Chapter 1 3 Postmodern Approaches

Question 1

The story that develops in
counseling in contradiction to the dominant
story that is embedded in a client’s problem.

Answer 1

Alternative story

Question 2

The process by which both therapist
and client share responsibility for the development
of alternative stories.

Answer 2

Co-authoring

Question 3

The exploration of meaning
by taking apart, or unpacking, the taken-forgranted
categories and assumptions underlying
social practices that pose as truth.

Answer 3

Deconstruction

Question 4

A way of understanding a situation
that has been so widely accepted within
a culture that it appears to represent “reality.”Growing out of conversations in a social and cultural
context, dominant stories shape reality in
that they construct and constitute what people
see, feel, and do.

Answer 4

Dominant story

Question 5

Solution-focused therapists
inquire about those times in clients’ lives
when the problems they identify have not been
problematic. Exploring these exceptions reminds
clients that problems are not all-powerful
and have not existed forever.

Answer 5

Exception questions

Question 6

Past experiences in a client’s life
when it would be reasonable to have expected
the problem to occur, but somehow it did not.

Answer 6

Exceptions

Question 7

A way of speaking
in which the problem may be spoken of as if it is
a distinct entity that is separate from the person.

Answer 7

Externalizing conversation

Question 8

A form of homework
a therapist might give clients to complete between
their fi rst and second therapy sessions. Clients are
asked to simply observe what is happening in their
lives that they want to continue happening.

Answer 8

Formula fi rst session task

Question 9

A series of
questions asked about a problem that a client has
internalized as a means of understanding the relationship
between the person and the problem.

Answer 9

Mapping-the-infl uence questions

Question 10

A solution-focused technique
that asks clients to imagine how their life
would be different if they woke up tomorrow
and they no longer had their problem.

Answer 10

Miracle question

Question 11

A social constructionist conceptualization
of how people create “storied” meaning
in their lives.

Answer 11

Narrative

Question 12

A postmodern approach to
therapy that is based on the therapist’s personal
characteristics that allow for creating a climate
that encourages clients to see their stories from
different perspectives. Grounded in a philosophical
framework, narrative practices assist clients
in fi nding new meanings and new possibilities in
their lives.

Answer 12

Narrative therapy

Question 13

A therapist’s stance
that invites clients to become the experts who
are informing the therapist about the signifi cant
narratives of their lives.

Answer 13

Not-knowing position

Question 14

An approach that concentrates
on what is right and what is working
for people rather than dwelling on defi cits, weaknesses,
and problems.

Answer 14

Positive psychology

Question 15

A philosophical movement
across a variety of disciples that has aimed at
critically examining many of the assumptions
that are part of the established truths of society.
The postmodern worldview acknowledges the
complexity, relativity, and intersubjectivity of all
human experience.

Answer 15

Postmodernism

Question 16

A believer in subjective realities
that cannot exist independently of the observational
processes used. Problems exist when
people agree that there is a problem that needs
to be addressed.

Answer 16

Postmodernist

Question 17

At the first therapy session,
solution-focused therapists often inquire
about presession improvements, or anything clients
have done since scheduling the appointment
that has made a difference in their problems.

Answer 17

Pretherapy change

Question 18

People often come
to therapy feeling overwhelmed by their problems
to which they are fused. Narrative therapists
assist clients in understanding that they do
not have to be reduced by these totalizing descriptions
of their identity.

Answer 18

Problem-saturated story

Question 19

A process in narrative therapy in
which client and therapist jointly create an alternative
life story.

Answer 19

Re-authoring

Question 20

A solution-focused technique
that asks clients to observe changes in
feelings, moods, thoughts, and behaviors. On a
scale of zero to 10, clients are asked to rate some
change in their experiences.

Answer 20

Scaling questions

Question 21

A therapeutic perspective
within a postmodern worldview that
stresses the client’s reality without disputing the
accuracy or validity of this reality. Social constructionism
emphasizes the ways in which people
make meaning in social relationships.

Answer 21

Social constructionism

Question 22

A postmodern
approach to therapy that provides a context
whereby individuals focus on recovering and
creating solutions rather than talking about their
problems.

Answer 22

Solution-focused brief therapy

Question 23

A categorical description
of people that constricts them to a single dimension
that purports to capture their identity.

Answer 23

Totalizing descriptions

Question 24

Aspects of lived experience
that lie outside the realm of dominant stories
or in contradiction to the problem-saturated
story.

Answer 24

Unique outcome

Question 25

1. Narrative therapists believe new
   stories take hold only when there is
   an audience to appreciate and support
   such stories.

Answer 25

t

Question 26

T F 2. One of the functions of a narrative
therapist is to ask questions of the
client and, based on the answers,
generate further questions.
s specifi c
strategies for underst

Answer 26

t

Question 27

T F 3. Narrative therapy is a relational and

anti-individualistic practice.

Answer 27

t

Question 28

T F 4. Narrative practitioners encourage
clients to avoid being reduced
by totalizing descriptions of their
identity.

Answer 28

t

Question 29

T F 5. Narrative therapists pay more attention
to a client’s past than they
do to the client’s present and future.

Answer 29

f

Question 30

T F 6. In solution-focused therapy, gathering
extensive information about
a problem is a necessary step in
helping clients fi nd a solution to the
problem.

Answer 30

f

Question 31

T F 7. Solution-focused therapists assist
clients in paying attention to the exceptions
to their problem patterns.

