De Jong, P. & Berg, I.K. (2013). Interviewing for Solutions (4th ed.) (PART I: pp.13 – 19; PART II: pp. 59 – 65; PART III: pp. 109 – 113; PART IV: pp. 368 – 369). Brooks/Cole.
The most useful way to decide which door can be opened to get to a solution is by a description of what the client will be doing differently and/or of sorts of things will be happening that are different when the problem is solved and thus creating the expectation of beneficial change.
(de Shazer, 1985, p.46)
The following presents an overview of solution-building procedures, to show how different they are from problem-solving procedures. . .
A Second Interview with Rosie
Chapter 1 presented an interview in which Peter’s colleague Cheryl role-played a 23 year-old client of hers named Rosie. We saw that, in attempting to help Rosie, Cheryl’s students, asked a number of problem-solving questions. In contrast to her students, Cheryl herself had asked several solution-focused questions in her work with Rosie. To introduce you to the uniqueness of solution building, excerpts from Cheryl’s first interview with Rosie follow.
CHERYL: How can I be of assistance?
ROSIE: Well, I’ve got some big problems. First thing - I’m pregnant again. I already have two babies, two little girls who are 3 and 2 [years old], and I have two boys who are in school. I’m going crazy with all I have to do, and I’m afraid that my two boys are gonna be put in a foster home again because I have trouble getting them to school in the morning. They don’t wanna get up in the morning. They just wanna lay around and watch TV. They say school won’t do them any good, and they can make more delivering goods for their uncles.
CHERYL: “Delivering goods”?
ROSIE: Yeah, drugs I think. I tell them that is no good and they’re gonna get into trouble, but they don’t listen to me. I feel better when they’re in school, because at least then they can’t be with Lamar and Brian [the uncles]. But they won’t get up and I’m so tired because I’m pregnant again.
CHERYL: [empathically] Wow, I can see you really have your hands full. Handling four kids by yourself is really tough to start with, but to be pregnant on top of all that…
ROSIE: Yeah, it is, and I don’t want my boys to be taken away again. But they fight me on school, and I’m so tired with everything I have to do and being pregnant.
Rosie continued to give details about her problems, including information about her involvement in prostitution to supplement welfare payments for basic needs and her pregnancy, which may have resulted from unprotected intercourse with a client. Cheryl then moved on to a different area:
CHERYL: So you have several big problems - getting your boys to school, getting enough money, being pregnant and very tired. Let me ask you a different kind of question about these. It’s called the miracle question. [pause] Suppose that you go to bed as usual tonight and, while you are sleeping, a miracle happens. The miracle is that the problems you’ve been telling me about are solved! Only you’re sleeping, and so you do not know right away that they’ve been solved. What do you suppose you would notice tomorrow morning that would be different - that would tell you, wow, things are really better!
ROSIE: [smiling] That’s easy; I would have won the lottery - $3 million.
CHERYL: That would be great wouldn’t it? What else would you notice?
ROSIE: Some nice man would come along who has lots of money and lots of patience with kids, and we’d get married. Or I wouldn’t have so many kids and I would finish high school and I would have a good job.
CHERYL: OK, that sounds like a big miracle. What do you imagine would be the first thing that you would notice which would tell you that this day is different, it’s better - a miracle must have happened?
ROSIE: Well, I would get up in the morning before my kids do, make them breakfast, and sit down with them while we all eat together.
CHERYL: If you were to decide to do that - get up before them and make them breakfast - what would they do?
ROSIE: I think maybe they would come and sit down at the table instead of going and turning on the TV.
CHERYL: And how would that be for you?
ROSIE: I’d be happier because we could talk about nice things, not argue over TV. And my babies won’t start crying over all the fighting about the TV.
CHERYL: What else? What else will be different when the miracle happens?
Rosie and Cheryl went on to explore and develop other parts of Rosie’s miracle picture. Cheryl then moved on to questions about a related topic:
CHERYL: Rosie, I’m impressed. You have a pretty clear picture of how things will be different around your house when things are better. Are there times already, say in the last two weeks, which are like the miracle which you have been describing, even a little bit?
ROSIE: Well, I’m not sure. Well, about four days ago it was better.
CHERYL: Tell me about four days ago. What was different?
ROSIE: Well, I went to bed about 10:00 the night before and had a good night of sleep. I had food in the house, because I had gone to the store and to the food pantry on Saturday. I had even set the alarm for 6:30 and got up when it rang. I made breakfast and called the kids. The boys ate and got ready for school and left on time. [remembering] One even got some homework out of his backpack and did it - real quick - before he went to school.
CHERYL: [Impressed] Rosie, that sounds like a big part of the miracle right there. I’m amazed. How did all that happen?
