1. Solutions Intensive Day 3

2. Active Client Engagement

3. Create a Context of Collaboration Point Start by offering options that are respectful of clients and their cultures and incorporate their preferences and perceptions How Keys to Collaboration

4. Strengthen Through Presence Point Listen and Attend to Clients’ Stories and Strengths How Acknowledge and validate Separate experience from action Summarize, validate, and soften Avoid platitudes or trying make things more “positive” Be aware of stories of impossibility Consider the influence of words Use possibility-laced language Be a “life witness”

5. The Influence of Words

6. Sad. Helpless. Inconvenience. Defeat. Tired. Oppressed. Doubtful. Uninterested. Life is so hard. Nothing seems to go my way. There is no one to turn to. It feels like I’ve been forgotten. Times are hard. Nothing seems to help. Things will not get better. In fact, they will probably get worse. There is no hope.

7. The Influence of Words Exciting. Fun. Laughter. Joy. Anticipation. Possibility. Aliveness. Love. Peace. When I think about the future I become energized. There is so much I can accomplish. Life is wonderful. There are so many possibilities in the world.

8. Possibility-Laced Language 1. 1. Reflect client statements in the past tense. ► ► From: “It’s always that way.” ► ► To: “It’s been that way.” 2. 2. Move from global (“everybody,” nobody,” “always,” “never”) to partial (“recently,” “somewhat more,” “a lot”). ► ► From: “He’s always in trouble.” ► ► To: “He gets in trouble a lot.” 3. 3. Move from truth/reality to perception (“It seems to you,” “You’ve gotten the idea”). ► ► From: “Things will never get better.” ► ► To: “From where your standing it really seems that it will never get better.”

9. Possibility-Laced Language 1. 1. Assume the possibility of future change and/or solutions by using words such as “yet” and “so far.” ► ► From: “It’s always going to be this way.” ► ► To: “So far you haven’t found any evidence that things will be different than the way they are now.” 2. 2. Recast the problem statement into a statement about a preferred future or goal. ► ► From: “I’ll never be able to have the life I really want.” ► ► To: “So you’d like to be able to move toward the life you really want.” 3. 3. Presuppose that changes and progress toward goals will occur by using words such as “when” and “will.” ► ► From: “I just want my kids back home.” ► ► To: “So when you when you are in a place where we agree that it is safe for your kids to be back home with you what will be different?”