Therapeutic Initiatives (TIPs) – Page 4 – WIPscope

Tips to co-construct antidote (3) via thickening preferences (#27)

Aim or sub-task	Guiding questions
Identify a relational preference (preferred relational understanding such as preferred emotions, capacities, behaviours, attitudes, intentions, identities, ways of relating).	You said your child had ‘low self-esteem’; how much do you think she understand why this is a ‘bad’ thing for you? Is it that you have to trust in yourself if you want to succeed? Is it that you value personal accomplishments? Something else? (To ‘bearer’ of problem) what is it that you value about ‘clamming up? does it help you to feel safe? Is it like a shield? Shield to what? If there were other forms to protect yourself, or make some changes so that protection wasn’t needed as much, would you be interested in figuring them out? When would you say the ‘clamming up’ turns into a “bad thing” for you, because makes you do things that go against your best interest? Why would you say this does against your best interest? Some parents sometimes want to help their children to learn to take risks and trust themselves… is that important to you? Why? Did you ever noticed something that would get close to such ability/learning?
Characterize the preference	How would you call this “good” thing you seem to be after? (e.g., “(supporting) self-confidence”; “trusting others for help”; “being authentic”; “courage to take risks”). Does your child know that you are interested in promoting her ability to nurture…. (e.g., “self-efficacy”)? When have you seen her exercising “self-confidence” to some degree? How would you know that she is getting more confident? Have you met people who are very confident but still cautious, perhaps admirable for that? Who is better at home at trusting oneself and others for support? Second best? Third?
Bring forth powerful inspirations (e.g., utility, goodness, beauty, or other “good reasons”).	Would you say there’s something ‘ugly’ about “isolating”? if so, can you tell me more about that? Why would you say connecting and trusting others for support is desirable? Sometimes even admirable? What has life taught you about the importance of “trusting others/oneself”? Why is it good? Why is it useful? Where did you learn that from? What would happen immediately in your relationship with your child if they believed you think it is good but not easy to trust people who love you? What would happen after a year? After 10 years?
Track ongoing changes in relation to preference	Who has gotten better at (supporting) self-confidence at home? Who has noticed some difference in your child’s “self-esteem” in the last year? In the last month? How have you noticed that? How long are these ‘clamming up” episodes these last few days? From 1 to 10, how intense are they now in your head/heart? How frequent? What does ‘self-confidence’ do to “clamming up”? What does ‘empathy & support’ do to “self-deprecation”? (When unhelpful interaction is being enacted in session: does questioning/demanding/pressure help you? What else helps you?)
Plan, do, and consolidate	What else are you going to do to Support/exercise self-confidence? Do you have a plan? How would you practice your “self-confidence muscles”? Who may have some other ideas? What do these changes tell about what the relationship between you is becoming? What are you becoming into?

Tips to co-construct antidote (2) via exception (#27)

Aim or sub-task	Guiding questions
Formulate a hypothetical solution	Imagine this issue of ‘low self-esteem’ solved out, what would be different? What would you see different? What would you hear different? What would you think/feel different? How would you respond or do different?
Identify critical factors in hypothetical solution	What did you do that helped solving out this problem, in this imagined situation? When the problem solved out, how did you respond? When you responded like that, what did you observe as an effect? How others responded to your response?
Identify an exception to the problem	When have you been able to resist engaging in ‘you were wrong’, and opened space for him to share what was going on for them? What did you notice when you did? What was different? I heard you saying that there was a time when he was able to ‘put himself together and give it another try’; can you tell me more about this?
Amplify exception in the present	How did you did that (exception)? How else did you empowered yourself and didn’t let ‘clamming up’ (or “I have to question this attitude”) manage you? How did you manage not to surrender to the anxiety/anger that came up for you when you saw your child was…? Where did you learn that? What did you do to get ready or prepare to make that step in that occasion? What other personal resources did you rely on to make this step? What did you notice different in the relationship with your child when you did that (exception)? What did you notice different in yourself? What did other members of your family noticed? Who was the first in noticing the difference? Who was the second? Third? How did others respond? How did you feel when they did that? How did the rest of your day go after this happened? What did you notice later?
Co-create a new future	When you act upon these ideas, what difference will it make for you? What difference will it make about how you feel about the episode? About yourself? When you feel like that, what will be easier to do from that mindset/mood/state of mind/stance etc.? How will this orient you towards a new direction in your life? While you continue going in this preferred direction, how will your new future be different from your old future?
Formulate a step by step plan	Would you be interested in working (with your parents) to figure out new ways to (expand solutions/resist problems)? Who else could we recruit as part of your supporting team? How could they help with this? What could their contributions be? What difference does it make for your next steps knowing that you were capable of resisting the ‘unnecessary self-protection’ this time? What ideas does this success give you about what your next step could be? How will you know that your next step was successful? How else would you like to restrict the power that “compulsion to confront” (or “compulsion to flight”) may have in your family?