ROSIE: I’m not sure. I guess one thing was I had the food in the house and I got to bed on time.
CHERYL: So, how did you make that happen?
ROSIE: Ah, I decided not to see any clients that night and I read books to my kids for an hour.
CHERYL: How did you manage that, reading to four kids? That seems like it would be really tough.
ROSIE: No, that doesn’t work - reading to four kids at the same time. I have my oldest boy read to one baby, because that’s the only way I can get him to practice his reading, and I read to my other boy and baby.
CHERYL: Rosie, that seems like a great idea - having him read to the baby. It helps you, and it helps him with his reading. How do you get him to do that?
ROSIE: Oh, I let him stay up a half hour later than the others because he helps me. He really likes that.
Cheryl continued to explore, in detail, what was different about the day that resembled Rosie’s miracle and how it happened - especially what Rosie did to make it happen. Then Cheryl asked some scaling questions in order to better understand how Rosie viewed herself in relation to her problems:
CHERYL: I’d like you to put some things on a scale for me, on a scale from 0 to 10. First, on a scale from 0 through 10, where 0 equals the worst your problems have been and 10 means the problems we have been talking about are solved, where are you today on that scale?
ROSIE: If you had asked me that question before we started today, I would have said about a 2. But now I think it’s more like a 5.
CHERYL: Great! Now let me ask you about how confident you are that you can have another day in the next week like the one four days ago - the one which was a lot like your miracle picture. On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 equals no confidence and 10 means you have every confidence, how confident are you that you can make it happen again?
ROSIE: Oh, about a 5.
CHERYL: Suppose you were at a 6; what would be different?
ROSIE: I’d have to be sure that I always had food in the house for breakfast for the kids.
Cheryl continued to explore with Rosie what else Rosie could do to increase the chances of her miracle happening in the future. She ended this first interview with some final feedback for Rosie, which included pointing out to Rosie what she was already doing to make her miracle happen and suggesting that she do some of the additional things that might make miracle-type days more likely to occur.
Solution-Building Interviewing Activities
The questions that Cheryl asked Rosie were intended to assist her in building solutions to her problems. While there is more to the solution-building approach than its interviewing questions, these questions go a long way toward identifying the uniqueness of the approach.
Solution-building interviews are organized, in large part, around two useful activities (De Jong & Miller, 1995). The first is the development of well-formed goals within the client’s frame of reference; the second is the development of solutions based upon exceptions (de Shazer, 1985). After clients have had an opportunity to describe what in their lives they would like to see changed as a result of meeting with the practitioner, solution building moves on to these two activities.
There are several characteristics of well-formed goals. Among other things, well-formed goals are important to the client, small and concrete, and represent the beginning of something different rather than the end. (See Chapter 5 for more details.) Many of the questions that Cheryl asked were intended to help Rosie develop a sharper vision of what her life would be like when her problems were less serious. Thus, Cheryl asked Rosie the miracle question and related questions to assist her in developing a detailed and vivid picture of a more satisfying life, especially in those areas where she was having problems. With the aid of the questions, Rosie was able to work her way to the point of describing several concrete things that both she and her children might be doing and feeling differently when her problems were solved.
The second solution-building activity that Cheryl used was exploring for exceptions. Exceptions are those occasions in clients’ lives when their problems could have occurred but did not - or at least were less severe. In solution building, the practitioner focuses on the who, what, when, and where of exception times in clients’ lives, instead of the who, what, when, where, and why of problems. In Rosie’s case, Cheryl opened up the exploration for exceptions by asking, “Are there times already, say in the last two weeks, which are like the miracle which you have been describing, even a little bit?” Since Rosie was able to identify a specific day that was better, Cheryl went to work exploring, in detail, what was different about the day and what Rosie did that made the day better. The exploration revealed that Rosie already had successes and strengths to her credit; seeing those successes and strengths made her more hopeful that her life could improve.
Solution-building practitioners use information about exceptions to help clients devise strategies that solve or reduce their problems. Ideally, client exceptions should be related to client goals. That is why Cheryl chose to work on well-formed goals before asking about exceptions.
The Stages of Solution Building
Cheryl’s work with Rosie reflects the solution-building paradigm discussed in Chapter 1. In particular, it is consistent with de Shazer’s observation that clients can usually build solutions to their problems without either clients or practitioners assessing or understanding the nature of the problems. Given this view of problems and solutions, the structure of solution building differs markedly from that of problem solving. The basic stages of solution building are as follows.
