Editorial

Peer-reviewed papers

Self-Determination Theory Meets Solution- Focused Change: Autonomy, competence and relatedness support in action Drs. Coert Visser MMC

This article looks at the Solution-Focused approach (SF) through a Self-Determination Theory (SDT) lens. SDT is an influential macro theory of human motivation which has been applied to many life domains, including sports, education, psychotherapy and work. The theory focuses mainly on the benefits of self-determined behaviour and the conditions that promote it. Its relevance for helping professionals such as psychotherapists and counsellors has been recognised by previous authors. A counselling approach which has been associated with SDT is motivational interviewing (MI). This approach has some important similarities to SF but there are also some key differences. This article focuses on the relevance of SDT for SF and vice versa. Although the literature on SF makes only a few mentions of SDT, SF fits well with its main propositions and findings. The strategies, principles and interventions of SF have the effect of supporting the perception of autonomy, competence and relatedness of clients which, according to SDT, are keys to enhance selfdetermination. It is argued that the SDT framework and body of research are relevant for SF. They help to understand better how SF works and may be used to further refine and develop the approach. In the same way, SDT theorists and practitioners may benefit from learning about the specific and often subtle ways in which SF supports clients' autonomy.

Meaning is What is Meant --Viktor Frankl's logotherapy Mag. Sabine Indinger MOP

Viktor E. Frankl put forward a revolutionary approach to psychotherapy known as logotherapy, referring to the Greek word 'logos' for 'meaning'. The following article outlines the basic assumptions and ideas of Viktor E. Frankl's logotherapy starting with the Frankl's concept of man and his philosophy of life. Furthermore, it delivers insight into resources of the human spirit such as will to meaning, task orientation, conscience, self-transcendence, self-distancing and humour -- logotherapy's medicine chest. The article explores what 'meaning' in the context of logotherapy means and ways to discover meaning by use of improvisation, individualisation, dereflection, modification of attitudes and guideposts to meaning. In the course of this article some parallels and differences with reference to Solution-Focused thinking are mentioned as a basis for further exploration.

Working Between Two Expert Clients Julie Gregory MBA PGCE (HE)

This paper discusses how creating a temporary learning community using a Solution Focused approach (SF) can effectively engage participants from the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) community, with students of business studying in Higher Education (HE), while still satisfying the requirements for the latter group's academic assessment towards a Master's degree. Policy makers for the last three decades have increasingly introduced measures to support SME's but business owner managers frequently say they need answers to their business challenges in the context of their 'life world' and spurn HE management programmes such as MBA's. HE institutions cite the SME community as very difficult to engage yet continue to maintain institutional barriers. Some scholars say that efforts are not made in HE to align programmes with owner managers' needs. Recently entrepreneurship education has become a burgeoning field of practice and study in HE. Within this field, SF approaches are ideal for engaging both business owners and students within learning communities, and a partial account of a Master's programme that utilises SF is offered as an illustrative case. SF approaches in this educational context are then discussed as desirable by comparison with the critical literature regarding entepreneurship education.

 

Classic Paper

Introduction to 'Emotions in Solution-Focused Therapy: A Re-examination Rayya Ghul