Tips to co-construct antidote (1) via unique outcomes (#27)

Aim or sub-task	Guiding questions
Explore unique outcomes	Have you ever seen your child overcoming a hard time? Has they ever able to overcome the impulse to isolate and trust someone else? Has they ever decided to do something different other than surrender to anguish? Has they ever done something different to avoid getting to a place where ‘clamming up’ seems unavoidable? What did you do in that occasion, which helped her to accomplish this? What did you do right after, when you noticed she was getting stronger to fight with ‘self-doubt’? How did your child respond when you did that? If by exploring this episode in depth we could learn something about your capacity to foster further self-confidence in your child, would you be interested in doing that?
Internalize personal agency	You mentioned that you did something different on that occasion, how did you do that? How did you manage to abstain from questioning and demanding, and tried instead opening space so that they could share what was going on for them? Was there anything different that you thought or felt that made you stronger, so that you could respond differently in that occasion?
Link personal agency with personal resources or skills	Where did you learn that? What does this skill or ability tell about yourself as a person?
Recruit a supporting team	Who could help you to get stronger at containing anguish? Who could help you to get stronger at avoid unwittingly pressuring and support her in her struggle? Who could help you to help? If ‘self-doubt’ was taking control over you, what could your dad do to help you get stronger? Who could help your dad help you? Who else could help you?
Inquire about future effects of unique outcome	If in the next few days/weeks you had further opportunities to support your child’s desire to get stronger at trusting, and sharing frustration with others, what do you think would happen to the problem? Would its presence (or power to influence your relationship with your daughter) increase or decrease? What difference would this make for you?

Tips to weaken problematic interactions (3) via externalizing a problem-strengthening IDEA (#27)

Aim or sub-task	Guiding questions
Explore with curiosity the nature, history, effects, and tactics of the (potentially problematic) idea	What is it that worries you the most about this idea (e.g., “my child is neglectful”) Where did this idea (e.g,. “he/she doesn’t care”) came from? How does this idea interfere with your life? How has this idea affected your relationship with your child? How do you think your child feels when he perceives you as under the influence of this idea? Where is this idea more influential? How does this idea manage to convince you of its “truth”? When did you start “blindly obeying” this idea? If you convinced yourself that your child knows very well that what they did was wrong, that you would never collude with “neglectfulness” by accepting such behavior, but that he just lacks the self-confidence to do better… what do you thing would happen with this idea?
Explore unique outcomes	Has there ever been a time when this idea was weaker in your mind? Has there ever been a time when a different, more helpful idea came up to mind about what was behind her acting in that particular way? What was it? Alternatively to child: Has there ever been a time when you were sure that dad was rejecting your behavior and not yourself? What happened on this occasion? What was different as a result if this different idea coming up? What did you do different? What did s/he do? What did your partner say? What was the first thing you noticed? What have you done that has helped your child to respond differently? What else?
Explore future effects of unique outcome	If your child believed that it is more important to you that s/he is really trying, and making small progress, what do you think would happen to the problem? If your child believed that you condemn “the deed” but not “the doer”, what do you think would happen to the problem? If could child was convinced about your good intentions, what would this mean to you? Who would be the most surprised if s/he did get convinced? Who would be the least surprised? Why? What would be different in your life? What would be different in your relationship with your child?

Tips to weaken problematic interactions (2) via externalization (#27)

Aim or sub-task	Guiding questions
Name the problem: negotiate an experience-near formulation for the problem	How would you call this problem? (e.g., “clamming up”; “freezing”; “lack of self-confidence”; “low self-esteem”; “anxiety”; “self-questioning”; “upset”; “hiding”, etc.). In a scale from 1 to 10, how intense the problem (e.g., “clamming up”) would be right now?
Explore the negative effects of the problem	Does the problem (e.g., “clamming up”) make you do things that you don’t like to do, or that you regret afterwards? What does the problem make you do? What else? Is it a ‘strong’, powerful problem? What makes the problem bigger (or stronger)? If we asked your mom, how can she tell when the problem went from 3 to 5 in the scale? To 7? To 9? How does she do, or how does she respond when ‘anxiety’ made you say that? What else does ‘anxiety’ make you to do, that you are not proud about doing afterwards? How does that make you feel?
Explore unique outcomes (for more details check up on “tips via unique outcome”).	Did you ever beat the problem (e.g., ‘unhelpful thoughts’)? Did the problem ever complied with you, instead of you complying with it? When was (bearer of problem) able to lower the intensity (or frequency) of the problem? When was (bearer of problem) able to do something with the problem? How did you notice? What was the first thing you noticed? What did you/her do? What did your mom notice? What did she do? What happened on that occasion? What did others say about this?
Explore unique outcomes in the future	If (unique outcome) happened again in the next few days/weeks, what would happen to the problem? Do you think its influence in your life would increase or decrease? What difference would this make for you? What would be different in your life? What else?