Describing the Problem
This step resembles the first step of problem solving in that clients are given an opportunity to describe their problems. We ask, “How can we be useful to you?” Clients generally respond by describing a problem of some sort, and we ask for some details. In solution building, however, we spend much less time and effort here than in the problem-solving approach. We ask for fewer details about the nature and severity of client problems, and we do not ask about their possible causes. Instead, we listen respectfully to clients’ problem talk and think about ways to turn the conversation toward the next step, which initiates solution talk.
Developing Well-Formed Goals
Here, we work with our clients to elicit descriptions of what will be different in their lives when their problems are solved. We do this work at the point where a practitioner who follows the problem-solving approach would be doing assessment.
Exploring for Exceptions
At this stage, we ask about those times in clients’ lives when their problems are not happening or are less severe. We also ask about who did what to make the exceptions happen. This step substitutes for intervention planning in the problem-solving approach.
End-of-Session Feedback
At the end of each solution-building conversation, we construct messages for our clients that include compliments and usually some suggestions. The compliments emphasize what clients are already doing that is useful in solving their problems. The suggestions identify what clients could observe or do to further solve their problems. The feedback is based upon information that clients have revealed to us in the conversations about well-formed goals and exceptions. It always focuses on what the clients, given their frames of reference, need to do more of and do differently in order to enhance their chances of success in meeting their goals. We construct and give feedback at the point where problem-solving practitioners would be doing the interventions indicated by their prior assessments.
Evaluating Client Progress
In solution building, we regularly evaluate with our clients how they are doing in reaching solutions satisfactory to them. Customarily, this is done by scaling - by asking clients to rate progress on a scale of 0 to 10. Once client progress has been scaled, we work with clients to examine what still needs to be done before they feel that their problems have been adequately solved and they are ready to terminate services.
Unlike the problem-solving approach, solution building does not so much have an engagement step at the beginning and a termination step at the end of the helping process, as it continuously works at engagement and monitors client progress during each session. These additional differences from problem solving will be discussed and illustrated in later chapters.
The Client as Expert
1. As Chapter 1 explains, in the past the helping professions largely committed themselves to working with their clients through the application of scientific expertise - accumulated scientific knowledge about problems and solutions. One consequence of this is that, wittingly or unwittingly, the helping professions have encouraged practitioners to believe and act as though their perceptions about their clients’ problems and solutions are more important to the helping process than are the clients’ perceptions. In fact, the professional literature teaches that clients’ perceptions often get in the way of professional practice because they are the source of client resistance, which practitioners must work hard to overcome.
In solution building, by contrast, we insist that clients are the experts about their own lives. We rely on their frames of reference in three ways to move the process of solution building along.
- We ask them what they would like to see changed in their lives; they customarily answer with a description of their problems. We accept these client definitions of problems and the words (categories) that clients use to describe them.
- We interview clients about what will be different in their lives when their problems are solved. We listen carefully for, and work hard to respect, the directions in which clients want to go with their lives (their goals) and the words they use to express these directions.
- We ask clients about their perceptions of exceptions to their problems. We respect these perceptions as evidence of clients’ inner resources (strengths) and as sources of information about useful outer resources that exist in the contexts in which they live.
Consequently, in all of this work, we do not view ourselves as expert at scientifically assessing client problems and then intervening. Instead, we strive to be expert at exploring clients’ frames of reference and identifying those perceptions that clients can use to create more satisfying lives.
By drawing on clients’ frames of reference in these ways, we find that client resistance ceases to be a concern (De Jong & Berg, 2001; de Shazer, 1984). We also find that we can work equally well with diverse clients and with a wide variety of problems.
Tell me, and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I will understandNative American Saying
This chapter focuses on how to get started with clients. We limit our discussion to the conversation between a practitioner and a client. We have chosen not to discuss here how the intake information forms that many agencies ask new clients to complete can be designed along solution-building lines. We delay that topic until Chapter 13, where we address how agency forms and documentation become transformed when the practice with clients shifts to solution building.
When You First Meet Your Client
Names, Introductions and Listening for Hints of Possibility
You would rarely meet a client for the first time without having at least some information about the client and his or her concerns. Typically, you would get a completed intake form or some referral information before seeing a client. That information minimally would include the client’s name and some data about the client’s family, school, and work contexts. Different practitioners use that information in different ways. We think it is important to use it in ways that set a tone of respect and empowerment right from the beginning, including looking for and building on client competency.
When introducing ourselves to clients, we ask them how they would like to be addressed. We also tell them that we would be comfortable being called Insoo or Peter. We think it is a good idea in the beginning to ask some questions about how clients spend most of their workday time. While some practitioners view such questions mainly as icebreakers that make it easier for the client and practitioner to get started together, we have found that they begin to uncover useful solution-building information. In answering these questions, clients often begin to reveal what and who are important to them, as well as some areas of strength. Following is an example of how Peter began with a client we will call Christine.
