Solution Focused Brief Therapy by Iveson Chris George Evan Ratner Harvey

Author:Iveson, Chris, George, Evan, Ratner, Harvey [Harvey Ratner, Evan George and Chris Iveson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781136299605
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

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When the client’s rating seems unrealistic

For example, what if a client says, in a first session, that they are at 10? This usually indicates that the client is there against their will. They don’t think they have a problem but someone else does – someone who is important or powerful enough to make the client feel obliged to attend. The client is usually hoping that the referrer will ‘leave me alone’.

In this case, it makes sense to accept and to hear the client’s views as to how come they think they are at 10, and then to explore where they think the other person, usually the referrer, would put them on the scale. After that the therapist would explore what would be a sign to that person that the client was moving forward, and therefore that they were more likely to start to ‘leave you alone’.

Sometimes, for similar reasons, a 10 rating may be given in a follow-up session. In a case where the nursery called social services after noticing bruises on a 3-year-old, the father admitted physically abusing his daughter while his wife was out of the country visiting relatives. Their three children were placed in foster care and when mother returned the father agreed to live in a hostel as the condition for the children being allowed to return home. Family work was undertaken to determine whether the father could return home, as he and his wife were requesting, even though domestic violence also came to light. In a session that included the social worker, the family centre worker (who was observing the contact meetings with the children that were allowed to the father), and both parents, everyone was asked to say where they saw things being on the scale, where ‘10 = the children and the mother are safe enough for the family to be reunited and 0 = as unsafe as things were when the children were taken into care’. The social worker said 5, the family centre worker 6, the mother 8, and the father 10. Everyone’s views were taken seriously, and all were asked what +1 would look like, including the father. At the next session, the social worker said things had now reached 6, the centre worker 7, mother 9 … and father 20! After some more sessions, father was allowed overnight and then weekend stays with his family. It was some months before he was allowed to move back home altogether.

In another case, the parents had consistently denied the extent of their drinking and their children had been accommodated by social services in a children’s home. There was then a major setback for the mother, when she disappeared from home on a drinking spree that nearly killed her. On her return she said she now knew she needed help with her drinking, although the father continued to play down the extent of his own intake. In the next session, the couple appeared looking brighter and cleaner from the therapist’s point of view

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