111 Interviews: Holding a Formal Conversation
• ‘Who else has contributed to the problem?’
• ‘How do you think this has arisen?’
• ‘What might be the cause of the problem?’
You might consider making the interview
more creative at this
stage by asking the counsellee to think about the problem in
radically different ways:
• ‘What does this problem look like?’
• ‘If you were the problem, how would you feel?’
• ‘Can you think of another way of expressing the
problem?’
In
some situations, you may be able to help the counsellee to
transform the problem in some radical way. They probably see
the problem as a burden that they must bear, or an obstacle that
they must overcome. A key stage
in taking ownership of the
problem is to see it instead as a goal for which they can take
responsibility.
Invite the counsellee to try to frame the problem as a ‘How to’
statement. The idea is that by doing so the problem becomes
expressed as an objective: a way forward that the counsellee
might want to take. A ‘How to’ statement
also implies multiple
possibilities of movement: if you are asking ‘how to’ achieve a
goal, the mind immediately responds with ‘well, you might… or
you might…’ and so on.
Turning an obstacle into a goal is at the very heart of the
counselling process. You must use all your skill and sensitivity to
manage this most crucial part of the process. A counsellee may
all too easily feel pressure at this point
to take ownership of a
problem when they have no desire to do so.
Supply
Now you must supply some possible courses of action and
consider their consequences. The counsellee should be moving
from emotion to a more considered attitude without any pressure
( c) 2011 Kogan Page L imited, All Rights Reserved.