Peter: Hello. Welcome. [motioning toward one of the empty chairs] Please take a seat over here.
Christine: Thanks.
Peter: [looking at the intake form in his hand] I see from what you wrote down here that your name is Christine Williams. To start out with, what would you like me to call you? Christine? Ms. Williams? Something else?
Christine: Well, my friends call me Christi. I like that.
Peter: OK. And I’d be comfortable if you would call me Peter. Is that OK with you?
Christine: Yeah, I think I could do that.
Peter: OK, that’s settled for now anyway. We can make changes on it later if we decide we want to. So, Christi, tell me, how do you like to spend your time?
Christine: Ah, well, a lot of my time goes to my college classes, but right now that is not what I enjoy doing. I like to travel, going to different places. I like to socialize. I like to read. [an embarrassed laugh] I like pleasure reading not the reading for my courses right now. And I like the outdoors, biking and playing tennis. Mostly, right now, I like to socialize.
Peter: Socialize? You mean with friends?
Christine: Yeah, both with friends and my family. Right now, I’m spending a lot of time with my friends, maybe too much.
Peter: So you like to talk with people. Is that something you are good at?
Christine: [laughs] Yeah, people like to talk to me, both about fun things and their problems. They seem to want to come to me and discuss what’s bothering them. I try to help them.
Peter: Is that right?
Christine: Yeah, I don’t put them down for their problems, and I think I’m a pretty good problem solver.
Peter: Is that right? Do they tell you that?
Christine: [smiling] Yeah, they do. They thank me too. I guess that’s a main reason that I want to be a social worker.
Peter: Yeah. Already I can begin to understand what you say. You seem to have a real cheerful and easy way about you. I can see that you would be easy to talk to.
Christine: Thanks, but that’s part of the reason I’m here; I’m spending too much time with other people and not enough with my school work; that’s what I really want to talk about.
Peter’s interview with Christi occurred in a professional setting. Sometimes, however, you might find yourself interviewing clients in their homes. Insoo has written about how to get started with clients in this setting (Berg, 1994, pp. 22-23). She suggests that, once invited inside a client’s home, the practitioner can take notice of something nice or attractive or something into which the client has clearly put a lot of effort. The practitioner can also ask questions about family pictures that he or she sees. Such observations and questions put the client into the role of expert and, at the same time, demonstrate respect for the client and uncover and amplify client interests and strengths. Often, meeting clients where they live makes it easier to begin work because the items on display will reflect what interests the clients and the practitioner can immediately begin to ask questions about those items. Usually, clients are also more relaxed, because they are in a familiar place.
Clarifying How You Work
Before you get too deeply into the client’s concerns, it is a good idea to clarify how you prefer to organize your work-sessions with clients and to check out if that organization is acceptable. Adopting the approach developed at BFTC (de Shazer et al., 1986), we have found it useful to organize sessions by first interviewing clients about their concerns, goals, exceptions, and strengths. Once this information has been gathered, we like to take a 10 minute break, so as to formulate some end-of-session feedback based upon the information obtained. Sometimes we work with a team (with the prior permission of the clients). The team observes the interview through a one-way mirror and can help in developing the feedback. More often we work alone, and the break time allows us to collect our thoughts and decide what feedback would be most useful to the clients in building a solution. In either case, we regularly inform the clients how we prefer to work.
Peter: Before we get into your concern, let me tell you how I like to work and see if that is OK with you. What I’d like to do today is talk with you for about 30-40 minutes and then take a 10 minute break to think about what you told me. During the break, if you want, you can get something to drink from the waiting area or you can stay here if you prefer. After 10 minutes or so, I’ll be back with some feedback and possibly a suggestion or two for you. Is that OK?
Christine: Sure, that’s fine.
Clients are very accepting of how we wish to proceed. We will discuss the advantages of this approach in a later chapter.
Problem Description
Asking for Client Perceptions and Respecting Client Language
To work within the client’s frame of reference, you must assume a posture of not knowing. You must ask for, listen to, and affirm the client’s perceptions. As you do so, take note of the words the client uses.
At this stage; it is especially tempting for practitioners to listen to clients with the ears of an expert. The helping professions, with their emphasis on problem solving, have all generated elaborate categorizations of possible client problems. Once educated in these, we can easily apply them and lose our focus on exploring the client’s frame of reference. In the following dialogue, Peter works at taking a posture of not knowing in exploring Christi’s concern.
Peter: So, how were you hoping I could help you? You said earlier that you came here today because you are spending too much time with other people and not enough with your school work.
Christine: Well, ah, I have this disease that a lot of people tend to get in their fourth year of college - senioritis. That’s what I have.
Peter: What tells you that you have senioritis?
