Heroic Client : A Revolutionary Way to Improve Effectiveness Through Client-directed, Outcome-informed Therapy (9781118046623) by Duncan Barry L.; Miller Scott D.; Sparks Jacqueline A. & Miller Scott D. & Sparks Jacqueline A

Author:Duncan, Barry L.; Miller, Scott D.; Sparks, Jacqueline A. & Miller, Scott D. & Sparks, Jacqueline A.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
Published: 2011-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

Conversation, Content, and Change

We prefer calling what we do with clients conversing, or conversation rather than interviewing (Goolishian & Anderson, 1987). Interviewing implies something done to clients rather than with them, and it connotes an expert gathering information for evaluative purposes (e.g., diagnostic or mental status interview, matching characteristics). Conversation, on the other hand, enlists clients in the discovery of possibility, defining therapy as an intimately interpersonal event committed to the client’s goals. One way of looking at the conversation is to examine the content of the topics discussed.

Recall that Held (1991) defines the content of the conversation on either formal or informal theoretical levels. Formal theory consists of either general notions regarding the cause of problems (e.g., symptoms result from faulty thinking) or specific explanations (e.g., overgeneralization), which must be addressed to solve problems. The therapist recasts clients’ complaints into these preconceived contents, compelling therapy down well-trodden paths cut from the formal theory. If the therapist sees a client’s complaint of anxiety, for example, as caused by faulty thinking, then therapy will examine and correct the faulty thinking. The formal theory of the therapist enjoys a privileged position over the client’s views, and it structures problem definition as well as outcome criteria.

Informal theory, on the other hand, involves the specific notions that clients hold about the causes of their particular situations. As discussed in Chapter Three, we also include the client’s specific views about how change can occur. Rather than recasting the client’s personal views into the therapist’s formal theory, we calibrate applicable theories to the client’s beliefs. Each client, therefore, presents the therapist with a new theory to discover and a different solution path to follow.

Therapist allegiance to any particular theoretical content involves a trade-off that enables and restricts options. Theoretical loyalty provides clear direction but is inherently limiting; theoretical anarchy enables flexibility but also inserts uncertainty. Although all therapists have preferences, there are no fixed and correct ideas or methods that run across the situations that clients bring to therapy and therefore no inherently right ways to conduct therapy. As mind-boggling as it sounds and as frightening as it feels, such a view opens unlimited possibilities for change. The only caveat is that any selected idea must produce benefit.

It is this indeterminacy that gives therapy its texture and infuses it with the excitement of discovery. Given this indeterminacy, a purpose of the conversation is to make explicit the client’s perspectives specifically related to change. Spotlighting the client’s ideas requires a focused effort to follow the client’s lead regarding the conversation’s content.

Therapy begins by inviting clients to tell their stories: “What brings you here today?” In the course of telling their stories, clients express their philosophies of life—their reasons for living or not wanting to. Clients reveal the heroes, heroines, villains, and plot lines as they share the comedies, tragedies, and triumphs of their lives. This adventure story sets the content parameters of the therapist’s questions. The therapist converses in the client’s language because the words the client

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.