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Abstract

This paper describes the Conversations Led by Clients (CoLeC) model as practiced at several Bulgarian and Russian helping institutions as a development of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). The model emphasizes therapeutic conversations as something that has to follow step by step from the clients’ enquiries. The questions include the mind-activating Question (MAQ): What do you think is the most useful question you can hear from me now? (or at our next session?); the time-oriented question: What do you think is most useful to talk about now: past, present or future?; the multiple-choice question: Which of these questions do you think is best for you right now? (from a list provided by the therapist); and the delayed-answers question: If client has no current answer, ask them to think about the question until the next session and propose self-questioning activities. CoLeC, being a step beyond some therapeutic models, is an initial effort to assist helping professionals find answers to this quite different question, “How should this client’s conversation with me be?” This makes it the beginning of a qualitatively new attitude to what we, as professionals, do. We hope that many, young and new to the profession, will not only join in, but also help further this way of thinking and doing as we see these types of conversations with clients, useful.


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