Christine: Um, I can see the change from my past three years. In this year I’m just not motivated. I’m interested in my classes this year because they are my major classes, but it’s like I’m tired and bored with the whole study process. So that’s how it is; I’m just tired of it.
Peter: Mm hmm.
Christine: Like, last year when I had a test or a paper like, I would get really, really stressed out and devote all of my time to studying, or reading, or being on top of things. This year I don’t get stressed out. It’s not like I don’t study but…but I don’t study as much…I guess I just don’t care as much.
Peter: Uh, does that pretty much say it, or is there more? Is senioritis - your getting bored, not being motivated, not studying as much – or is there more?
Christine: [slowly] I guess that’s about it.
What is the Client’s Understanding of How the Problem Affects the Client?
It is tempting to assume you know what the client’s perceptions and experiences mean to the client. In the dialogue with Christi, it would be easy for Peter to assume that senioritis is a problem for her because she is studying less and getting poorer results and so she wishes that she were working as hard as she did last year. However, it is important to always go the next step and make sure the client tells you how this problem is a problem for him or her. Peter got some unexpected and important information when, instead of making assumptions, he asked further questions:
Peter: So, how is your senioritis a problem for you? [checking out his assumption that Christi is probably doing worse] By the way, are you doing worse in school this year or better?
CHRISTI: [laughing] That’s what’s weird; I’m doing the same. I can’t figure it out. But it’s not like I don’t study at all; it’s more like I’m not as into it as I used to be.
Peter: Yeah, that confuses me too. In what sense, then, is this a problem for you?
CHRISTI: Well, just because I feel guilty that I’m not stressed out about this - because, like, I’m getting this expensive education and I should be putting in as much time and getting as much out of this as I can. And I think last year I really did, and this year I’m just trying to get by or whatever.
Peter: So, part of what you would like to have different as a result of our talking is for you to get more out of this education?
CHRISTI: [hesitating] Well, yeah. Well, maybe I’d just like to maybe make the guilt go away
Peter: Well, ah, what’s more important? Is it more important to make the guilt go away or is it more important to get more out of the education?
Peter: I think they are combined because, if I get more out of the education, then I think I won’t be feeling guilty feelings.
Peter: Is there anything else that you can tell me that you would like to get out of coming here, besides what you already told me?
Christine: Um, no.
In addition to checking his assumptions, Peter’s questions served a second purpose. They gave Christi a chance to reflect carefully on her perceptions – at this point, perceptions about how her problem affects her.
Client perceptions about anything are more or less fluid and shifting. Given time and not-knowing questions, clients regularly reflect, explore, rethink, struggle to put their thoughts into words, and sometimes shift their perceptions.
For example, Christi seems to have shifted or expanded her sense of her problem from lowered motivation for her studies to guilt. She feels guilty because she is not “getting as much out of this as I can” and because of the cost of college. (Later in the interview, she reported that her parents are paying for much of her tuition.)
Peter did not cause Christi’s shift in the perception and definition of her problem by the interviewing techniques he used. Rather, we believe, her perception shifted as a result of the interaction between the two of them and carefully grounding on the understandings they were putting in place between them. Many clients seek help with problems or complaints that are poorly articulated. It is useful to them and clarifying for us to interact around the meaning of their problems. Peter’s part in the interaction with Christi was to engage her in a conversation about how senioritis was a problem for her; his questions were an invitation to interact around the meaning of her problem. Her part was to accept the invitation and work to put her sense of senioritis into words. Their interaction led her to expand or reshape her definition of senioritis.
What Has the Client Tried So Far That Has Been Useful?
It is a good idea to ask clients what they have tried so far to solve their problems. Clients usually have taken some steps to redress their problems, and these attempts generally have been more or less successful. Asking the question sends the message that we think that clients are competent; that is, they have the capacity to make some good things happen. Clients sometimes can tell us in concrete terms what they have done to try to make a difference. By adopting the posture of not knowing, we can learn about their successes and the strengths that they used to make the successes happen. Sometimes, clients describe a few things they have tried but indicate that nothing has worked very well. At other times, they say nothing has worked and they are at the end of their rope. Christi fell somewhere between the extremes.
Peter: Have you tried anything to cure yourself of this disease?
Christine: Yeah, yeah. I don’t really go to the library a lot anymore. Like, last year I used to go to the library every night, and this year I go maybe once a week. But I try to study in different places.
Peter: Is that helpful - to study in different places?
Christine: Yeah, yeah, it is. I don’t, like, try and say that I’m going to study, like, six hours tonight. Instead, if I feel like reading, I’ll read, but if I don’t, I don’t make myself.
Peter: And if you don’t make yourself, what’s different?
Christine: Well, I don’t study.
