It's The Little Things
Solution Focused on Microanalysis
Take Your Solution Focused Skills to the Next Level through Microanalysis of Communication
As practitioners in the helping professions, we constantly engage in co-creative dialogue with our clients—crafting questions and making decisions based on their responses. But what if you could refine your question-asking and listening skills even further? This advanced workshop, “Microanalysis Of Communication” offers an opportunity to enhance your awareness, improve the quality of your sessions, and co-construct conversations that truly make an impact.
What is Microanalysis?
Microanalysis, pioneered by Janet Beavin Bavelas, Ph.D., involves a moment-by-moment breakdown of communication in video-recorded dialogue. Practitioners can observe key elements like co-speech gestures, gaze windows, and how dialogue is co-created in the moment. This technique allows you to reflect on and then fine-tune your SF practice.
How Will Microanalysis Improve Your Sessions?
Reflective Practice: Review video sessions to identify what worked and what could be improved.
Heightened Awareness: Sharpen your listening skills and become more aware of your client’s non-verbal cues.
Enhanced Questioning: Design more effective questions and through careful choice of words.
Congruence: Align your in-session actions with your intentions by examining your congruence in real-time interactions.
Why Attend?
Microanalysis offers transformative insights into your communication style, helping you create sessions that resonate more deeply with your clients. Whether you’re seeking to improve efficiency, deepen dialogue, or sharpen your skills, this workshop will provide you with the tools to elevate your SF coaching or therapy practice.
What are the dates and details?
Four 3-hour sessions online via Zoom: 20th, 27th November, 4th, 11th December
8am - 11am Singapore (GMT+8)
Additional Asynchronous Learning: 1 hour per week
16 CCEs available for coaches (resource development) 16 hours CPD for therapists
Register Today!
Join us for this engaging and practical workshop - limited spots available.
Using The Solution Focused Approach to Help Clients Navigate Challenging Decisions
By Sukanya Wignaraja
Decision-making is one of the most common challenges clients brings to sessions. Whether personal or professional, choices come with consequences that leave many clients questioning their path. In this blog, we explore how the Solution Focused (SF) approach helps clients navigate difficult decisions by focusing on their strengths and capabilities.
Background on the Solution-Focused Approach
The SF approach emphasizes the client's inherent strengths and focuses on solutions rather than problems. We assume clients are capable of finding answers and support them in co-creating solutions, guiding them to identify what is already working, explore their goals, and work towards a preferred future. The SF approach is not about advising but about facilitating a process where clients can see their situation through a new lens, empowering them to make informed and confident decisions.
Using the Solution-Focused Approach in Decision-Making
The SF approach helps clients shift their perspective by acknowledging capabilities and strengths. Coping questions are useful in exploring how clients have managed thus far despite challenges and can help clients notice the resilience they are already showing in facing a decision. A client feeling anger and worry can be asked what they want to be feeling instead e.g. acceptance. This can mark the beginning of clients gaining clarity about the decision and finding ways to move forwards.
Exploring Confidence with Scaling Questions
Scaling questions are helpful and the client can be asked to rate their confidence in the decision on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 representing full confidence. Wherever the client is already e.g. 4, we explore what has enabled them to reach that point and what small signs they would notice when their confidence increases.
Cultural Considerations
Cultural nuances play a role in client’s decisions. For example in the Asian context, relationships between managers and their teams can often extend beyond professional boundaries, with a sense of community and mentorship. When facing a decision of whether to leave a job, this dynamic can add to a client’s sense of guilt feeling they would be letting their team down by leaving. The SF approach helps clients navigate these feelings by focusing on what is within their control, such as maintaining good relationships with colleagues.
Key Takeaways:
Focus on strengths: the SF approach emphasizes the client’s inherent strengths and capabilities, encouraging them to see themselves as capable of making informed decisions.
Scaling for confidence: Scaling questions help clients gauge their confidence and progress, providing concrete signs of growth and change.
Cultural sensitivity: In culturally complex situations, SF coaching supports clients in navigating personal dynamics, responsibility, and decision-making with clarity.
Workshop Invitation
Want to learn more about how to use the Solution Focused approach in decision-making? Join our upcoming workshop, where you’ll practice key SF techniques and discover how to apply them to your clients' most challenging decisions. Get ready to enhance your skills and empower your clients to make confident choices.
Date: 28th and 29th November
Time: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, Singapore (GMT +8) online via Zoom
Presenters: Jane Tuomola and Sukanya Wignaraja
Audience: Open to both therapists (part of Level 2 and Level 3 SFBT training) and coaches (who will receive CCEs)
Find out more on this workshop in the next newsletter.
Thank you to our conference sponsor:
