Jeff Chang, Ph.D, R.Psych. Associate Professor Athabasca University

1. Jeff Chang, Ph.D, R.Psych. Associate Professor Athabasca University European Brief Therapy Association, Leeuwarden, Netherlands September 28, 2014 Children's Stories, Children's Solutions: Listening for Openings and Amplifying Change

2. Acknowledgements • Calgary Family Therapy Centre • The P family • Athabasca University Research and Study leave

3. Overview In this workshop, Jeff will use a client session to distinguish: • Using language purposefully to invite construction of preferred outcomes: • What does the family want? • When does it happen? • What can they do to have it happen more? • Listening for and using relational openings • Differences and distinctions • Curiosity, wonderment, surprise

4. Overview This collaborative approach encompasses five key interlocking activities: • Setting the relational stage • Listening for clients’ world view, strengths, and preferences • Negotiating a solvable problem or an achievable project • Opening meaningful experiences of difference • Circulating these experiences of difference

5. Situating myself • Living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada • Professor of counselling at Athabasca University • Clinical Supervisor at Calgary Family Therapy Centre

6. Situating myself • Thirty years’ experience as: • Front-line therapist in children’s mental health • Employee assistance program counsellor and supervisor • Director and program developer in children’s mental health • Reflected on the similarities and differences between SFBT and narrative therapy over the last 25 years: “Are You Solution-Focused or Narrative or What?”

7. Situating myself

8. Orienting Ideas • Think discursively and deconstructively • Think coherently • Think ecologically and systemically • Think relationally • Think developmentally • Think positively

9. Five Interlocking Activities This collaborative approach encompasses: • Setting the relational stage • Listening for clients’ world view, strengths, and preferences • Negotiating a solvable problem or an achievable project • Opening meaningful experiences of difference • Circulating these experiences of difference

10. The Interview Context: • Summer Externship at Calgary Family Therapy Centre • Consultation/demonstration interview • The P family: • Parents: Kelly (F), Krista (M) • Kody (12), Kori (9), Kamryn (5) • Violent outbursts • Kody was in day treatment in Grade 2 • More responsive to Dad than Mom • Mom had to restrain him at last session

11. The Interview Jeff being a “goof” Seeking a problem description • Enough so that we all know why we are there Pokemon cards • “Getting to know the child apart from the problem”

12. The Interview “Pokemon”

13. The Interview • Looking for strengths/possibilities • Persistence/longevity • Possibilities for a metaphor? • Unexpected “gem” no. 1… • Leads to… Unexpected “gem” no. 2 Bringing up a problem: “The elephant in the room” – last week’s session • Unexpected “gem” no. 3

14. The Interview • “Getting to know the child apart from the problem” • Looking for strengths/possibilities • Persistence/longevity • Possibilities for a metaphor? • Unexpected “gem” no. 1… • Leads to… Unexpected “gem” no. 2

15. Contact: Presentation available at: • http://familypsychologycentre.webs.com/jeff-s-workshop-schedule E-mail: jeffc@athabascau.ca

16. The Most Important Thing Madhav Ghimire, the national poet of Nepal, said: “When you touch people with compassion, their good characteristics emerge”