Solution-Focused Counselling in Schools:
Beyond Questions
Jeff Chang, Ph.D., R.Psych.
Associate Professor
Graduate Centre for Applied Psychology
Athabasca University
Overview
Solution-focused (SF) counselling is more than
questions!
 Think about the big picture and about solutionfocused presence
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an abiding belief that that clients are already doing a
great deal of what they would like to do
 the skill to notice openings to inquire about what the
client is doing that is in line with his/her goals
 the creativity to invite clients to notice and do more of
what works.
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A bit about me
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Child and youth care worker
Therapist/psychologist
Private practitioner
Program supervisor and director
University teacher
Researcher
Books….
Chang, J. (2013) (Ed.). Creative
interventions with children: A
transtheoretical approach. Calgary:
Family Psychology Press.
Books….
Barker, P., & Chang, J. (2013)
(Ed.). Basic family therapy (6th
ed.) London: Wiley
Clinical Supervision….
I love doing clinical supervision
 After supervising about 20 Provisional
Registered Psychologists, I actually figured out
what I was doing…
 … and developed an approach to supervision,
the Contextual-Functional Metaframework for
clinical supervision
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The “Faraway Fathers” Project
Distinct family dynamics when families have to
deal with one or two weeks away/ one or two
weeks off.
 Looking for families (heterosexual couples with
children in the house) to participate.

High Conflict Divorce And Parenting
Most of my current practice is dealing with
high conflict divorce…
 Researching New Ways for Families, an
intervention for divorcing parents to prevent
high conflict parenting
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Six Background Principles
Think “Big Picture”
 Think Coherently About Your Work
 Think Relationally
 Think Developmentally
 Think Positively and Optimistically
 Think Ecologically and Systemically
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Think “Big Picture”
What keeps you going? What’s your mission
and vision?
 Discourses: The “big ideas” that operate in our
culture
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What are some of the trends and larger cultural
stories connected with them?
Think “Big Picture”
 We
are often so close to them, we cannot see
how discourses stand behind and sponsor our
ideas and beliefs – we often cannot see the
forest for the trees.
 the
primacy of competition (capitalism?);
 the preference for knowing through modernist,
western, scientific thought;
 gender roles
 the nature of childhood.
Think “Big Picture”
 We
are often so close to them, we cannot see
how discourses stand behind and sponsor our
ideas and beliefs – we often cannot see the
forest for the trees.
 the
primacy of competition (capitalism?);
 the preference for knowing through modernist,
western, scientific thought;
 gender roles
 the nature of childhood.
Childhood….
Think Coherently About Your Work
Lots of exciting new ideas in counselling
 Counselling theories and common factors
 Psychotherapy integration
 Develop a clear way of working that fits for you
personally.
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Think Coherently About Your Work

Counsellors select their theoretical orientation
based on what fit for them; it’s an aesthetic
choice
What are the models and theories that guide
your work? How do you integrate?
Think Relationally
The working alliance is more important than
technique
 Kids need connection more than therapy
 Balancing role as a teacher with the role of
facilitator or supporter

