The idea is not to convince clients that they have solutions and competence, but to ask questions and gather information in a way that convinces you and highlights for them that they do.
- Ask clients to detail times when they haven’t experienced their problems when they expected they would.
- Exceptions to the rule of the problem
- Interruptions to the pattern
- Contexts in which the problem would not occur (e.g. work, in a restaurant, etc.)
- Find out what happens as the problem ends or starts to end
- What is the first sign the client can tell the problem is going away or subsiding?
- What has the person,s friends/family/co-workers, etc. noticed when the problem has subsided or started to subside?
- What will the person be doing when their problem has ended or subsided different from what he or she is doing when the problem is happening or present?
- Is there anything the person or significant others have noticed that helps the problem subside more quickly?
- Find evidence of choice in regard to the problem
- Determine variations in the person,s reactions or handling of the problem when it arises. Are there times when he or she is less dominated by it or have a different/better reaction to it or way of handling it than at other times?
- Have the person teach you about moments of choice within the problem pattern.
- Resurrect or highlight alternate identity stories that don,t fit with the view that the person is the problem
- Find out from the person (or from his or her intimates) about times when the person has acted in a way that pleasantly surprised them and didn,t generally fit with the view that the person is the problem.
- Get the person (or intimates) to trace back some evidence from the past that would explain how or why the person has been able to act in a way that doesn,t fit with the problem identity.
- Search for other contexts of competence
- Find out about areas in the person,s life that he or she feels good about, including hobbies, areas of specialized knowledge or well-developed skills, and what other people would say are the person,s best points.
- Find out about times when the person or someone he or she knows has faced a similar problem and resolved it in a way that he or she liked.
- Ask why the problem isn,t worse
- Compared to the worst possible state people or this person could get in, how do they explain that it isn,t that severe? This normalizes and gets things in perspective.
- Compare this situation to the worst incident and find out if it is less severe. Then track why or how.
- Get clients to teach you how to do what they do when things work
- Could they teach you or someone else how to do what works?
- Play other people in the situation and get them to coach you on how to act in a way that would produce better responses.
