Chapter 5

How to Amplify What Clients Want:  The “Miracle Question”

True or False

1.      It is usually more useful to clients to work with them at defining what will be different when their problems are solved before working on how they might make that happen.   

2.      Relationship questions are used to help clients expand their goal definitions.     

3.      Solution building cannot be used with clients who are isolated or live alone because the worker cannot meaningfully ask relationship questions which focus on the client’s interactional context. 

4.      Well-formed goals involve the client specifying the absence of something undesirable rather than the presence of something desirable.

5.      It is best for the interviewer to ask clients to describe their goals as an end state or final result of their efforts, rather than as a beginning step. 

6.      Goals should be described by clients in concrete, measurable terms instead of in vague and general terms.

7.      Well-formed goals are those which first of all are defined within the client’s frame of reference--not the practitioner’s.

8.      A client first used the word "miracle" in a goal-formulation conversation with Insoo Kim Berg and gave the practitioners at BFTC the idea of asking the miracle question. 

9.      The miracle question is best asked slowly, dramatically, and with many follow-up questions which include the phrase:  "What will be different ....?" 

10.  Ah Yan indicated that leaving her husband was a part of her "miracle picture."   

11.  Ah Yan often first responded to Peter’s goal-formulation questions by saying, “I don’t know.” 

12.  In meeting with several members of a family, the practitioner invites the family members to work toward a joint definition of goals and a joint solution. 

13.  In the Williams family case, Albert (Gladys' brother) came up with the most family-focused and helpful answers to the "miracle question." 

14.  For young children, the word miracle may be too abstract to be useful; it is better to substitute words such as magic wand, gold dust, and magic.

15.  According to De Jong and Berg, it is a good idea to try to reach closure on clients’ definition of a miracle picture (i.e. settle on the possibilities for solution) by the end of the first session so that they have a base for a solution from which to proceed. 

Multiple Choice

1.      First and foremost, well-formed goals are:

a.      important to the client.

b.      defined in interactional terms.

c.       defined with situational features.

d.     defined as a beginning step rather than an end result.

2.      Which of the following better fits the characteristics of well-formed goals?

a.      “Having a happy marriage”

b.      “Asking ones spouse to go out for dinner next Tuesday evening”

c.       “Not getting irritated with ones spouse when she is late in coming home from her job”

d.     “Losing 70 pounds”

3.      The “miracle question” is used mainly to:

a.      develop well-formed goals.

b.      uncover exceptions.

c.       help the client to cope with overwhelming circumstances.

d.     measure client progress.

4.      The miracle question is useful because:

a.      it gives clients permission to think about the widest range of possibilities.

b.      it focuses the client on the future, not the past.

c.       it takes the client's focus away from current problems.

d.     All of the above