Think Relationally
 The
biggest contributor to therapeutic
outcome is the therapeutic alliance
 Emotional connection, but also,
agreement on tasks, goals, and methods
 The relationship must support the
intervention
 Take the time to privilege the child’s
perspective
 Place yourself in the position of a
Think Relationally
Use your natural style to connect with the
children who come to see you; use what works
for you.
 Be someone they enjoy coming to see; be one
of the rare people in their lives who is not
interested in telling them what to do – just be
present.
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Think of a child/youth who really connected
with you… what did you do to invite that?
Think Developmentally
Cognitive and emotional development
 “Grown-ups read things they wrote as kids”
 The family life cycle
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Think Positively and Optimistically
Not just thinking, but listening, perceiving, and
being alert to contrasts
 Thinking positively does not refer to reciting
affirmations or ignoring problems - Stuart
Smalley
 Change peters out, rather than rippling on, if
we do not listen for openings and explore them
 Noticing openings
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Think Ecologically and Systemically
Help others notice
 Help others support
 When adults say,“Fix this kid,” get them to help
you
 When possible, moving the work into the
community to assist communities to develop
supports
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Think Ecologically and Systemically
Develop protective/resilience factors
 All child/adolescent counselling is “family
therapy” in the sense that we must consider
the context in which the young person lives
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Bonus Point: Problems are Negotiable and
Change Happens In All Kinds of Ways
What is the problem or goal? Matching
intervention with what the client wants
 How do you talk about the problem? – buy-in
 My experiences: dental health and joint health:
How does change happen?
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Reflect on one successful effort to change and
one that went not so well? What contributed to
each outcome?
Five Interlocking Activities
Setting and maintaining the relational
foundation
 Listening for clients’ world view, strengths, and
preferences
 Negotiating a solvable problem or an
achievable project
 Opening meaningful experiences of difference
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Within session
 Between sessions
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Circulating these experiences of difference
The Interview
Context:
 Summer Externship at Calgary Family Therapy
Centre
 Consultation/demonstration interview
 The P family:
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Parents: Kelly (F), Krista (M), Kody (12), Kori (9),
Kamryn (5)
Violent outbursts
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Kody was in day treatment in Grade 2
More responsive to Dad than Mom
Mom had to restrain him at last session
Setting And Maintaining The Relational
Foundation
 Play
with children before you work with
them
 Be a therapeutic “uncle” or “aunt,” or…
“I Have No Idea.”
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Positioning As A Professional
Think of one professional person
(education, health, or mental health) with
whom you interacted as a child in your
growing-up years. Perhaps you were the
patient/client, or perhaps a family member
was. What did you appreciate and find
supportive? What did you not? How, and
how well, did the professional tailor his/her
approach to “where the child was at.”
Setting and Maintaining the Relational
Foundation
 The
relationship must support everything
 Who is concerned or involved with the
problem?
 Include others in a non-blameful way
 Spend lots of time connecting with
everyone, especially if the family is
polarized
 Therapeutic relationship and problem
definition/goal are interrelated – how you
talk about it matters
“I Have No Idea” – Part 2
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Listening For Clients’ World View,
Strengths, and Preferences
 Getting
to know the child apart from the
problem
 What are the parents' beliefs about this
problem? and about parenting?
 what is the child good at? How did
he/she get that way? “wonderfulness
conversations”
An Expert At…
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Video removed
Listening For Clients’ World View, Strengths,
and Preferences
Sometimes you can find something to utilize…
 The child’s experience will give you ideas about
how the child acquires skills, useful “character
traits,” good habits, etc.
 … or sometimes not…
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“Do They Give You Power?”
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Video removed
Negotiating a Solvable Problem or an Achievable
Project
 Elicit
a problem description that everyone
can buy into – at least “sort of”
 Minimize blame and create space for
respectful disagreement
 beware of clashing problem definitions/
beliefs
 child vs. parent
 parent vs. school
 therapist vs. parent
“Mad or Bad”
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Video removed
Negotiating a Solvable Problem or an Achievable
Project
Despite your best engagement strategies,
things can turn negative in a hurry.
 Miracle Question: Hypothetical solutions that
bypass the need for mutual blame
 Externalize the problem
 Naming the goal or project in a way that fits for
everyone
 “Shared sense of purpose” – the most crucial
aspect of the working alliance with families
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Opening Meaningful Experiences of Difference…
Within Session
“Inter-Viewing”
What’s different?
 Behavioral sequence:
 Emotion
 Cognition
 Behavior
 Sensation
 Interpersonal
 Past real-life exceptions may be more
accessible than hypothetical ones: “Can you
remember…?”
“When is it Different?”
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Opening Meaningful Experiences of Difference
 the
highlight package
 using drawings to elicit exceptions
 scaling drawings
 miracle drawings
 exception/new story drawings
 rehearsal in sessions
A Miracle…
A Good Time With Dad…
Interviewing for Exceptions
Divide into groups of two or three
 The interviewee thinks of a time when
he/she overcame a difficulty. It could be
large or small, your own or someone else’s
 The interviewer (who may have two heads),
from a position of undying curiosity, asks
questions like:
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Interviewing for Exceptions
The interviewer asks questions like:
 Describe what happened when you overcame
____ problem.
 What did you do?
 How did you get yourself to do that?
 What would others have noticed?
 (And if you run out of things to say) – What
else?
Circling Back….
A Hidden Exception…
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Video removed
Find, Elicit, or Create Meaningful Experiences of
Difference
Contradiction/contrasts
 Identity and preferences
 What kind of person do you want to be?
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“Big Hearted or Good Hearted”
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Video removed
“Two Pictures”
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Find, Elicit, Or Create Meaningful Experiences Of
Difference
Using numerical or visual means to track progress
 Scaling for:
 Progress
 Confidence
 Motivation
 What is different between a 3 and a 4?
 Detailed description of pattern, sequences, and
modalities
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What’s the Balance?
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Disagreeing About Progress
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Circling Back Again: Recalling Another Exception
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Video removed
Find, Elicit, or Create Meaningful Experiences of
Difference
 Connecting themes
 Eliciting a past instance: An actual
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Macro-description
Skimming the surface
of exceptions and
joining them
Developing an
attributional
description
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Micro-description
Detailed sequential
description of:
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Actions
Thoughts
Emotions
Sensations
interpersonal
Personal Agency: “I Never Thought Of That”
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Find, Elicit, or Create Meaningful Experiences of
Difference
Between sessions (end of session interventions)
 observational tasks for parents and teachers
 practicing one or two things
 bragging meetings
 reading a new story together
“Notice…”
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Amplify, Anchor, and Maintain New Experiences
 rituals
and celebrations
 certificates and letters
 reflecting teams
Therapeutic Letters
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Offer commendations to individual family members
and/or to the family as a whole, highlighting strengths
and competencies
Acknowledge problems and their effect
Highlight particular words, ideas, or recommendations
that stood out from the therapy session.
Pose questions about future directions
 how to keep changes going
 what developments or new insights will follow
Highlight what you are learning from the client(s) or
from your work with them.
Reflecting Teams
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Observing team exchanges positions with the client(s)
The team presents mulitple perspectives tentatively
Process:
Physical separation
 Not addressing the clients direclty
 Owning one’s own persective
Epxressing observations tentatively
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This permits clients to take or leave the team’s
perspective, and for the therapist to interview the
lcient(s) about what they noticed
THE TEAM REFLECTS…
After the Reflection 1
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After the Reflection 2
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The Most Important Thing
Madhav Ghimire, the national poet of
Nepal, said:
“When you touch people with compassion,
their good characteristics emerge”
Contact:
E-mail: [email protected]
Permission
• Feel free to use my work as long as you cite
it.
• Click here for publications and presentations.