One form of positive psychotherapy is the solution-focused conversation method (Solution-focused therapy), which is described in detail in the book by the Finnish authors Ben Furman and Tapani Ahola, «Therapeutic Counseling. Solution-Focused Conversation»⁸¹. Among the founders of this approach one can name S. De Shazer, I. Kim Berg, J. Haley, B. O’Hanlon. In Russia, the spread and assimilation of this form of psychological help is largely the achievement of B.A. Barash, who died tragically in 1993. Today his friend and colleague A.M. Yalov heads the section on brief positive psychotherapy of the Guild of Psychotherapy and Training.

The solution-focused conversation quite subtly takes into account such properties of psychic reality as nonlinearity and reversibility: in psychic reality, cause-and-effect relationships do not always operate. Moreover, the present in psychic reality is influenced not only by the past but also by the future. For example, a dream or fear of something in the future can change our current state. That is why solution-focused counseling works not with the problem and its causes, but with possibilities, resources, and solutions.

The structure of the solution-focused conversation consists of five main blocks:

- work with the problem,

- work with the goal,

- work with resources,

- work with the social network,

- drawing up a program for achieving the goal.

Let us consider each of the listed blocks of the solution-focused counseling method.

1. Work with the problem

This block of work is typically used at the stage where the client (or other people involved in the problem) describes the problem, and it serves to overcome a stereotypical view of the situation, as well as to establish a harmonious relationship between the client and the counselor. Here it is important for the counselor to remember not to delve too deeply into the problem itself. Depending on the counseling situation, one or several specially developed psychotechniques may be used to address the tasks of this block.

The technique of good names. Names allow a complex problem to be designated with one or a few words and make it easier to talk about the problem. The main function of a new name is to help the people involved in the problem get rid of various negative associations connected with the traditional name and to serve as a transition to new creative solutions.

For example, the term «depression» can be used to denote a state known in psychiatry as the state of a mentally ill person, or it can be used to describe a functional mental state and be replaced with other alternatives – «being in a low mood» or «being in melancholy». One can also come up with more inventive names, such as «taking stock of one’s life», «gathering strength», «being in search of the meaning of life», «hidden joy», and so on.

This technique is carried out in the form of asking questions. For example:

- Perhaps we should start by giving this problem a nice, optimistic name. What could it be?

- What would the older generation, before psychology existed, have called a problem of this kind?

- Yes, we could use the term «weak ego» to describe this problem, but if we say «strong ego in a dormant state», wouldn’t that mean the same thing while sounding nicer?

It should be noted that the new name must not undermine the seriousness of the problem or serve as an excuse for inaction. It should enable the client to become more active in solving the problem. Moreover, the patient is not always able to immediately change a «hard-won» name. It may be enough for the problem to receive some nice nickname (for example, «Ivanushka»).

The technique of working with the «visitor». This technique can be quite effective for creating positive motivation in the client for counseling interaction and for further solving the problem in cases where the client came to the counselor at someone else’s insistence. The technique uses a form of working through a «third party». The counselor takes a meta-position (without identifying with the position of the patient or the other person).

This psychotechnique, like the previous one, is implemented in the form of asking questions. Sample questions:

- Whose idea was it for you to come here?

- What makes N think that you need to come here?

- What would have to happen for N to leave you alone?

- What, in N’s opinion, do you need to do differently?

- What do you think N would say about how your coming here will be useful to you?

This technique is also useful when a couple comes to a consultation – a parent-child pair or a married couple. The question: «Whose idea was it for you to come here?» - helps to equalize the positions within the pair that has come in, allows the counselor to take a neutral position constructive for the interaction, and thereby relieves excessive tension or possible anxiety in the person who came to the consultation at someone else’s insistence.

The problem isolation technique. Patients often present several problems at once, and spend a long, fruitless time trying to find a cause-and-effect relationship between them. Having a "tangle" of problems lends a sense of hopelessness. Instead of lists of "what is wrong" and "what stems from what," the counselor suggests drawing up a "map" of where the patient wants to end up.

The client is invited to accept a hypothesis: the named problems happen to coexist in the same person by chance.