Peter: Mm hmm, and does that help with the disease?
Christine: Yeah, because before, when I didn’t feel like studying, I would make myself, even though I didn’t like it. But now, I just don’t.
Peter: Hmm, and you’re doing about as well as you did last year. [she nods her head] So, I’m wondering again, how is this a problem for you?
Christine: I guess because of the guilt I’d like the guilt to go away…I guess I really haven’t done anything to make the guilt go away… Maybe I could study more, but I don’t feel like it.
Peter: Is there anything else you’ve tried?
Christine: Uh, I can’t think of anything else. I really should do something about this.
The dialogue had come full circle. Although Christi said that she had tried studying in different places, she was unable to identify how this was helpful. If she had, Peter would have spent time exploring this as a success and asking where she got the idea to do this and how she went about making it happen. Instead, having come back to the guilt and having heard there was nothing else that she’d tried, Peter chose to move on.
What is Most Important for the Client to Work on First?
We sometimes encounter clients who, when asked, lay out problem after problem, until our heads are spinning. Usually this problem description is mixed in with theories about where the problems come from and how they are interconnected. Clients can feel overwhelmed. With such clients, there are several things a practitioner can do. We usually acknowledge how difficult things seem to the client and then simply ask, “Which of these is the most important to work on first?” When the client gives an answer - and practically all do - we follow up by asking, “What is happening in your life that tells you it’s important to work on that first?” These questions illustrate again how solution building both works with client perceptions and respects client self-determination.
When I focus on what’s good today, I have a good day and when I focus on what is bad, I have a bad day. If I focus on a problem, the problem increases; if I focus on the answer the answer increases.
(Alcoholics Anonymous, 1976, p. 451)
Chapter 5 began by discussing the process of planning a trip as a metaphor for the solution building process. Both processes involve two main steps. First, both the would-be traveler and the client must decide on a destination. To do so, the traveler gathers more information about what is there at each of several possible destinations, whereas the client generates ever more concrete and detailed descriptions of what will be different in his or her life when the miracle happens. Second, once a sense of destination begins to develop, both traveler and client must think about how best to get there. The traveler considers the pros and cons of different modes of transportation, whereas the solution-building client does so by exploring exceptions, the subject of this chapter.
Exceptions
Definition
As noted in Chapter 3, when we first meet with our clients, they tend to be very problem-focused. They have done a whole lot of thinking about those things in their lives that they wish were not happening and can usually describe them in great detail. For example, suppose that you have a client called Joy, whose problem is her disobedient children. Joy can describe what her children do when they are disobedient (“they sass me and refuse to do what I ask”); can indicate the times this happens (“whenever I ask them to do their chores”); is able to state who is involved (“all three of them do it, but my oldest, Ken, is the worst”); can describe where the problem happens (“anyplace we happen to be together”); and is able to indicate when the problem is most severe (“it’s worst when they want to watch TV or a friend is over”). Such problem descriptions can be helpful, because they allow clients to vent their frustrations and unhappiness, thereby offering some relief. They can also provide a preliminary idea of how dangerous a situation might be for the participants involved. However, we have not found that problem descriptions are a useful resource for building solutions. Descriptions of exceptions are more useful for that purpose.
Exceptions are those past experiences in a client’s life when the problem might reasonably have been expected to occur but somehow did not (de Shazer, 1985). For example, returning to Joy, an exception would be anytime Ken obeyed her order and did the dishes without sassing.
Exceptions may be a matter of lesser degree. Ken may never have done all the dishes without any sassing, but there might have been a time in the recent past when, after 5 minutes of talking back to his mother, he did some of them.
Interviewing for Exceptions
As a solution-focused interviewer, you will quickly learn that there are several identifiable parts to the exploration of exceptions. The first is to find out from your client whether he or she is aware of any exceptions. You might ask “Have there been times in the last couple of weeks when the problem did not happen or, at least, was less severe?” If the client cannot answer that question, you could ask: “Suppose I asked your best friend whether you had any better days recently. What would your best friend say?”
Notice that these questions ask for exceptions in the recent past. Recent exceptions are most useful to clients because clients can remember recent experiences in greater detail, and because the experiences just happened it is all the more plausible they could happen again.
Once your client has identified an exception, you should ask for details. In doing so, pay special attention to the ways in which this exception time was different from the problem times. Whereas a problem-focused interviewer would explore the who, what, when, and where of client problems, you should be interested in exploring the who, what, when, and where of exception times.
As with questions designed to elicit well-formed goals, clients may struggle to answer exception questions, but will find them intriguing and do their best to answer them.
In listening to a client’s answers to exception questions, notice what is different between the exception and problem times. It is important to paraphrase, summarize, and ground such differences for clients because they are part of the raw material for solution building.
