Wendy Lewis 3

CNL-515 Topic 6: Creating Solutions Practice Exercise

Once clients have created a vision for how life would be if the problems were solved, you need to help them create solutions that will guide them toward those possibilities. Clients generally come to counseling because they do not know how to change their life. They feel “stuck.” You have learned to use empathy to build solid therapeutic relationships. You have been working on helping clients to “tell the story,” challenge dysfunctional beliefs and behaviors, set priorities by “telling the right story,” and establish goals for where they want their lives to go. Now you have to help them be creative in exploring new ways to move their lives forward.

One way that clients get stuck is to get caught in black-or-white thinking. “I can either leave my husband or stay stuck in a relationship that is painful.” Your job as a counselor is to help them to break out of the box and find multiple alternatives, and then decide on the best solutions. If they can only think of two alternatives, encourage them to keep looking.

What has been discovered about problem solving in business is that separating the solution-generating process from the decision-making process usually results in more effective problem solving. The technique that is used is “brainstorming.” The goal of brainstorming is to generate as many alternatives as possible without critiquing or commenting on any of the ideas. Even “wild and crazy” ideas will go on the list.

There are a number of tools that can be used to brainstorm. One option is to write ideas on a white board or a piece of paper. Another method called “story boarding” involves using post-it notes and writing one idea per post-it note. These notes can be attached to the wall or a board and rearranged so that similar ideas are together, or some ideas can be selected and moved around. This same method can then be used to generate action plans.

A more graphic and creative process is called mind mapping (Buzan, 1991). In this process, the client draws out ideas using color and graphics to generate alternatives. After the ideas have been generated, the counselor and the client can review the list and select alternatives that might be feasible. At this point, it may be necessary to conduct more research to see which one of the alternatives generated might be the most effective alternative.

PRACTICE SESSION:

You may complete this practice session with a volunteer “client.” In this session, you will use the “goals” you established in the “Reframing Practice Exercise.” Pick one goal you would like to work on. Use the technique of brainstorming to generate as many alternatives as you can for solving the problem. You may use story boarding, mind mapping, or just writing ideas on paper.

It is often helpful to generate as many ideas as possible and then stop for a minute. Go back to the list later and you may find that more ideas emerge. At this point, you can stop and look at the list to see which alternatives seem the most promising. Even if the original idea is not possible, some variation of that idea may be possible.

Decide what criteria you will use to select alternatives. You could pick alternatives that will give the quickest results, alternatives that will cost the least, alternatives that you will be most likely to implement, or alternatives that will provide the most lasting solution. Some people use a systematic process for exploring alternatives. They may set criteria and then rate alternatives on the criteria to see which ones are the best fit.

You can check out the most promising alternatives by looking at pros and cons of the various alternatives. Others may make decisions more intuitively. It is sometimes helpful to ask a client to see which options “feel” the best. One way to start the decision-making process is to eliminate alternatives that you know you do not want to implement and just work with the most promising alternatives. This is one way the post-it notes approach can be an advantage. You can simply peel off and throw away the alternatives that you do not want to consider.

To complete this exercise, pick several alternatives that you would like to implement. In the next topic you will have the opportunity to create an action plan for accomplishing your goals. If you find yourself wanting to continue the process, you can implement the action plan in your life.

Finally, if you are working with a group or a family, one way to get a “sense of the group” is to put up the list and have each person in the family or the group put a star on the two ideas they like the most.

Reference

Buzan, T. (1991). Use both sides of your brain (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Plume.

© 2018. Grand Canyon University. All Rights Reserved.

© 2018. Grand Canyon University. All Rights Reserved.