoming a Solution-Focused Organization	p. 333
Adopting a Paradigm Change	p. 333
Swarm Phenomenon	p. 334
My Vision for the Miracle Organization	p. 334
Making the Vision Happen	p. 336
Role of the Director	p. 337
Conclusion	p. 339
Theoretical Implications	p. 340
Shifts in Client Perceptions and Definitions	p. 341
Social Constructionism	p. 343
Shifting Paradigms	p. 345
Outcome Data	p. 345
Shifting Perceptions and Definitions as a Client Strength	p. 348
Solution-Building Tools	p. 351
References	p. 378
Index	p. 388
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.