Seeking Capability

Seeking Capability: practice in acknowledgement of client difficulty - and directed curiosity

Below are some statements which might be made by clients. Your task is to make a response which both acknowledges client difficulty and gives the client an opportunity to talk about implicit positive qualities and abilities.

Example: Client: I'm nearly at the end of my tether. You: Things are almost unbearably difficult for you, but you haven't quite given up yet ... I wonder what it is that's keeping you going?

Now try out the statements below. Working in small groups, get one person to say one of the client lines, with feeling. Once you have figured out what to say in response, speak it to your 'client' so that you and the group can make some judgement of your tone, pace and manner of speech as well as the content of what you say.

1. I've saved up pills for years. They're my escape route.
    
2. I've seen off a lot of well-meaning helpers. You may not last long!
    
3. My wife practically sent me here She wants me to show more feelings. I can't begin to make sense of it.
    
4. I got rid of a lover who terrorised me and now I'm stuck with this new one who's hardly any better!
    

This exercise addresses the idea of 'constructive' bias in helpers, and the skill involved in bringing a constructive view forward without forcing it and losing credibility with your client. You can read discussion of ideas like this in Gerard Egan, The Skilled Helper, 7th Edition, Brooks/Cole,2002, (pp150ff) and in Bill O'Hanlon and Bob Bertolino, Even From A Broken web, Wiley, 1998 (pp 85ff).

©Rob Cumming 2003. http://www.gethelp.co.uk
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