Let’s Focus on Solutions Not Problems
I have just finished teaching a foundation in hypo-psychotherapy course recently. One of the common questions that I get asked is that after all the years I have worked with clients, how do I manage to remain so enthusiastic about the work. This especially as I spend my professional life hearing about people’s problems. I always answer the same way, that in general, in my practice whilst problems are accepted as to the reason that they are with me, the real reason they come to therapy is to look for solutions. I align myself in the strongest possible way with the solution orientated model of therapy.
It is of course important to acknowledge problems, especially if these problems have a tendency to repeat themselves throughout a person’s life. But it is surely a better and more productive use of a client’s time to look at the solutions to negative thoughts, beliefs and behaviours rather than getting bogged down in the quagmire of the problem itself.
By being solution orientated it allows for both therapist and client to utilise their own creative energy and talent to come up with novel and often unthought of ways to get infant of issues and to allow for a client to thrive. When thinking about your day today, if you are struggling with an issue, why not choose to look at it from the solution side of the equation rather than the problem side. You may find that you have had the answer to your problem all along.