Tips to weaken problematic interactions (1) via separating intention-effect (#27)

Aim or sub-task	Guiding questions
Obtain a prototype of the problematic behavior or situation	Can you tell me a typical situation in which this problem (e.g., “clamming up”; “freezing”; “lack of self-confidence”; “low self-esteem”; “anxiety”; “self-questioning”; “upset”; “hiding”, etc.) takes place? How would you call it? Can you describe how it was the last time that this problem happened?
Obtain a typical response (TR) to problematic behavior	How did you respond in this situation? What did you do when X behaved in that (problematic) way? (e.g., I invited them to…; I got upset; anxious; I took a deep breath and tried to explain that…; I grabbed my head; I yelled…; I pushed..; I demanded)
Search for positive intention behind TR	What did you expect it would happen by doing that (e.g., inviting them to think… or other TR)? What were you intending? What was the outcome you were looking for? (e.g., do things better for them…)
Separate intention from actual effect	What would you say was the immediate effect of doing what you did (RT)? (e.g., “nothing; just stares at me, then silence”) What has been the long-term consequences for your relationship? What has been the effect of doing that according to the other person participating in the situation? Would you say this is not the result that you were hoping for?
Formulate negative feelings or “stance” on actual effect	How do you feel when you realize that you could have produced effects that you weren’t intending? What happens to you when you realize about what actually happened?
Separate agent from action	If you had known in advance what the actual effect would be, would you have done something different? If you were convinced that in a situation like this there is something you could do to prevent this negative effect, would you do it? If somebody gave you ideas that have helped on similar situations, but different from what you’ve been trying, would you give them a try?
Formular valor ausente pero implícito	Why would you do something different? What values are at stake for you here? What would be different for you if your intentions came across without distortion to the other?

Tips to co-construct antidote (3) Via thickening preferences (#1)

Aim or sub-task	Guiding questions
Identify a relational preference (preferred relational understanding such as preferred emotions, capacities, behaviours, attitudes, intentions, identities, ways of relating).	You said your child was very upset, and I thought you wanted to say that wasn’t right for you, is that a fair statement? According to you, the bad thing about it is getting upset, losing control, or something else? (To ‘bearer’ of problem) what is it that you value about being upset? Does it give you strength? Does it help you express something you are unable to express with words sometimes? Does it help you to express something you find unfair? When would you say the ‘upset’ helps you, and when does it turn into a “bad thing”, because makes you do things you do not feel proud of doing? Some parents sometimes want to help their children to learn self-control… is that important to you? Some parents want to help their children to make good decisions for their lives…is that important to you? Did you ever noticed something that would get close to such ability/learning?
Characterize the preference	How would you call this? (e.g., “self-control”; “inner control”; “assertiveness”; “promoting autonomy”; “respecting others’ rights”). Does your child know that you are interested in promoting her…. (e.g., autonomy)? When have you seen her exercising autonomy (or “inner control”) to some degree? How would you know that she is getting more autonomy? Have you met people who make good, autonomous decisions, commit and take responsibility for their decisions, etc? Who is better at home at exercising inner control? Second best? Third?
Bring forth powerful inspirations (e.g., utility, goodness, beauty, or other “good reasons”).	Would you say there’s something ‘ugly’ about “lack of self-control”? if so, can you tell me more about that? Why would you say autonomy is somewhat desirable? Admirable perhaps? Why is it useful? What has life taught you about the importance of “self-control”? Where did you learn that from? What would happen immediately in your relationship with your child if they decided appreciating and welcoming your willingness for her to gain more autonomy? What would happen after a year? After 10 years?
Track ongoing changes in relation to preference	Who has gotten better at (supporting) self-control at home? Who has noticed some difference in your child’s “inner control” in the last year? In the last month? How have you noticed that? How long are these ‘meltdown episodes’ now? From 1 to 10, how intense are they now? How frequent? What does ‘patience’ do to “outer control”? (When unhelpful interaction is being enacted in session: does nagging help you? What else helps you?)
Plan, do, and consolidate	What else are you going to do to Support/exercise inner control? Do you have a plan? How would you practice your “autonomy muscles”? Who may have some other ideas? What do these changes tell about what the relationship between you is becoming? What are you becoming into?