Deliberate and Random Exceptions
When clients have done what they can to describe their exceptions, you can proceed to explore how the exceptions may have happened. To find out about the “how” of an exception, you inquire who did what to make the exception happen. Sometimes a client is able to describe how an exception happened. For instance, Joy, when asked how it happened that Ken did the dishes once last week without sassing her, might tell you that she had decided to wait until after he had eaten supper and was in a better mood before reminding him it was his turn to do the dishes. If she agrees that this shift in her behavior may have made the difference, you will have uncovered what de Shazer (1985) calls a deliberate exception. If, on the other hand, Joy had responded to your questions about Ken’s behavior by shrugging her shoulders and saying, “I don’t know. Lightning must have struck him,” you would regard Ken’s doing the dishes as a random exception from Joy’s point of view.
It is important to develop a keen awareness of whether a client is describing deliberate or random exceptions. This distinction plays a key role in determining what feedback is given to the client at the end of a solution-building session, as presented in Chapter 7.
Ah Yan’s Exceptions
Let us return to the case of Ah Yan to see how Peter explored exceptions with her. Ah Yan wanted help with her panicky feelings. When Peter asked the miracle question, she was able to begin describing some things that she, her husband, and her children might be doing differently after her problem had been solved. At that point, Peter turned to some exception exploration:
Peter: Ah Yan, are there times, in the last month or so, which are something like the miracle picture you just described?
Ah Yan: Yeah, there are times when I feel real good. I’m OK, like everything is gone.
Peter: When was the last time you felt real good?
Ah Yan: I don’t know, maybe one day three weeks ago.
Peter: What was different about that day?
Ah Yan: I felt real good. It’s like - I can breathe better, no shakes, no worry…I’m happy.
Peter: Really, you were happy, no shakes! That must have felt great! How did that happen?
Ah Yan: [pause] I don’t know.
Peter: If your husband was here and I was to ask him what he noticed you doing different that day, what would he say?
Ah Yan: He tells me to sit down, stop doing housework, to eat right.
Peter: Is he right? Do those things help?
Ah Yan: I can’t just sit there and watch my kids make a mess. I have to…people come and the house is a mess.
Peter: What about eating right?
Ah Yan: Yeah, I have to do that - fruit instead of cookies and candy. My sister-in-law says the same.
Peter: What else does she say?
Ah Yan: To eat right every morning. Mostly I don’t and my stomach is upset. She says to walk and exercise and take a deep breath when it’s bad.
Peter: And do those things help? Do you do more of those things on a real good day?
Ah Yan: Ah, maybe…I don’t know. I can’t figure it out - what’s wrong with me. I don’t know what to do. I got all these feelings…I gotta figure out what’s wrong with me.
This dialogue gives some useful information about how far Ah Yan has come with her solution building. She is clear that there are exception times in her life. She says these are days when she feels real good. She can also give some description about how they are different than her problem days: “I can breathe better, no shakes, no worry…I’m happier.” When Peter followed up, however, she could not give a more detailed description of these exception days, nor was she able to answer when he asked about how they happened. At this point in their conversation, she was experiencing random exceptions rather than deliberate exceptions. Because she was unable to describe step by step how her real good days happen - much less what she might have done to make them happen - she didn’t have a sense of control over her panicky feelings. In her frustration, at the end of this interchange, she returned to her original frame of having to “figure out what’s wrong with me.”
In this first session with Ah Yan, Peter chose to explore exceptions after he had asked the miracle question and its follow-up questions. You do not have to do it this way, but there are some good reasons for following his example. First, clients beginning work with practitioners are rarely aware of their exceptions, because they are focused on describing their problems. Asking exception-finding questions at that point can seem jarring. However, once a client has been able to give a concrete description of what life will be like when the miracle happens, as Ah Yan did, it is very natural for the practitioner to move on to exception exploration. Second, this sequence makes it more probable that the client will give exceptions directly related to the miracle - that is, to the amplified version of what the client might like to have different in his or her life. These are the most useful exceptions for solution building, because they are most closely related to what the client wants.
Client Successes and Strengths
By exploring exceptions you can help clients to become more aware of their current and past successes in relation to their goals (De Jong & MiIler, 1995). Whenever you and a client bring an exception to light, both of you become aware that some good things are happening in the client’s life and, consequently, you can both feel more hopeful about the client’s future. For example, when Peter and Ah Yan became aware that Ah Yan had recently had a day during which she felt real good - that is, something of a successful day - they sensed that Ah Yan, indeed, might have possibilities for a more satisfying future. Correspondingly, we have noticed that clients’ interest in solution building often picks up when they are able to identify exceptions. They frequently sit up straighter, smile more, and seem more willing to work hard.
