And when you wake up.....

Paul Hanton BA (Hons), Cert. (Substance Misuse), MA (SFBT). DAPAANZ Accredited Supervisor. Reg. MBACP (Accred) paulhanton62@gmail.com www.solutionfocused.co.nz

Today’s presentation The day after the miracle/wonderful thing has happened, as SF practitioners we are to elicit a rich description of the preferred future. How much time do we spend on that? How rich is this description? The conference theme has mind health in the title, imagining, in detail how things could be is a great illustration of this. We will then, if we have time, practice this in pairs: 1. The MQ/preferred future in literature - 5 minutes 2. Demonstration 20 minutes (or even longer) 3. Practice 15 minutes (if time)

The MQ/preferred future in literature A Preferred Future – What's The First Thing You Would Notice? After negotiating an agreed goal eliciting a detailed description of its realisation is a key task. For the client above a detailed picture of a day going well is likely to be included in the first meeting. The more detailed and concrete this description the more likely is the client to do it. https://www.brief.org.uk/therapy-and-coaching/what-happens-in-solution- focused-counselling

The SF literature is full of talk of detailed rich descriptions, such as….. ‘The client’s response to the miracle question and her descriptions of how she and the other people around her would be affected is quite rich and detailed’ – Words were originally magic, 1994, Steve de Shazer. ‘You are aiming to build a rich description of how your life will be. The greater the detail, the more effective this part of the process will be’ – The power of the next small step, 2015, Rayya Ghul

And…….. I have been influenced by Milton Erickson in this ‘visualisation’. ‘The practitioner, in my opinion, will obtain maximum benefit for the client by taking time over this. Two minutes is not enough’. Skills in solution focused brief counselling and psychotherapy, 2011, Paul Hanton. So………

Demonstration 20 minutes (or even longer) Original miracle question Steve de Shazer………You go to sleep, and when you are asleep a miracle happens (something wonderful1) and the problems you brought here today are gone. You cannot know this has happened as you are asleep. When you wake up after the miracle has happened, what is the first thing you would notice that the miracle has happened, what would the first sign be? 1. Hanton 2003

De Shazer also said: I think my (our) initial mistake was to call it "the miracle question" when it has never been just a simple question. Rather, its purpose was to shift the conversation quickly and easily into the future when the problems (that brought the client to therapy) were gone. That is to say, the "question" itself was never as important as the client's response. Steve de Shazer 2000

Volunteer needed……think about something you want to be different, changed, a different, preferred future……. really think

So, I am going to fast forward you to a time when what you want to be different has happened………….. You have arrived at your preferred future………. or at the very least it has started to happen………….. You wake up on this day and you know it is here; how do you know? What is the very first thing you notice that tells you this?

Practice 15 minutes (if time)

Questions?