Tips to co-construct antidote (2) Via exception (#1)

Aim or sub-task	Guiding questions
Formulate a hypothetical solution	Imagine this issue of ‘blowing up’ solved out, what would be different? What would you see different? What would you hear different? What would you think/feel different? How would you respond or do different?
Identify critical factors in hypothetical solution	What did you do that helped solving out this problem? When the problem solved out, how did you respond? When you responded like that, what did you observe as an effect? How others responded to your response?
Identify an exception to the problem	When have you been able to resist engaging in exercising ‘outer control’, and opened space for ‘inner control’ to take place? Have you ever resisted to engage in exercising outer control? What did you notice when you did? What was different?
Amplify exception in the present	How did you did that (exception)? How else did you empowered yourself and didn’t let outer control manage you? How did you manage not to surrender to the anxiety that came up for you when you saw your child was…? Where did you learn that? What did you do to get ready or prepare to make that step in that occasion? What other personal resources did you rely on to make this step? What did you notice different in the relationship with your child when you did that (exception)? What did you notice different in yourself? What did other members of your family noticed? Who was the first in noticing the difference? Who was the second? Third? How did others respond? How did you feel when they did that? How did the rest of your day go after this happened? What did you notice later?
Co-create a new future	When you act upon these ideas, what difference will it make for you? What difference will it make about how you feel about the episode? About yourself? When you feel like that, what will be easier to do from that mindset/mood/state of mind/stance etc.? How will this orient you towards a new direction in your life? While you continue going in this preferred direction, how will your new future be different from your old future?
Formulate a step by step plan	Would you be interested in working (with your parents) to figure out new ways to (expand solutions/resist problems)? Who else could we recruit as part of your supporting team? How could they help with this? What could their contributions be? What difference does it make for your next steps knowing that you were capable of resisting the temptation this time? What ideas does this success give you about what your next step could be? How will you know that your next step was successful? How else would you like to restrict the power that “outer control” may have in your family?

Tips to co-construct antidote (1) Via unique outcome (#1)

Aim or sub-task	Guiding questions
Explore unique outcomes	Have you ever seen your child showing self-control? Has she ever decided to control him/herself instead of losing it? Has he ever decided to do something different other than melting down? Has she ever done something different to avoid getting to a place where melting down seems unavoidable? What did you do in that occasion, which helped her to control herself? What did you do right after, when you noticed she was putting herself together? How did your child respond when you did that? If by exploring this episode in depth we could learn something about your capacity to foster inner control in your child, would you be interested in doing that?
Internalize personal agency	You mentioned that you did something different on that occasion, how did you do that? How did you manage to abstain from attempting to control her behavior, and tried instead opening space so that he could control himself? Was there anything different that you thought or felt that made you stronger, so that you could respond differently?
Link personal agency with personal resources or skills	Where did you learn that? What does this skill or ability tell about yourself as a person?
Recruit a supporting team	Who could help you to make good decisions? Who could help you to help? If ‘blowing up’ was taking control over you, what could your dad do to help you get stronger? Who could help your dad help you? Who else could help you?
Inquire about future effects of unique outcome	If you had further opportunities to support your child’s inner control in the next few days/weeks, what do you think would happen to the problem? Would its presence (or power to influence your relationship with your daughter) increase or decrease? What difference would this make for you?

Tips to weaken problematic interactions (3) via externalizing a problem-strengthening IDEA (#1)

Aim or sub-task	Guiding questions
Explore with curiosity the nature, history, effects, and tactics of the (potentially problematic) idea	What is it that worries you the most about the (e.g,. ‘misbehavior’) issue? (e.g., “Kids should always comply with their parents”; “her disobedience”) How does the idea that your child should always comply with you interferes in your life? How has this idea affected your relationship with your child? Where is this idea more influential? How does this idea manage to convince you of its “truth”? When did you start “blindly obeying” this idea? It is unacceptable, for you, that your child seems not to comply with you, or not comply to certain principles or standards? What would those be? Respecting other’s rights? Caring about personal safety? Self-control? Other?
Explore unique outcomes	Has there ever been a time when your child did not comply with what you were saying, but you thought it was nevertheless acceptable? What happened on this occasion? What was different? What did you do? What did s/he do? What did your partner say? What was the first thing you noticed? How did you know that his disobedience was not “bad”? What was the valuable principle s/he was “covertly obeying” in this “good disobedience”? What have you done that has helped your child to obey this important principle? What else?
Explore future effects of unique outcome	If your child believed that it is more important to you that s/he complies with certain principles, rather than complying with you, what do you think would happen to the problem? If your child believed that you worry more about mutually ignoring or distrusting one another, than how much s/he complies with your wishes, what do you think would happen to the problem? If could child was convinced about your good intentions, what would this mean to you? Who would be the most surprised if s/he did get convinced? Who would be the least surprised? Why? What would be different in your life? What would be different in your relationship with your child?