The opportunity for meaningful and transforming is enhanced by ample space for speaking, listening and hearing

1. The opportunity for meaningful and transforming is enhanced by ample space for speaking, listening and hearing Moving from monologues and dueling realities to collaborative relationships and generative conversations Entails (among other things): Entertaining multiple and different realities Inviting private thoughts into spoken words Pausing and allowing silence Living with uncertainty and unpredictability Forming and informing relational newness

2. The Presenter This clinical situation. The characters in the story. The presenter�s expectations. What the presenter thinks is important for us to know. The Listening Reflectors Choose a listening position. Silently listen. Cluster by �as if� listening positions. Reflect/speak with each other in the �as if� first-person voice.

3. Next Steps The presenter may walk around and silently listen to the �as if� voice clusters. A �representative �as if� voice joins the presenter and me. I ask the �as if� voice to address me so that the presenter may silently listen. I may or may not make comments or engage in conversation with the �as if� voice.

4. I ask the presenter to say what touched them, drew them into conversation or otherwise. I may, or may not, engage in conversation with the presenter. I ask the presenter to reflect on their experience of presenting and the �as if� voices. If there is more than one presenter, I ask them to talk with each other about the above.

5. Key Premise The teller can choose what story to tell and how to tell it. The listener has ample time to listen, have their own inner dialogue, and form their response. Each participant becomes both speaker and listener. Shifts occur through this process (putting thoughts into words, words inviting thoughts)

6. �. . . not to solve what had been seen as a problem, but to develop from our new reactions new socially intelligible ways forward, in which the old problems become irrelevant.� John Shotter �Problems are not solved but dissolved in language.� Anderson & Goolishian �One must become another in relation to himself, must look at himself through the eyes of another.� Bahktin

7. Pavel�s �As If� Story:The Problem has Somehow Lost

8. A Surprise Email I am not sure if you remember me. I consulted you during your seminar in Prague in September this year. The consultation was a public presentation of your work; � we were addressing the issue of my relationship with prison guards.

9. To start with, I would like to thank you again for the conversation. I felt really good and free during it, even though the context could have been quite stressful (with all of the people around).

10. Also, the �problem� has stopped to appear as a problem since our conversation even if I have not made any radical changes in my behavior. I am able to see my relationships with prison guards from many different positions now and the problem has somehow lost.

11. Please Tell Me More I am not sure if I am able to remember the most important things from the consultation that was held more than a month ago. Anyway, let�s consider all the things that I kept in my head . . . to be important.

12. I decided to volunteer for the consultation for these reasons: first, I consider the direct experience to be most effective way to learn new things, and second, it seemed a good opportunity to talk about my relationships with the prison guards and about my role in the prison system. I had not discussed this topic with anyone before. I was not sure if my topic would be useful for others because I was the only one at the workshop from my organization. So I decided to wait and if no group volunteered, I would raise my hand.

13. I was quite surprised when you chose my training colleague to be the second client--I could not imagine which role she could have [in the consultation]. But I remember that it was very soothing to me when you promised me that you would not hurt me in any way.

14. When I was talking about the situation in the prison it was very important for me itself. You were asking about the relationships and about the roles which other people play in the system. So I started to perceive it as a "plastic" and live story, and not so rigid and definite a situation. Maybe this [conversational] process would itself make some change, but I still wanted more from you. Thus, I appreciated the task [the �as if� listening reflecting positions] that you gave the others.

15. When Jitka and I were listening to the conversations [the �as if� clusters], it was very interesting. It was a totally new role for me. I was the one who just observes and who knows the most about the context: I could say to myself: �yes, this is possible� and �no, they [the guards] do not speak like this.�

16. To tell the truth, I do not remember much of the content of the conversations or the final speech of the representatives. But it was very interesting to realize that they (the guards, the clients) may really have similar conversations to what I heard--and that there are so many different conversations. And I also realized that other people talk about me and my relationships to others and so at once my perspective was very broad.

17. I must say that I do not remember much of the final phase. I know that you were telling me something, but my head was so full of my own un-definitive thoughts that I did not give my whole attention to your words (I am sorry). But it was important for me: your voice was very calming and I felt support and appreciation from you. I felt that I could say whatever I want, but my thoughts were so incomplete that I wanted to think about it after I had some time to be alone.

18. The final phase was also important because I felt the consultation was "real" and "complete." It was consultation as it should be--with a beginning, a "technique" and a conclusion. So, it made me feel that "I passed the consultation and now I can make a change".

19. A funny situation was when the consultation was finished, I was sitting back in my seat and I asked Jitka if she knew who all the other participants were. And she started to name the most famous therapists from the Czech Republic! And I talked to myself: All these great people were dealing with my situation, all these people played roles of people who only I know, including me. All these people tried to help me; isn�t that funny?

20. And this was the first shift; I started to see my situation as one of many other similar situations and many more serious ones. And on the other side, I started to see myself as a man who is worth being cared for by the most famous therapists in Czech Republic (and in the world).

21. So, when I went to the prison the following days, something had changed. When the guards made some funny comments about me it did not hurt me; I just did not mind. I started to be more interested in the guards, in their view on some things and some clients. And now I do not perceive the situation to be a problem. I did not make big and radical changes, I just started to look at the situation and to think about it in a different way. Well, it was interesting to think about it again!

22. Reflections on My Version I appreciated that you used my own words instead of interpreting my reflections. I also liked to read your own perspective of the consultation. I realized that I perceived my relationships with the guards very personally before the consultation. As I told you, �they do no like me and I don�t know why, etc.� Now, I�d rather try to understand their perspective and I do not regard their comments as aimed against me, but rather as their own way of coping with the frustrating and stereotype work. Interestingly, this change in my view started to change my relationships and ways of conversations with the guards.�

23. �AS If� Contributes to the richness of the re-descriptions. Reports a shift in their perspectives (generativity) as they move from silent listening �person� to engaging in collective speaking. Puts imagined thoughts into words & vice versa. Slows down speaking,listening & hearing. Pavel�s inner & outer speech shifted from monological to dialogical, with self & others. Forming & informing relational newness. It is as if Pavel began & continued to see himself reflected in the words of the other � a shift in his sense of self-value, competency & identity.

24. References Anderson, H. (2007) Creating a spaced for a generative community. In H. Anderson & P. Jensen (Eds.). Inspiration: A Tribute to Tom Andersen & Reflecting Processes. London: Karnac. Anderson, H. & Gehart, D. (Eds.). (2007) Collaborative Therapy: Relationships and Conversations that Make a Difference. New York: Routledge. Anderson, H. (1997) Conversation, Language, and Possibilities: A Postmodern Approach to Therapy. New York: Basic Books. Weisenburger, G.A. (2003) Dialogical Conversations in Community Transformation. Thesis. Universidad de las Americas, Mexico City, Mexico.