Resolving one problem can be a positive experience that has a favorable effect on the other problems.

Sample questions:

- You mentioned several problems. Which one would you like to resolve first?

- You say: "Low self-esteem causes various problems." It is also possible to assume the reverse: "problems cause low self-esteem."

2. Working with the goal

Talking about a goal orients a person toward the future, strengthens belief in their own abilities, helps them understand themselves better, and activates the process of personal development. The tasks of this block can be accomplished using one or several specially developed psychotechniques.

The "signs of improvement" technique. This technique serves to build the client's positive images of their own future, and also to clarify their wishes, motives, and values. Sample questions:

- What signs will let you notice that the problem is no longer there?

- What will your life be like once this situation is over?

- Suppose your suffering has ended. What will you do next?

The scaling technique. The counselor invites the client to focus on a vertical segment - a 10-point scale. This scale can be used to measure one's current position (from 0 to 10 points) relative to the "ideal outcome" of resolving the problem situation (which is taken as the maximum score - 10). The lowest level of the scale is 0 points. After marking the position of their current state on the scale, the client is asked:

- What needs to be done (what needs to happen) for you to move 1 step higher?

The "memory from the future" technique. To begin, the counselor asks about the client's ideas regarding the timeframe in which the problem might be resolved. The client is then invited to imagine what their life will look like at that point.

Sample question:

- Let's suppose we met a year from now, and this problem no longer exists. What does your life look like in that case?

The technique of creating positive images of the future. The client is invited to fantasize about their own future. The therapist may also share fantasies about the client's future. In group counseling, it is possible to generate collective fantasies concerning the patient's future. Creating two or more alternative pictures of the future is encouraged.

3. Working with resources

Everyone possesses certain resources that can be used in resolving a problem - skills, abilities, talents, interests, admirable character traits. However, these resources are not always recognized or valued. The counselor's task is to deliberately focus attention on identifying them.

The "Recalling one's skills" technique. The counselor directs the conversation toward identifying and becoming aware of the client's abilities and skills.

Sample questions:

- What are you especially good at? How can this be used in solving this problem?

The coping questions⁸² technique. This technique allows the client to become aware of the personal qualities and experience that help them stand up to difficulties, and to begin using them more purposefully in the current situation.

Sample questions:

- How do you manage to withstand the pressure of the problem?

- Where do you find the strength to get through all this?

+The "Review of the past" technique. The past is discussed as a resource. Sample question:

- What have you achieved in the past?

The "Life experience" technique. The client is invited to imagine themselves in the role of a person who has been approached for help with a problem similar to the one the client is facing.

Sample question:

- Suppose a friend came to you for advice about a problem like yours. What would you advise them?

4. Working with the "social network"

In this block of the counseling conversation, the main task is to strengthen cooperation within the patient's social system - the system of interpersonal relationships that could become a source of support and additional resources in resolving the problem.

Recognizing other people's contribution to the success. Sample question:

- How would you thank those who helped you?

5. Developing a Program to Achieve the Goal

Counseling should conclude with concrete recommendations – a program of actions or specific steps aimed at achieving the desired outcome. The program is drawn up by the client through joint discussion with the counselor. It is considered that such a program should contain about 5 points. In the course of subsequent sessions, the counselor and client can discuss how successfully the planned steps of the program have been carried out.

It should be noted that the solution-focused conversation method, developed within positive counseling, follows the general postulates and principles of this approach. The principles of technical flexibility, economy, and attention to the client's individual characteristics allow the counselor to approach the choice of the psychotechniques described above creatively and flexibly, without in any way obliging them to use the entire arsenal of techniques in the course of a single counseling session.

Self-check questions

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1. Why is the counseling approach developed by C. Rogers called person-centered?

