The document discusses solution-focused approaches to helping, including problem-free talk, scaling questions, and the miracle question. It explains that solution-focused approaches focus on solutions and client strengths rather than problems. Scaling questions involve having the client rate their progress on a scale and identifying what specific steps they could take to increase the number, moving solution-focused. The miracle question asks the client to imagine overnight their problem was solved and describe what would be different, diverting them to envision solutions.

1. Solution Focussed
Approaches to Helping
“The Solution Focused approach
to coaching” Cavanagh & Grant
(2010)

2. Key Ideas
 Problem free talk
 Scaling
 Miracle question
 Client is expert

3. Problem Free Talk
 Note: The mentee must be ‘ready’ to engage in
problem free talk. Attempts to rush into this can
be perceived as insensitive (CF Person Centred)
 Many helping relationships centre around
exploration of ‘the problem(s)’ as experienced by
the mentee.
 Although this can be necessary and have its
benefits in certain contexts, there are occasions
of continually revisiting the problem might be
counter-productive.
 Consider the following TA example:

4. The acronym ‘GEMS’ can serve to steer
the mentor away from problem based
talk:
 G - oals – what does the mentee want for themselves in
the future
 E - xceptions – listen out for when the mentee is
discussion an aspect of their life when the problem was
not apparent.
 M - iracle question can be used creatively (yellow hat
thinking) to divert the topic.
 S – caling can enable the mentee to refocus on the
solutions. (Destination/vision etc).
 Employing Egan’s ‘active listening’ techniques can
promote your sensory acuity towards opportunities to
introduce GEMS.

5. Links with Transactional Analysis
 The first such game theorized was Why don't you/Yes,
but in which one player (Julie) would pose a problem as
if seeking help, and the other player(s) (Claire) would
offer solutions (the "Why don't you?" suggestion). This
game was noticed as many patients played it in therapy
and psychiatry sessions, and inspired Berne to identify
other interpersonal "games".
 Julie would point out a flaw in every Claire’s solution
(the "Yes, but" response), until they all gave up in
frustration. For example, if someone's life script was "to
be hurt many times, and suffer and make others feel bad
when I die" a game of "Why Don't You, Yes But" might
proceed as follows:

6. Example:
 Julie: I wish I could lose some weight.
 Claire: Why don't you join a gym?
 Julie: Yes but, I can't afford the payments for a gym.
 Claire: Why don't you speed walk around your block after you
get home from work?
 Julie: Yes but, I don't dare walk alone in my area after dark.
 Claire: Why don't you take the stairs at work instead of the
elevator?
 Julie: Yes but, after my knee surgery, it hurts too much to walk
that many flights of stairs.
 Claire: Why don't you change your diet?
 Julie: Yes but, my stomach is sensitive and I can tolerate only
certain foods.

7. Founders
 (1934 – 2007) Co-Founder of SFBT
 Brief Family Therapy Center (BFTC) in
Milwaukee
 Insoo Kim Berg - Family Therapy
 And, Steve DeShazer.

8. Scaling Questions
 Steve De Shazer (1940 -2005)
 Co-founder of the solution focussed
approach with Insoo Kim Berg.
 After asking a client “what is better since
last time?” The client said “I’m nearly a 10
now”.
 Hence, numbers used to understand
development

9. Benefits
 Easy to use
 Focus on change
 Focus on clients phenomenological
existence (Like Person Centred)
 Broad application

10. Scaling… ‘Steps’
1. Explain the scale

11. Alternative scales:

12. Where are we now?
2. The current position

13. Like a jigsaw…
3. Establish a platform:
Find out what has
already worked.

14. Vision
 Visualise a higher
position; describe
how things will look.

15. Success and Strengths
5. Identify earlier
success – what
happened?

16. Small steps
6. Step forward – Ask
the client what small
steps they could take

17. Types of Scale
 Success scale
 Motivational scale
 Confidence scale
 Independence scale

18. Conclusion
 Being a cognitively flexible mentor might mean
that at times you have cause to employ solution
focussed techniques. This might be when:
 Discussions of the problem are creating
stagnation and or frustration.
 The mentee is in a contemplative stage of
considering the benefits of change.
 You are being motivational (interviewing).
 You are empowering the mentee to employ
divergent thinking and offer their own solutions
that are more likely to succeed than mentor led
solutions.