How to Coach Yourself and Others Empowering Coaching And Crisis Interventions | Page 87

This book is in B&W, not color - Print page in Grayscale for Correct view! In addition, counsellors need to be alert for opportunities to reinforce clients’ strengths. Personal qualities, actions that underscore their determination, attitudes, positive decisions, accomplishments, effort toward change, and courage in the face of adversity can all be used to bolster clients’ sense of capacity and self-esteem. Clients may already have a rich understanding of their problems and the ways in which they might be solved. So counsellors need to tap their clients’ expertise about possible answers to their problems. The central assumption here is that clients have the capacity to resolve their distress. ■ What solutions have you already tried? ■ What would your best friend advise you to do? ■ Suppose one day you received an invitation to give a lecture to professionals about the kind of problem you have had to live with. What would you tell them? (Furman & Ahola, 1994, p. 51) ■ To solve your problem, what will you have to do? Creative solution finding can be stimulated with statements and questions such as these: ■ Let’s try to identify something different for you to do to solve your problem. ■ Let’s brainstorm ideas. Don’t censor anything. The wilder the idea, the better. Reframing is another a way to help clients modify their thinking. Reframing suggests another way of looking at problems, which in turn generates new ways of looking at solutions. Reframing is elaborated more in depth at another part of this guide. The miracle question (Sklare, 1997; Hoyt, 1994) can also be used to direct clients to think about solutions: ■ If a miracle occurred and your problem was solved, what would be different in your life? ■ How could you make that miracle happen? What would you have to do differently? A variation is to use the miracle question to probe for examples of success and exceptions to clients’ problems: ■ Tell me about the times when part of this miracle has already happened, even just a little bit (Sklare, 1997, p. 68). Success Tip Use a question such as, “What do you want to change about yourself today?” as a quick way to set a goaldirected sessional contract. The Change Continuum Often clients are overwhelmed with the number and depth of their problems. Their despair can easily infect counsellors. The continuum is a tool to assist clients to become motivated in the direction of positive change. When clients can gain some control over their situation through small successes, this promotes further optimism and change. Counsellors do not have to be involved for the whole change process. Sometimes helping clients head in the right direction is the extent of their involvement. Kim, a young woman of 19 who is heavily involved in drugs, seeks counselling for help “to get her life in order.” Counsellor: (Uses a flip chart to draw the continuum depicted below.) Kim, think about an area of your life where you would like to make a change. The continuum represents things as bad as they could be if things got worse at one end, and your ultimate goal at the other end. For [email protected] Property of Bookemon, do NOT distribute 87