2. What does C. Rogers mean by the organismic valuing process?

3. What are «conditions of worth», and how do they arise?

4. Why does C. Rogers consider the conditions of the relationship to be the most important thing in counseling?

5. What is «congruence»?

6. What does C. Rogers mean by unconditional positive regard?

7. How does C. Rogers understand empathy, and what role does he assign to it in the counseling process?

8. What is the pleasure principle?

9. How did S. Freud view instincts?

10. Describe the three levels of consciousness identified by S. Freud.

11. How did S. Freud describe the Id, Ego, Superego and their functions?

12. What were S. Freud's views on bisexuality?

13. What is the function of defense mechanisms?

14. What were S. Freud's views on the development of neurosis?

15. What is meant in psychoanalysis by the term «transference»?

16. What is meant in psychoanalysis by the term «resistance»?

17. What did S. Freud mean by the term «interpretation», and what are the main sources from which material for interpretation can be obtained?

18. How did S. Freud approach the interpretation of dreams?

19. What did I.P. Pavlov mean by an innate reflex?

20. What is classical conditioning?

21. How does J. Watson classify stimuli and responses?

22. How does J. Watson view the connection between stimulus and response?

23. How did J. Watson and his colleagues condition emotional responses and remove conditioning from them?

24. What does B.F. Skinner mean by operant conditioning?

25. What does B.F. Skinner mean by each of the following terms: contingencies of reinforcement; positive reinforcement; negative reinforcement?

26. What reinforcement schedules did B.F. Skinner identify?

27. What was B.F. Skinner's view of psychotherapy?

28. What is the main difference between the views of J. Watson and B.F. Skinner on conditioning?

29. How does J. Wolpe define fear and anxiety?

30. What does J. Wolpe mean by «reciprocal inhibition»?

31. What tasks can behavioral counseling address?

32. What are the objectives of behavioral assessment?

33. How do behavioral counselors gather information for behavioral assessment?

34. Describe the goals and methods of progressive muscle relaxation.

35. Describe the goals and methods of systematic desensitization.

36. Describe the variants of systematic desensitization.

37. What are the goals of assertiveness training?

38. How do behavioral counselors use assertiveness training as an element of behavior rehearsal?

39. How do counselors and clients use reinforcement during the counseling interview?

40. How do behavioral counselors determine what clients consider reinforcing?

41. What should be taken into account when developing reinforcement programs and a token economy system?

42. How do behavioral counselors help clients obtain reinforcement in everyday life?

43. For what purpose(s) is stimulus control carried out? Give an example of stimulus control.

44. What is the will to meaning?

45. How does V. Frankl distinguish between consciousness and the unconscious? What are the main characteristics of the unconscious?

46. What role does consciousness play?

47. What are V. Frankl's ideas about freedom and responsibility?

48. What does V. Frankl mean by self-transcendence?

49. What main sources of life meaning does V. Frankl identify?

50. What does V. Frankl mean by super-meaning?

51. What is an existential vacuum?

52. What is existential frustration?

53. What does the mass neurotic triad consist of?

54. How does the existential vacuum arise and persist?

55. What is the difference between the primary level and the higher levels of cognitive processing?

56. What are cognitive schemas and why are they so important?

57. What are automatic thoughts?

58. What are cognitive errors, and what role do they play in a person's life?

59. What connection exists between cognitions and emotions?

60. What factors may be involved in people acquiring cognitive vulnerability?

61. What does the term «cognitive shift» mean?

62. What factors increase cognitive vulnerability?

63. Outline the main tenets of the cognitive model of depression.

64. What is the cognitive model of anxiety disorders?

65. What goals does cognitive counseling pursue?

66. What does the term «Socratic dialogue» mean in the context of cognitive counseling?

67. Which cognitive techniques are most often used to detect and identify automatic thoughts?

68. What are the main cognitive techniques for testing the validity of and correcting automatic thoughts?

69. Who is considered the founder of positive psychotherapy?

70. What main tasks does positive counseling address?

71. What are the basic postulates of positive counseling?

72. Name the basic principles of positive counseling.

73. What is the essence of the solution-focused conversation method?

74. What is the structure of a solution-focused conversation? What main blocks does it consist of?

75. What are the features of psychological work with a problem in the solution-focused conversation method? Which psychotechniques are used to carry out this work?

76. Which psychotechniques are used in «working with the goal»?

77. What psychotechniques does solution-focused counseling offer for activating the client's resources?

78. What does working with the social network mean in the course of solution-focused counseling?

79. What are the features of drawing up a client's goal-achievement plan in solution-focused counseling?