Basic Assumptions

1. Basic Assumptions A family of concepts that Invite critical reflection on foundational premises and taken-for-granted assumptions, including those of �postmodernism� itself. Invite a view of knowledge and language as relational and generative. Favor local knowledge, created within and, that has relevance for the community of participants.

2.  A collaborative approach is based in an ideological shift regarding the way that we think about language and knowledge. ? A philosophical stance or way of being naturally flows from the shift: a way of being in relationship and conversation, including a way of thinking with, talking with, acting with, and responding with the people that we meet in any professional or personal context.

3. Collaborative Relationship A particular way in which we orient ourselves to be, act, and respond �with� another person that invites the other into shared engagement, mutual inquiry, and joint action.

4. The responses of people in conversation with each other create the context for their relationship. A relationship in which people connect and create with each other. A social activity�a partnership community and process�in which all members have a sense of participation, belonging and ownership.

5. Dialogical Conversation A particular kind of talk in which participants engage �with� each other (out loud) and �with� themselves (silently)�in words, signs, symbols, gestures, etc.� in a mutual or shared inquiry about the issues at hand: jointly responding (commenting, examining, questioning, wondering, reflecting, nodding, gazing, etc.).

6. Dialogue is a process of trying to understand an other. Dialogue is always becoming, never-ending. Understanding is an (inter) active process not a passive one. Respond to connect and learn rather than to try to understand another person�s words from a theory. Check-out to see if you have heard what the other wants you to hear. Develop local understandings that come from within the conversation.

7. Learn about the uniqueness of the other and notice the not-yet-noticed. Cannot know another person or their circumstances beforehand. Cannot know the outcome beforehand. Knowing ahead of time (i.e. categories, theoretical scripts) can inhibit our ability to learn about the uniqueness and novel�to see the familiar in an unfamiliar way.

8. Problems Dissolve in Dialogue �. . . 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

9. Ever-Present Question "How can professionals invite the kinds of relationships and conversations with their clients that allow all participants to access their creativities and develop possibilities where none seemed to exist before?"

10. A Philosophical Stance A way of being A posture, an attitude, and a tone that reflects a way of being in relationship and conversation with the other, including a way of thinking about, talking with, acting with, and being responsive with them. Consistent with this way of being, the philosophical stance becomes a philosophy of life�a worldview that does not separate professional and personal.

11. The stance communicates to the other that they are a unique human being, not a category of people, and that they are recognized, appreciated, and have something to say that is worthy of hearing. In holding this belief, connecting, collaborating, and constructing with others are authentic and natural actions, not techniques.

12. Philosophical Stance Conversational Partners Relational Expertise Client as Expert Professional as Expert Not-Knowing Being Public Mutually Transforming Living with Uncertainty Everyday Ordinary Life

13. Inviting Dialogue Respect the other Listen generously to the other Pause and allow silences--space for listening & reflecting Create space for the other to tell their story in their manner & pace Allow each person to choose what peaks their curiosity & invites them into inner & outer conversation Learn with the other Try to understand the other

14. Respond with the other Reflect/Share inner thoughts Experience the richness of different voices, and each as poly-vocal, holding multiple, and sometimes simultaneous contradictory thoughts. Participate in conversations that invite the other person into them. Striving for a goal or outcome is not necessary. Spontaneous, endless shifts and possibilities (thoughts, actions, meanings) emerge from the process.

