Chapter Seven:  Formulating Feedback for Clients 

1. End-of Session feedback in solution building is not the same as _________________ in the problem-solving approach.
2. In problem-solving, the interviewer uses _________________  information to decide what actions would best benefit the client. This makes the interviewer the primary _________________  agent.
3. In solution building, does not regard session-ending feedback as any more _________________  than any other component of the process.
4. Solutions are built by clients through the hard work of applying their strengths in the direction of _________________ they value, making the client the primary agent of change.
5. Session-ending feedback in a solution focused interview _________________  and highlights aspects of information that might be useful to clients in their solution building.

Taking A Break

6. You may take a break in the interview before giving feedback this may encourage the client to _________________  carefully to the feedback as it has been give more importance.
7. If you are working with a partner or team, you might consult them during this time.

The Structure of Feedback

8. Feedback has three basic parts: compliments, a bridge, and a task, all of which are convey to the client that you have been listening _________________.
   1. Compliments: These are _________________  of the client.
      1. Affirming what is _________________ to the client.
      2. Affirming client successes and strengths suggested by those successes.
      3. Beginning feedback with compliments may provide hope and also communicates that client successes and strengths will be the _________________ _________________ of solutions.
      4. How the client reacts to the compliment will help you determine if the compliment makes _________________  to them.
   2. The Bridge:  This links the initial compliment to the concluding suggestions or tasks.  It provides the _________________  for suggestions that are made.
      1. The content of the bridge is usually drawn from client goals, exceptions, _________________  or perceptions. 
      2. The bridge is often started with the comment, “I agree with you that….”  It is also helpful to incorporate client _________________  and phrases.
   3. Tasks:  Tasks are usually given in solution focused work and there are two main types: Observation tasks and behavioral tasks
      1. Observation tasks:  This generally involves collecting information through a suggestion to the client that he pay attention to a particular aspect of his life that may prove useful in solution building, such as noticing _________________  on days when there is an exception.
      2. Behavioral Tasks: These tasks require that the client takes certain actions that the interviewer believes will be useful in the solution building process, and must be understood by the client within their __________________________________.
      3. Deciding the type of _________________  is often the most difficult part of providing feedback and there are factors to consider.

Deciding on a Task

9. Are there well formed goals?
   1. It is important to not push too quickly for _________________ with feedback.
   2. The interviewer needs to consider how far along the client is in the quest to develop _________________ _________________ goals.
      1. Consider whether the client has specified what they want different in their life, and this can be viewed in _________________, definable terms.
      2. Is this difference the _________________  of something rather than the _________________  of something?
   3. _________________  tasks are more helpful when there are more well formed goals.
   4. When working with more than one person at a time, you may give different _________________  to each, depending on how well formed their goals are.
10. What is the Client Practitioner Relationship?
    1. Customer type relationships: This is the relationship in which the client and interviewer are working together to define goals and the client sees that they need to do something _________________  to find a solution.
       1. _________________  tasks may be most effective in this situation.
    2. Complainant type relationships:  This is the relationship in which the client and interviewer can _________________  identify the problem but the client does not yet see any steps that they can take toward the solution.
       1. _________________  tasks are more effective in this relationship as clients are not likely to follow through with behavioral tasks.
    3. Visitor type relationships:  There is little agreement of a _________________  or a _________________  in these relationships.
       1. It does not make sense to assign any tasks in this situation, but _________________  on what client is doing that may be useful in their situation are helpful.
11. Are there exceptions? 
    1. If the client has been able to identify _________________  related to what he wants to be different, the interviewer can assign an _________________  task based on the exception(s).
       1. With _________________  exceptions, observational tasks may be most useful.
       2. With deliberate exceptions, when the client can identify something they did to make the exception happen, it is often appropriate to assign a _________________  task that consists of doing more of the same (that made the exception happen).
    2. If the client has not identified exceptions, but there is a jointly defined problem, you may want to assign a more general _________________  task.

Feedback for Ah Yan

12. Tasks are the bottom line in formulating _________________.
13. Peter thought about the nature of the relationship, how well formed Ah Yan’s goals were and the exceptions identified by Ah Yan, and then formulated tasks that reflected this.
14. These tasks were both _________________  and _________________.

