Transcript Slide 1

Celeste A. Jones, MSW, PhD and Arthur R. Sanchez, PhD
We live our lives
according to the stories we
tell ourselves and the stories
that others tell
about us.
Mental Constraints
We take our shape; it is true, within and
against that cage of reality bequeathed
to us at birth; and yet it is precisely
through our dependence on this reality
that we are endlessly betrayed.
Video Exercise
Nine Dot Exercise
Triangle Exercise
There is no triangle
Consultant Epistemology


Worldview constitutes
how individuals think,
behave, make
decisions and define
events
Refer to Appendix B,
page 24

Adjusting our professional frames as consultants
 Maintain a posture of curiosity!
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new
things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us
down new paths.”
Walt Disney
 Understand
that all things change—sooner or later
“Change is happening all the time; our role is to
identify useful change and amplify it.
Gregory Bateson

Orient yourself toward process and co-drift.
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from
here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
Alice: I don't much care where.
The Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.
Alice: …so long as I get somewhere.
The Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.
Ask questions that you genuinely do not know the answers to.
Continued

Forty years of outcome
research: what works?
(Lambert 1992)
What do you think are the
main variables that
contribute to successful
outcomes?
Lambert Findings
The contribution of clients and chance
events 40%
 Therapeutic alliance 30%
 Hope and expectancy 15%
 Model and technique 15%

Continued

Collaborate and Co-create

Influence the collaborative alliance by:
1.
2.
3.
See the person as a consultant to the process
Recognize and respect the expertise
Focus on resources and co-create new ones
Overview of Building
Collaboration Models
 Narrative
 Solution
Conversations
Building Conversations
Narrative Conversations

Underlying Premises





Problems are thin descriptions of peoples lives
Respectful, non-blaming approach to counseling
and community work, which centers people as the
experts in their own lives.
Problems are seen as external
Resources are drawn upon to reduce the influence
of the problem.
Individuals speak meaning into their lives
Narrative Conversations

Role of the Consultant



The Consultant views problems as oppressive to
families/systems and need of elimination.
The consultant works to find unique outcomes, that
is, exceptions to families' /system problems.
The consultant uses questions and helps
families/systems create new stories where they,
and not their problems are in control.
Narrative Continued
Goals of Treatment
The focus of treatment is on helping those
who come to consult with us to re-author
their lives and bring about change so that
they and not their problems dominate.
Narrative Continued

Consultation Techniques








Externalization of the problem
Influence (effect) of the problem on the person
Influence (effect) of the person on the problem
Raising dilemmas
Predicting setbacks
Using questions (exceptions and significance
questions)
Letters
Celebrations and certificates
Narrative Video
Narrative Therapy with Children
with Stephan Madigan, PhD
If We Stand Tall,
It is Because
We Stand on The Backs of Those Who
Came Before Us.
Yoruba Proverb
Narrative Stages
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Separate the problem from the client
Map the influence of the problem
Attend to exceptions to the problem
Reclaim special abilities and strengths
Call upon available resources
Exercise on Narrative Stages
Volunteers for the Exercise

One person has a problem—real play—they
describe what the problems is to us

Another person volunteers to role that problem

Third person volunteer s to be an investigative
reported who is a specialist in subterfuge and
corruption
Part I

The person is playing the investigative
reporter interviews the person who is playing
the problem about the problem’s successes
Role of the “Problem”

The person playing the “problem” needs to know that
the problem tends to be arrogant and boastful –and it
is rarely difficulty to get the problem to spill the
beans on how they have achieved these successes. In
fact, they are so full of themselves; they usually give
away their secrets and bring themselves undone when
given the slightest opportunity to do so. For this
reason, they will find themselves in quite a
cooperative mood during their interview with the
investigative reporter.
Role of Investigative Reporter

It is important that the investigative reporter
stay on track with their task. It is not their job
to cure the problem or in any way to attempt to
reform it. Instead they should assume the
position form which they might simply
develop an expose of the life and identity of
the problem.
Role of the Person with the Problem


The person who has the problem, describes to
the person playing the problem what the
problem is.
Then during the first two parts the person with
the problem listens carefully without
interrupting the interviews
Part I
Investigative Reporter Questions

the problem’s influence in the different areas
of the subject’s life (for example, its effects on
the subject’s relationships with others, its
impact on the subject’s feelings, its
interference in the subject’s thoughts, its
effects on the subject’s story about who they
are as a person, how it has the subject treating
their own life, and so on)

the strategies, the techniques, the deceits, and the
tricks that the problem has resorted to in its efforts
to get the upper-hand in the subject’s life,

the special qualities possessed by the problem that
it depends upon to undermine and to disqualify the
subject’s knowledge and skills. This can include an
inquiry into the powerful ways that the problem
speaks in its efforts to impose its authority on the
subject’s life,

the purposes that guide the problem’s attempts to
dominate the subject’s life, and the dreams and
hopes that the problem has for the subject’s life,

who stands with the problem, and an investigation
into the various forces that are in league with it,

the plans that the problem has ready to put into
action should its dominance be threatened.
Part II