Specific client strengths are also often uncovered during exception exploration. If a client is able to describe what he or she did to help make an exception happen, the practitioner can readily paraphrase that description and compliment some strength of the client. Let’s return to our example of Joy and the night that Ken did the dishes. When Joy relates that her contribution to that exception was that she decided to wait until after he had eaten supper and was in a better mood before reminding him to do them, you could then point out and compliment some of her strengths in a variety of ways. You might ask, “Was that new for you - waiting until after he had eaten and was in a better mood?” or “How did you know that waiting might be helpful?” You might comment, “You seem to know your son very well” or “You must be a mother who cares. You realize how important it is for a son to do his chores.”
Respecting the Client’s Words and Frame of Reference
Exception exploration is similar to other aspects of solution-focused interviewing in that it respects the client’s frame of reference. In exploring exceptions, an interviewer listens for a client’s words and then demonstrates respect for these words by asking the client to clarify them. When Ah Yan told Peter that she had had a real good day, he asked her what was different about that day that made it real good. Ah Yan’s words were used as the doorway to her experiences and frame of reference. Ah Yan was treated as the expert about these and their meaning, while Peter’s role was to ask the questions that would allow him to learn more about Ah Yan’s view of her world.
Client perceptions and definitions shift in the solution-building process. How can we make sense of this observation?
The theoretical perspective that, we believe, comes closest to accounting for these shifts is social constructionism (Cantwell & Holmes, 1994; Gergen, 1985, 1999; Greene & Lee, 2011; Goolishian & Anderson, 1991; Laird, 1993; Parton & O’Byrne, 2000). This perspective maintains that individuals' sense of what is real - including their sense of the nature of their problems, competencies, and possible solutions - is constructed in interaction with others as they go through life. In other words, people make meanings as they interact with others. Many authors (for example, Berger & Luckmann, 1966; Gergen, 1999; Gergen & Kaye, 1992; Hoffman, 1990; Mead, 1934) have pointed out that, as human beings, we are always trying to figure out the meaning of our experiences. “We are such inveterate meaning-makers that when we do not have an explanation for something we make one up” (Saari, 1991, p. 14). In the conversations between Ah Yan and Peter and between Insoo and the Williams family, the clients’ meaning-making tendencies showed again and again. For example, reflecting on her problem of feeling panicky, Ah Yan asked, “Why? Why is this?” She told Peter, “I gotta figure out what’s wrong with me.” She also reshaped meanings for her problems, competencies, and solutions as she conversed with others, including her husband, her sister-in-law, and Peter.
What are the theoretical implications of the observation that client perceptions and definitions (or meanings) shift over time and in interaction with others? To answer this question is an enormous undertaking, which cuts across the fields of literary interpretation, philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities. Central to any answer is an understanding of language, the means by which human beings converse. Theoretical writings are now giving more attention to the role of language in the helping or therapeutic process. For example, de Shazer (1991, 1994), de Shazer et al. (2007), Gergen (1999, 2009), and Miller (1997) work with the linguistic insights of philosophers including, Derrida, Foucault, and Wittgenstein to analyze the interrelationships among the use of language, client meanings, and solutions in the therapeutic process. Social constructionists emphasize that shifts in client perceptions and definitions occur in contexts - that is, in communities. Consequently, meaning-making is not entirely an individual matter, in which clients can come up with private meanings (including solutions) without regard to others. Instead, individuals always live in ethnic, family, national, socioeconomic, and religious contexts. They reshape meanings under the influence of the communities in which they live. In solution building, relationship questions provide a useful way in which the interviewer can explore clients’ perceptions of their contexts.
Besides emphasizing that clients must develop their individual meanings in the context of community, social constructionists draw attention to the wide diversity of communities from which clients come. Clients’ backgrounds reflect different racial groupings, ethnicities, nationalities, levels of socioeconomic status, and so forth. Individual clients will reflect the multiple realities of these communities.
What are the implications of social constructionists’ views for practitioners in the helping professions? The practitioner is a collaborative partner as clients reshape their meanings and create more satisfying and productive lives. As Goolishian and Anderson (1991, p. 7) write, working with clients becomes:
a collaborative and egalitarian process as opposed to a hierarchical and expert process. The therapist’s expertise is to be “in” conversation with the expertise of the client. The therapist now becomes the learner to be informed, rather than a technical expert who knows.
As you begin to understand the social constructionist view of definitions of reality and how people acquire these definitions, you will see how these theoretical ideas make sense of the usefulness of solution-building procedures, which encourage clients to explore their definitions of reality (e.g., problems, miracles, successes, strengths, and solutions) as they struggle to create more satisfying and productive lives.