Answer 31

t

Question 32

T F 8. Solution-focused therapists use
questions that presuppose change,
posit multiple answers, and remain
goal-directed and future-oriented.

Answer 32

t

Question 33

T F 9. In solution-focused therapy, the
role of the client is to create solutions
based on his or her internal
resources.

Answer 33

t

Question 34

T F 10. Because solution-focused therapy is
designed to be brief, it is essential
that therapists teach clientanding their
problems.

Answer 34

f

Question 35

11. Which of the following is true of
narrative therapy and solutionfocused
therapy?
a. The client is an expert on his or
her own life.
b. The therapeutic relationship
should be hierarchical.
c. The therapist is the expert on a
client’s life.
d. Clients should adjust to social
and cultural norms.
e. For change to occur, clients must
fi rst acquire insight into their
problems.

Answer 35

a

Question 36

12. A major goal of narrative therapy is to
    a. shift from problem-talk to
    solution-talk.
    b. assist clients in designing creative
    solutions to their problems.
    c. invite clients to describe their experience
    in new and fresh language,
    and in doing this open up a new
    vision of what is possible.
    d. uncover a client’s self-defeating
    cognitions.
    e. enable clients to gain clarity
    about the ways their family of
    origin still affect them today.

Answer 36

c

Question 37

13. All of the following are true of narrative
therapy except for
a. viewing problems in a sociopolitical
and cultural context.
b. assisting clients in developing an
alternative life story.
c. accepting the premise that diagnosis
is a basic prerequisite for
effective treatment.
d. creating a therapeutic relationship
that is collaborative
e. recognizing that clients know
what is best for their life
and are experts in their
own life.

Answer 37

c

Question 38

14. Which of the following interventions
is least likely to be used by a
narrative therapist?
a. externalizing conversations
b. mapping the infl uence of a
problem
c. power analysis and intervention
d. the search for unique outcomes
e. documenting the evidence

Answer 38

c

Question 39

15. Which of these techniques is not
used in solution-focused therapy?
a. a lifestyle assessment
b. scaling questions
c. the miracle question
d. formula fi rst session task
e. exception questions

Answer 39

a

Question 40

16. A major strength of both solutionfocused
and narrative therapies is
the
a. empirical evidence that has been
collected on both approaches.
b. attention given to how one’s
early history sheds light on
understanding current
problems.
c. history-taking procedure used
during the intake interview.
d. use of questioning.

Answer 40

d

Question 41

17. Two of the major founders of solution-
focused brief therapy are
a. Michael White and David
Epston.
b. Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de
Shazer.
c. Harlene Anderson and Harold
Goolishian.
d. Tom Andersen and Bill
O’Hanlon.
e. John Walter and Jane Peller.

Answer 41

b

Question 42

18. Two of the major founders of narrative
therapy are
a. Michael White and David Epston.
b. Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de
Shazer.
c. Marlene Anderson and Harold
Goolishian.
d. Tom Andersen and Bill
O’Hanlon.
e. John Walter and Jane Peller.

Answer 42

a

Question 43

19. The therapeutic process in solutionfocused
brief therapy involves all of
the following except for the notion
a. of creating collaborative therapeutic
relationships.
b. of asking clients about those
times when their problems were
not present or when the problems
were less severe.
c. that clients are the experts on
their own lives.
d. that solutions evolve out of
therapeutic conversations and
dialogues.
e. that therapists are experts in
assessment and diagnosis.

Answer 43

e

Question 44

20. Which of the following is not a basic
assumption guiding the practice of
solution-focused brief therapy?
a. Individuals who come to therapy
have the ability to effectively
cope with their problems.
b. There are advantages to a positive
focus on solutions and on
the future.
c. Clients want to change, have
the capacity to change, and are
doing their best to make change
happen.
d. Using techniques in therapy is a
way of discounting a client’s capacity
to fi nd his or her own way.

Answer 44

d

Question 45

21. In solution-focused therapy, which
kind of relationship is characterized
by the client and therapist jointly
identifying a problem and a solution
to work toward?
a. customer-type relationship
b. the complainant
c. a visitor
d. a compliant client

Answer 45

a

Question 46

22. Pretherapy change is a solutionfocused
therapy technique that
a. is arrived at by asking clients
about exceptions to their problems.
b. asks clients to address changes
that have taken place from the
time they made an appointment
to the fi rst therapy session.
c. is based on a series of tests that
the client takes prior to beginning
therapy to get baseline data.
d. involves the therapist offering clients
ways they can change their
perspective on the problems that
brought them to therapy.

Answer 46

b

Question 47

23. Which of these solution-focused
therapy techniques involves asking
clients to describe life without the
problem?
a. pretherapy change
b. the miracle question
c. exception questions
d. scaling
e. formula fi rst session task

Answer 47

b

Question 48

24. In narrative therapy, the process
of finding evidence to bolster a
new view of the person as competent
enough to have stood up to or
defeated the dominance or oppression
of the problem refers to
a. the initial assessment.
b. exploring problem-saturated
stories.
c. objectifying the problem.
d. the search for unique outcomes.

Answer 48

d

Question 49

25. Which of the following statements
about creating alternative stories is
not true?
a. Constructing new stories
goes hand in hand with deconstructing
problem-saturated
narratives.
b. The narrative therapist analyzes
and interprets the meaning of a
client’s story.
c. The therapist works with clients
collaboratively by helping them
construct more coherent and
comprehensive stories that they
live by.
d. The development of alternative
stories is an enactment of ultimate
hope.
e. The narrative therapist listens
for openings to new stories

Answer 49

b