Feedback for the Williams Family

15. Although Gladys had brought the family in for treatment, the team concluded that she did not necessarily see herself as a part of the problem and thus, the relationship with Insoo was primarily a _________________ type relationship, thus the team decided to suggest observational tasks around random exceptions.
16. The team saw Albert and the children as being between a complainant type relationship and a _________________  type relationship, but closer to the visitor type relationship so they decided to provide compliments but no tasks.
17. As there was a question of the type of relationship, the team chose to be _________________  and treat the family as though they had the less involved type relationship; being conservative helps prevent the interviewer from misinterpreting data and not pushing clients too far,
18. After providing an _________________  task for Gladys, she herself initiated further action by telling Albert not to come back to the next session.

Feedback Guidelines

19. Feedback serves several purposes, such as:
    1. It aids clients in the _________________  of well formed goals
    2. It helps client focus on the _________________  in their lives as they are related to their goals
    3. It encourages clients to _________________  what they are doing to make those exceptions happen.
20. It is helpful to look at the _________________ _________________  first – what tasks are indicated by the interview data?
21. When you are unsure, err of the side of being _________________.
22. Tasks should be developed through assessing the type of client-interviewer relationship, the nature of the _________________  and the presences or absence of exceptions.
23. It is important to agree with what the client views as _________________  and what they want
24. Compliment the client on their _________________  that are helpful in solution building.
25. A _________________  statement between the compliments and the tasks makes the tasks seem reasonable and connected.
26. Stay within the client’s _________________ _________________ by using the client’s words
27. Feedback should be simple and _________________  
28. Feedback should be delivered deliberately and _________________  and the interviewer should observe the client’s reactions.

Common Messages

29. Common messages are based on _________________  that repeat themselves; providing common messages will help focus clients on areas that are most helpful in solution building.
30. As with feedback, these common messages will be based on the type of relationship, the degree to which goals are well-formed and the presence or absence of _________________  and _________________  exceptions.
    1. Visitor type relationships –the common message is to give compliments and help the client know her perceptions had been heard and _________________, which makes it more likely the client will return and the relationship might evolve.
    2. Complainant type relationships – The nature of the common messages in this depends on the _________________  and _________________  of goals and exceptions.
       1. If there are no exceptions identified and no goals, clients tend to feel _________________  in making any changes to the situation.  In this instance there are two common messages:
          1. You can compliment the client, provide a bridge that indicates that you agree that this is a serious problem, and then asking the client to _________________ _________________  to what’s happening in their life that tells them the problem can be solved.
          2. If clients do not have much sense of what they want, it may be helpful to assign a formula-first-session task; this is a task that asks client to consider the problem areas, and then look for anything in their life related to the identified problem that is something that is _________________  or that they would like to continue to have happen.
       2. If there are identified exceptions but no goals, as when the client does not see themselves as having anything to do with changing the problem, _________________  tasks around identified exceptions may be most helpful, such as asking the client to pay attention to the times when the exceptions occur and note what is _________________  during those times.
          1. This helps the client feel hope that the _________________ will occur again.
          2. It also suggests that the most useful information is in the client’s own _________________.
          3. If the client identifies random exceptions and sees no part of their action in this, the interviewer can vary this task by asking the client to pay attention to what they might be doing that helps the other person respond _________________.
          4. As the example with Alice shows, this can be framed almost in terms of a _________________  game, with observations then about what is different on different days.
             1. De Shazer suggests that the usefulness of a _________________  task may be because of the power of _________________  of what it contains.
    3. Customer type relationships:
       1. A clear miracle picture but no exceptions – In this situation, the interviewer can compliment the client on the _________________  of the miracle picture, and suggest they pretend the miracle has already happened and observe what is _________________  when they are pretending.
       2. High motivation but no well formed goals – these clients may be most helped by the _________________ _________________ different task in which they do something different in the problem situation – not anything specific and it can actually be something seemingly silly, but just something _________________, and report what happens; this gives client permission to be _________________  and _________________  when it is most needed.
       3. Well formed goals and deliberate exceptions – with these clients, it is helpful to encourage clients to do more of the same and to pay particular attention to what else they may be doing that they don’t realize they are doing; this helps build on _________________  they are already having.
          1. It is important to make sure the actions that are leading to the _________________  exceptions are things that are acceptable to the client; if they are not, they do not represent potential solutions for the clients.