15. Advice from Clients(in my words) Coherence: Invite and have respect and humility for, and stay close to each person's story. Client's story takes center stage: Be genuinely curious and ask questions that come from within the conversation and that lead to other questions, not answers; ask questions that help a client tell, clarify, and expand their first-person narrative. Client authors his or her own story: Create and safeguard room for each person to develop his or her own views and edit his or her own story. Repetition: Repeating a story version may be an attempt or struggle to create a new meaning. Choices: Let each person participate in determining what should be talked about, when and with whom. Familiar: Explore the known in a way that allows for doors to be created where there were none. Uniqueness: Avoid the temptation of across-the-board diagnoses, goals, and strategies for reaching goals, and to categorize and label people. Consider the uniqueness of each person, the multiplicity of possibilities for each person, each context, and each situation. Stay in sync: Walk along side the client; stay within each person's rhythm, pacing, and timing, not the therapist�s. Public: Make invisible therapist ideas and prejudices visible; keep them open to question and change. Try to understand: Do not know, assume, or fill in the blanks too quickly. Trust and believe: Try to make sense, from the client�s perspective (their sense-making map, not the therapist�s), of what may appear non-sense or illogical. Self-identity: Foster the development of self-descriptions that free and allow for multiple, contradicting, and simultaneously existing selves�inviting self-agency. Newness: Client and therapist together create knowledge and expertise that is unique and specific to the situation and community.

16. What can I read on the beach? *Anderson, H. & Gehart, D. (2007) Collaborative Therapy: Relationships and Conversations that make A Difference. New York: Routledge. *Anderson, H. & Jensen, P. (2007 Innovations in the Reflecting Process: The Inspiration of Tom Andersen. London: Karnac Books. Anderson, H. (2005) The myths of �not-knowing.� Family Process. Anderson, H. (2003) A postmodern collaborative approach to therapy: Broadening the possibilities of clients and therapists. Ethically Challenged Professions: Enabling Innovation and Diversity in Psychotherapy and Counseling. In Y. Bates & R. House (Eds.). PCCS Books: Herefordshire, UK. Anderson, H. (2000) Supervision as a collaborative learning community. American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Supervision Bulletin. Fall 2000:7-10. *Anderson, H. (1997) Conversation, Language and Possibilities: A Postmodern Approach to Therapy. New York: Basic Books. Anderson, H. & Burney, P. (1997) Collaborative inquiry. Human Systems: The Journal of Systemic Consultation and Management. 7(2-3):177-189. Anderson, H., Cooperrider, D., Gergen, K., Gergen, M., McNamee, S. & Whitney, D. (2001) Appreciative Organizations. The Taos Institute: Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Bakhtin, M. (1986) Speech, Genre and Other Late Essays (W. McGee, Trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press. Gadamer, H-G. (1975) Truth and Method. New York: Seabury. * Available through Amazon or the publisher.

17. Gergen, K.J. (1999) An invitation to social construction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Goolishian, H.A. & Anderson, H. (2002) Narrative and self: Some postmodern dilemmas of psychotherapy. In D.S. Fried Schnitman & J. Schnitman (Eds.). New Paradigms, Culture and Subjectivities (pp. 217-228) New York: Hampton Press. Hacking, I. (1999) The Social Construction of What? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Marshall, J. & Reason, P. (1993) Adult learning in collaborative action research: Reflections on the supervision a process. Studies in Continuing Education. 15(2)117-132. McNamee, S. & Gergen. K.J. (1999) Relational Responsibility: Resources for Sustainable Dialogue. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. McNamee, S. & Anderson, H. (Eds.) (2006) Expanding Organizational Practices: Lessons from Therapeutic Conversations. AI Practitioner, August 2006. Mezirow, Jack & Associates. (2000) Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Schon, D. (1983) The reflective practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic Books. Shotter, J. (2005) On the Edge of Social Constructionism: �Withness�-Thinking versus �Aboutness�-Thinking. London, KCC Foundation. Shotter, J. (1984) Social Accountability and Selfhood, Oxford: Blackwell. Vygotsky, L. (1986) Thought & Language. Trans. Newly revised by Alex Kozulin. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Please share readings that are stretching your �mind.� See �Publication List� & �Articles to Download� on www.harleneanderson.org and www.access-success.com

18. Adventures in Collaborative Practices:Relationships & Conversations that make A Differencein Therapy, Research, Training & Organizations& across Cultures INTERNATIONAL SUMMER INSTITUTE& Pre-INSTITUTE 2008 Mexico on the beach Ask about Student Discount June 2008 harleneanderson@earthlink.net ? www.harleneanderson.org (English) sylvialondon@yahoo.com ? www.grupocamposeliseos.com (Spanish)