1. Solution Focussed
Approaches to Helping:
Scaling
Nathan Loynes

2. Scaling Questions
Steve De Shazer (1940 -2005)
Co-founder of the solution focussed
approach with Insoo Kim Berg.
After asking a client “what is better since
last time?” The client said “I’m nearly a 10
now”.
Hence, numbers used to understand
development

3. Benefits
Easy to use
Focus on change
Focus on clients phenomenological
existence (Like Person Centred)
Broad application

4. Scaling… ‘Steps’
1. Explain the scale

5. Alternative scales:

6. Where are we now?
2. The current position

7. Like a jigsaw…
3. Establish a platform:
Find out what has
already worked.

8. Vision
Visualise a higher
position; describe
how things will look.

9. Success and Strengths
5. Identify earlier
success – what
happened?

10. Small steps
6. Step forward – Ask
the client what small
steps they could take

11. Types of Scale
Success scale
Motivational scale
Confidence scale
Independence scale

12. Conclusion
Being a cognitively flexible mentor might mean
that at times you have cause to employ solution
focussed techniques. This might be when:
Discussions of the problem are creating
stagnation and or frustration.
The mentee is in a contemplative stage of
considering the benefits of change.
You are being motivational (interviewing).
You are empowering the mentee to employ
divergent thinking and offer their own solutions
that are more likely to succeed than mentor led
solutions.