Name of Strategy or Intervention
Exception Question in Couple and Family Therapy
Introduction
Exception questions are an intervention used to uncover exceptions to the current problem in the client’s life. These kinds of questions encourage competency-based conversations. They allow the therapist to discover clients’ previous successes and amplify the clients’ strengths (Trepper et al. 2010). If miracle questions help to identify the treatment goals, exception questions provide the possible pathways to achieve these goals.
Theoretical Framework
Exception questions are among the main techniques of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT). The SFBT treatment model is supported by over 30 years of theoretical development and empirical research (De Jong and Berg 2012). Built upon the foundation of social constructivism, SFBT emphasizes the collaboration between the therapist and the client. The therapist is interested in listening to what clients want and what is important to them. The...
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References
Berg, I. K. (1994). Family-based services: A solution-focused approach. New York: Norton.
De Jong, P., & Berg, I. K. (2012). Interviewing for solutions (4th ed.). Belmont: Thomson BrooksCole.
McGee, D. R., Del Vento, A., & Bavelas, J. B. (2005). An interactional model of questions as therapeutic interventions. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 31, 371–384.
Trepper, T. S., McCollum, E. E., de Jong, P., Korman, H., Gingerich, W., & Franklin, C. (2010). Solution Focused Therapy Treatment Manual for Working with Individuals. Research Committee of the Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association. Retrieved from http://www.so1ut.ionfocused.net/ treatment manual.
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Yu, F. (2019). Exception Question in Couple and Family Therapy. In: Lebow, J.L., Chambers, A.L., Breunlin, D.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_1071
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_1071
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