Ihave chosen this article because it clarifies the attitude towards emotions in solution focused (SF) therapy and provides guidance on how to utilise emotions as a resource in SF conversations. It is a response to two articles which suggest that emotions are a neglected part of SF therapy (Kiser, Piercy and Lipchick, 1993, Lipchick, 1999), but it neither agrees nor disagrees with this position. Instead Miller and de Shazer challenge the wisdom of treating emotions as entities, isolated and separated from the physical and contextual elements of the person in which they are identified. As so often, they draw upon the work of Wittgenstein to elucidate their argument. I have heard many SF practitioners complain "why do we need to hear about Wittgenstein and his ideas about 'language games'? Why can't we just get on and do 'what works'? Why complicate everything?" I would argue that if you genuinely want to understand 'what works' then it is particularly important to engage with this and similar articles. Why is that? Miller and de Shazer's primary concern is the practice of SF therapy (for which we can substitute our particular SF practice) and this article is not an academic argument about whether or not emotions are real, or whether SF, brief therapy neglects emotions although these issues are explored in the article. Rather, they are undertaking an exploration of how best to talk about emotions for the purpose of SF practice. Taking the starting point as therapy as "an interchange of words" (de Shazer, 1994, p. 3), and language (which includes non-verbal elements as well as the grammatical structures) as the rich context which imbues words with meaning (ibid), the choice of Wittgenstein to provide an analytic framework is a sensible one. Miller and de Shazer provide one of the clearest explanations of Wittgenstein's stance in the section 'Therapy as Language Games' in which we are introduced to the way in which language is inseparable from daily living and our experience of what we call 'reality'. Again, this is an application of philosophy to enable us to practise SF more skilfully, rather than a dry philosophical argument. The next important part of the argument is to critique the notion of treating emotions as private, inner experiences and ignoring the contextual and performative aspects as if these were somehow separate entities. While this is not necessarily problematic in everyday language, Miller and de Shazer suggest this is a 'serious issue' for SF practitioners, because we hold an interactional, contextualised view of the person. In contrast, individual theories of the person (as separate from social, cultural and historical contexts), such as those produced by most traditional psychotherapies and psychology, require abstracted, reified notions (or 'second order constructs') to describe emotions. This reification of emotions then allows them to become a problem which needs to be solved and indeed many therapeutic practices aim to do just that. Miller and de Shazer conclude that such 'language games' are unnecessary and unhelpful to SF practice, which is 'about constructing solutions, not solving problems'. Nonetheless, emotions are still part of people's described experience and Miller and de Shazer are not suggesting that they should not be discussed within SF conversations, as is often thought the case. Their critique of Kiser et al. is that their argument conflates the individual and interactional views of emotions and is therefore unhelpful to understanding what works in SF practice. Instead they provide a detailed analysis of Wittgenstein's idea of emotions as 'rulefollowing' which, they argue, is more conducive to the use of emotions as a resource for solution-building. This is further expanded by showing how this can be done by changing the rule of 'emotion-as-cause' for behaviour, to 'emotion-as-reason' for behaviour. I encourage the reading and re-reading of this section because it provides a radical shift from a limiting to an emancipatory view of the relationship of emotion to behaviour. This freeing-up of the conversation space, they suggest, is part of the project of SF which is 'building homes for solutions'.

Emotions in Solution-Focused Therapy: A Re-examination Gale Miller and Steve de Shazer

Cases

Solution Focused Strategy Canvassing An Approach To Enabling Collective Effort In Making Strategy Happen Adie Shariff and Alison Abington
An organisation's strategy by its nature influences the conversations of tens, hundreds or the thousands of people influenced by it. The default position in strategy planning and management is a problem focus. This paper explores the application of Solutions Focus (SF) to strategy facilitation. In particular, through the example of a case study, the paper describes the use of SF 'strategy canvassing' as a way to support managers to develop and implement strategy in practical and pragmatic ways so people at all levels in the organisation are aligned in collective effort: pulling on the same rope, at the same time, and in the same direction.

The Sustainably Solution Focused Organisation Margaret Eaton, Alan Kay and Haesun Moon

The ABC Canada Life Literacy organisation demonstrates and validates one way in which solution focus (SF) can be utilised strategically to assist organisational development and growth. It shows how SF practice and behaviour in a small organisation of eight people helped enhance strategic planning and human resources. It should encourage organizations to boost their performance by using SF. After summarising the results, we show how ABC met SF through the strategic planning process, why they chose SF team coaching training (SF-TCT), what they did to plan and deliver SF-TCT, how staff responded, and how its internal application has also contributed to ABC's external relations.

Interview

Chris Iveson: Striving towards minimalism in changing scenery Mark McKergow and Carey Glass
Chris Iveson is a founder member of BRIEF. He is also a Member of the Institute of Family Therapy. He is author of 'Whose Life', which describes how systems theory and solution focus can enhance service delivery to isolated and vulnerable older people. He is also co-author with Evan George and Harvey Ratner, of 'Problem to Solution' the UK's best selling introduction to solution focused (SF) brief therapy. Chris is passionate about applying an SF approach to anything and came to coaching primar-ily because senior professionals he taught earlier in their careers began to approach BRIEF for coaching and leadership training.

Book Reviews

Nancy Kline: Time to think: Listening to ignite the human mind Dominik Godat
Chip Heath and Dan Heath: Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard Paul Z. Jackson

Appendix

Clues 1.1: How do we notice that a piece of work is using the SF approach?