Other Useful Messages

31. The overcoming the urge task: In the situation in which the problem is a tendency to _________________  or _________________  in a certain way, this may be useful, whether the relationship is a customer or complainant type relationship. 
    1. This involves having the client pay attention to what is different when they are able to _________________  the urge, particularly focusing on what they are doing differently.
    2. This encourages solution building by helping clients focus on the _________________ and successes in their lives and how one leads to the other.
32. Addressing Competing Views of the Solution:  When there are different views of solutions, you can assign a task that _________________ the attempts at solution building, such as in the example, flipping a coin each morning to decide which way to try that day.
    1. This honors both perspectives. 
    2. This avoids or defuses the idea that one way must be _________________  and the other one _________________.
    3. It removes another opportunity for the involved parties to have a _________________.
    4. Often in this situation, elements from both solutions end up being a part of the solution.  However, if this does not happen, it is important to discuss the _________________  both participants had in the solution building process.
    5. This can also be used with a single person who is having trouble deciding between multiple _________________.

Decisions about the next session

33. The textbook suggest it is helpful to ask clients to come back for another session to explore their _________________ .
    1. The authors suggest that putting the idea of coming back more tentatively may lead the client to the conclusion that the interviewer is not interested in working with them.
    2. The interviewer tells the client they would like to see them again to find out what is going better, fostering an expectation of _________________  change in the client.
    3. Using statements such as “So when do you think it would be most useful for you to return?’ leaves the _________________  in the client’s hands, communicating a sense that the interviewer thinks the client is _________________.

Cribsheets, Protocols and Note taking

34. Cribsheets may be helpful in helping the interviewer stay on task, however, your instructor will not let you use them during the actual interview – they may be reviewed before the interview or during a break.
35. If you are going to take or use notes, it is important to explain to the client what you are doing and _________________  you are doing it.

True or False

1.De Jong and Berg view end-of-session feedback in solution building as the same thing as making interventions. 

2.End-of-session feedback is the point in solution building at which a practitioner can bring in his or her own ideas about what would be most helpful to the client and suggest them to the client. 

3.The most difficult part of formulating feedback for clients is figuring out which compliments to give.  

4.Clients who are in a complainant-type relationship to services are not given tasks.  

5.Peter did not give Ah Yan a task at the end of their first session because she did not have well-formed goals. 

6.At the end of the first session, Insoo and her team believed that Gladys was in a customer-type relationship to services.   

7.Insoo and her team decided not to give Albert a task.  

8.The rule of thumb about preparing feedback for clients is to lean in a conservative direction when caught undecided between two possible task assignments; that is, go with the less demanding task. 

9.At the conclusion of the end-of-session feedback for the Williams family, Gladys stated that Albert could not come back for the next session.    

10.It is a good idea to incorporate the client’s words into the end-of-session feedback. 

11.It is important to observe the client’s reactions when giving end-of-session feedback to get some indication of whether the feedback makes sense to the client. 

12.A combination of compliments and no task increases the chances that clients in a visitor-type relationship will return and be more likely to define a problem on which to work. 

13.Clients who can identify exceptions but have not defined goals may be given an observation task. 

14.Client who have a clear and specific miracle picture but no exceptions are generally not given a task. 

15.The “do something different” task is generally given to clients who are in a customer-type relationship and are highly motivated, but do not have well-formed goals.   

Multiple Choice

1.Which is not one of the structural components of end-of-session feedback?

a.Compliments

b.Exceptions

c.Bridge

d.Tasks 

2.A bridge may be drawn from a client’s:

a.goals.

b.exceptions.

c.perceptions.

d.Any of the above

3.When a practitioner suggests that a client “pay attention for                “ between now and the next time they meet, the practitioner has suggested:

a.an intervention task.

b.a behavioral task.

c. an observation task.

d. a “do something different” task.

4.Deciding on a task involves:

a.first asking the miracle question.

b.estimating the client-practitioner relationship at the time of the break.

c.estimating whether there are compliments which can be given to the client.

d.estimating whether the client will return for a follow-up session.

5.If a competent practitioner suggests at the end of a session that the client “pay attention to what’s happening in her (or his) life that tells her that the problem can be solved,” it is likely that the client stands in a                  -type relationship to services.

a.visitor

b.complainant

c.customer

d.mandated

6.Clients who have well-formed goals and deliberate exceptions in which they play a role are assigned the                  task.

a.do something different

b.formula first session

c.do more of the same

d.overcoming the urge