The person who is playing the investigative
reporter interviews the person who is playing
the problem about the problems failures
Part II
Investigative Reporter Questions
Investigative reporters have many options for
questions that are effective in developing an
expose on the problem’s failures. These can
include an inquiry into:

the territories of life over which the subject
still has some influence despite the problem’s
attempts to totally dispossess the subject,

the counter-techniques, counter-strategies, and the tricks
that have been developed by the subject that have at times
been effective in "throwing a spanner in the works" of the
problem’s efforts to get the upper hand in the subject’s life,

the special qualities, knowledge, and skills possessed by the
subject that have proven difficult for the problem to
undermine and to disqualify. This can include an inquiry
into the nature of the "self-talk" that the subject has
developed to challenge the problem’s attempt to impose its
authority on their life,

the purposes and commitments that guide the
subject’s efforts to challenge the attempts of the
problem to dominate the subject’s life, and that have
frustrated the dreams and the hopes of the problem,

who stands with the subject (relatives, friends,
acquaintances, teachers, therapists, and so on), and
the part they have played in denying the problem’s
desires and wishes,
Part III

The person who has the problem has the opportunity to
share with the others their experience of these two
interviews.

They also have the opportunity to comment on the
accuracy of the portrayal of the problem. Following this,
the persons who have been playing the problem and the
investigative reporter talk of their experience of the first
two parts of the exercise, and then all parties to the
exercise are invited to share their thoughts on proposals
for action that might undermine the influence of the
problem in the person’s life.
Narrative Questions

Welcoming Questions that invite the
person/s to share how they
decided to come for consultation
and begin the collaborative
dialogue.

Opening Questions:
What is it that you would like to
begin discussing during our time
together?
Questions continued

Is it possible that coming here today is a challenge
to the problem? Ask questions to invite the
person/s to investigate new meanings associated
with new unique outcomes.

Would you prefer to be someone who is being held
hostage by this problem lifestyle or someone who
has battled the influences of a problem lifestyle
and won? It is obvious that….I am impressed
with your ability to…
Questions continued

Mapping the Influence Questions:



How does the problem influence the Person/s
life?
How does it feel to have this problem control
your life and your Person/s?
Unique Outcomes:

Describe times when you could have been
influenced by the problem but you were not.
Solution-Building Conversations

Overall goals
Change the doing
 Change the viewing


Underlying Premises
Focus on exceptions and small changes
 Reality is seen as a reflection of observation and
experience, not as objective reality.
 The Person/System is viewed as a collaborator in the
process and wanting to change
 Present is emphasized
 Exceptions to patterns are highlighted

Solution-Building Continued

Role of the Consultant


Solution-Building consultant facilitates by asking
questions and initiates change through simple and
universal solutions.
Goals of Treatment


Help the family/system find solutions through
internal resources.
Help the family/system perceive the world in a
different way where change is possible and small
changes are important
Solution-Building Continued
 Five
D’s:
 Develop image of realistic solution (miracle
question) that the person/system can support
 Discover what way solution is already in action
 Deconstruct schema (exceptions)
 Notice anything different after deciding to come in for
session
 Notice things you would like to happen again between
sessions
continued
 Determine
small measurable steps toward goal
 Describe
thoughts actions and feelings which are
useful in attaining the goal—use strengths
 Do
something to make a difference-do one thing
different, more of same
Solution-Building Continued

Consultation Techniques
Joining
Listening and accepting
Noting patterns and exceptions
Compliments
Scaling
Mapping
“Miracle Question”
Task Assignments
Emphasizing small changes
Solution-Building Continued

The Miracle question:
“Suppose one night while you
were asleep, there was a miracle
and this problem that brought
you here today was solved, how
would you know? What will be
different?”
Integrating the Approaches

First session goal is to provide:

Build alliance
emotional support,
 a sense of being understood,
 Echo/match language





establish goals
unpack/deconstruct stories
Identify resources
co-create alternate view of the presenting problem
Step 1: Building a Collaborative
Alliance


Open the first session with greeting and
some relaxed time warming the members
to the immediate process.
How will the individual know if the work
about to happen is worth the time?
Step 1: Continued

Use Cognitive map (General stages previously
introduced) to guide inquiries
scaling
 miracle question




observe the influence of mental constraints
collaborate toward alternative meanings that open
possibilities
meaningful insight based on exceptions and unique
outcomes
Step 2: Dialogue about Strengths
and Resources

Strength-Based Questions

Ask “How” and “Why” questions can be used to
thicken the story.

Ask about past successes

Survival Questions

“I know things are tough now, but I’m really
interested to find something out: just how have you
(this family/system) survived? How have you kept
going even with these problems that have happened
lately?”
Step 3: Satisfying Expectations
Consultee expectations


Consultees’ expect relief based on their notion
of the concern, seldom realizing that it is their
view of the problem that contributes to its
maintenance.
Challenging Mental Constraints requires
unique outcome amplification.
Step 4: Summarize/Rituals/Letters


Compliment the system and its members
Assignments




Scaling
Prescribing “miracle work”
Slow-down technique
Reestablish rituals and create new ones
These approaches are a combination of the work of Michael White, David Epston,
Inso Kim Berg, Steve de Shazer and more. Appendix M has a list of references.