I Can See Clearly Now: Developing a Future Focus Therapist’s Overview

Exploring Strengths and Solutions in Information Gathering

II.13 I Can See Clearly Now: Developing a Future Focus Therapist’s Overview

Purpose of the Exercise

Processes aimed at helping people to change begin with well-articulated visions of the future.

In this book, we offered specific ways of orienting clients to the futures they want for themselves.

These futures represent clients’ visions of what their lives will be like when their concerns have been resolved or minimized so they are manageable or less intrusive. This means working with clients to determine what they want to have happening in their future lives instead of the problems that have been interfering in the present.

Some techniques, despite being creative and clever, will not fit well with some clients and will not result in useful information. There are clients with whom the use of straightforward questions will provide a better alternative. Recall that therapeutic technique contributes very little to the overall variance in outcome. On the other hand, a future focus has been identified as crucial to successful therapy. Our task is to help orient clients toward their preferred futures without becoming overly reliant on any one method for achieving this. There are many possibilities, and the ones that are best will be the ones that fit with clients, are respectful, and are flexible. The purpose of this exercise is to offer an alternative to more technique-driven methods by providing questions to help clients articulate their visions of the future. We can help clients to work backward to outline steps and take action toward making those visions reality.

This exercise can be used at any point where focus is needed, particularly in determining what needs to change or be different for clients. It can be used at the start of services, in conjunction with establishing goals, or at any juncture when goals have been modified or changed altogether.

Suggestions for Use

1. Familiarize clients with “action-talk.”

2. There are times when clients will create visions of the future that appear unattainable or unreal-istic. It is important to acknowledge their viewpoints and work to further shape those visions to determine which aspects clients can work on in the present or immediate future. For example, if a client’s vision were to have a parent back who passed away, the therapist might inquire as to what difference that would make for the client. From this the therapist learns that the client felt understood by her parent. The therapist could then help the client to explore her life for, or how to develop, other relationships in which she could feel understood more often than she is currently.

The aim is to determine not only what clients want different in their futures, but what that differ-ence symbolizes for them.

3. Although some clients will develop more elaborate visions, it is not necessary. Work to help clients develop a vision of some aspect of their future where things are going better. This could mean complete problem resolution or a reduction of the intensity or severity of concerns such that their lives are improved.

4. Cross-references: This activity can be used in combination with Exercise II.11, “Future Screening: Creating a Vision for the Future” and Exercise II.12, “destination Imagination:

Envisioning the Future Through Miracles, dreams, and the Extraterrestrial.” It also involves the use of “action-talk.” To learn about this, please refer to the activity in Exercise II.7, “What does That Look Like? Translating Ambiguity Through Action-Talk.”

Exercise

This exercise is to help picture a time in the future in which things are going better and the prob-lems you have been experiencing recently have gone away or are at least more manageable. From there you can identify ways of making that vision a reality. To complete this exercise, please answer the following questions by writing your responses in the spaces provided.

Find a time and a place when you can spend a few minutes by yourself and can clear your mind just a bit. You do not have to remove all that is going on in your head. You just want to be able to focus momentarily on thoughts other than your daily tasks and what needs to be done the remainder of the day.

next, in whatever way works best for you, imagine yourself sometime in the future (a few weeks, months, or years) in a time when your current concerns and problems have lessened or gone away altogether. Try focusing on that vision and developing the details of it. As you do this, focus specifi-cally on what is happening that you like—those parts of the image portray the kind of future you really want for yourself. When you are ready, answer the questions that follow.

describe your vision and what is happening that really portrays the kind of future you want.

1. Be specific and use “action-talk” to describe what you are doing.

__________________________________________________________________________________

2. How does the picture you described differ from the image you have of your life currently?

__________________________________________________________________________________

3. What specifically contributed to things changing for the better?

__________________________________________________________________________________

4. What did you do? What did others do?

__________________________________________________________________________________

5. Try to break down the events that lead to things changing for the better. List a few of the steps that preceded your future vision.

a. _______________________________________________________________________

b. _______________________________________________________________________

c. _______________________________________________________________________

d. _______________________________________________________________________

e. _______________________________________________________________________

6. next, take one of the steps you outlined and break it into smaller steps.

Step: _____________________________________________________________________

Smaller Steps

a. _______________________________________________________________________

b. _______________________________________________________________________

c. _______________________________________________________________________

7. What do you need to do to take one of the smaller steps?

__________________________________________________________________________________

8. What challenges, if any, might you face in carrying out one or more of the steps you described?

__________________________________________________________________________________

9. What can you do to meet those challenges and take those initial steps?

__________________________________________________________________________________

Over the next day or two, put into action what you described in this exercise.

In document Bob Bertolino-The Therapist's Notebook on Strengths and Solution-Based Therapies_ Homework, Handouts, and Activities.pdf (Page 96-100)