This issue is our last for 2016. Keeping with tradition of 2014 & 2015 this edition collates a synopsis of the year’s issues with handy links to each issue’s full editorial and completes with a CPD Quiz. You can buy the quiz to test your knowledge and for APDs – convert your dedicated reading of Practice Pavestones into assessed CPD hours for your APD renewal…..just around the corner.

But I have some sad news folks…………..this will be the last year that the CPD Quiz will be published for subscribers unless there is a big increase in uptake. Do you have APD mates who are struggling to fill their assessed CPD hours for 2016? At $9.95 the 2016 Pavestones Quiz would have to be the most affordable assessed CPD on the market – not to mention fun, useful and super practical.

Please support Pavestones by sending on to APD colleagues who may be looking for great value assessed self-study in this vital area of clinical practice.

Read on to get a great summary of the years content and link to the Quiz…

Download Issue 34

This is the last issue exploring the second process in Motivational Interviewing: Focusing. I will be presenting two different styles for finding a meaningful session direction with your client…..and a soundtrack featuring a canine friend who just can’t seem to find one! You can play with some focusing templates available as downloads in the editorial. What’s your Focusing style? Tick a Box or Free Fall? or something unique to you?

Download Issue 33

In any modality of behaviour change counselling we need a direction, something to focus on with our client in order to be producitve. What is particularly emphasised in Motivational Interviewing is the HOW and the WHY of finding a focus.

In the HOW, MI encourages that it is very important that we find direction collaboratively with the client. Asking the client what matters to them and what they would appreciate help with is central to demonstrating the spirit of Motivational Interviewing.

The HOW of Focusing may sound pretty straight forward. Something has brought your client into your office and so we may assume they have something they want to focus on with us. Well, as they say: ‘It ain’t necessarily so!’.

Last week I received a fabulous question from a subscriber which brought a possible Focusing challenge to life. With her permission I will share her question here:

Could you please direct me to a past issue of Pavestones that might look at how to move forward with client who says they are ‘doing everything but not getting results’ but who I suspect isn’t [doing everything]?

Great question!

How on earth do we stay along side our client and find something to work on when they present as ‘all good’ and we have well founded concerns things are not going so well? Read on to find out more.

Download Issue 32

Once we have joined with our client in a strong engagement it’s time to do something directional. This issue we are going to be exploring how to shift gears from the process of Engagement to the process of Focusing without crunching the gear box and bunny hopping through a session.

Download this issue to found out what the clutch sounds like and for a few more cheesy metaphors!

Download Issue 31

For those of you that are just joining the conversation, we are currently exploring the first process in the Four Processes of MI introduced back in Issue 28. This important starting point for MI is referred to as Engagement and we completed an introduction to what this really means and what helps it to happen last issue. Engagement is much much more than a friendly warm greeting.

Have you ever considered that your ‘job’ may get in the way of you doing good work? In this issue we are looking at how some of our workplace requirements and role expectations can really limit our effectiveness in facilitating behaviour change by blocking client engagement. While taking a look at these challenges I will be exploring some alternative ideas and options to consider. Read on to learn more and have a laugh at Christopher Pyne….

Download Issue 30

Engagement – what does that actually mean?

I wonder if we can take for granted that we understand what ‘to engage’ our client means?

Here are some synonyms of the verb ‘engage’ from Prof Google, to expand and bring this word to life.

Capture ….catch ……….arrest ….seize……… draw ……..attract ……….captivate ……hold….. grip…… engross…… occupy …….absorb

When I first read through this list I was struck by how dynamic these words are. Full of energy, activity, purpose and intent. In our work with a client, engaging is not simply the warm up chat we do before getting to the advice bit.

So what energy or ‘spirit’ are we using when we are engaging our client and what is our intention and purpose?

Read on to find out more, consider some sample questions that embody this purpose and spirit and appreciate some reflections about engagement from colleagues.

Read Issue 29

This issue was in part inspired by a skillful supervisee who came to supervision curious about the impact of working on increasing her reflections in client sessions. Her concerns were more of a hunch than anything concrete; a sense that she may not be holding the purpose of the session clearly enough by engaging in more reflective listening. Was something being lost or diluted in the work via the impact of reflections? Was she at risk of jumping up and down on the spot with the client?

This is such a useful enquiry for our consideration and very timely. I had earmarked the next chapter of issues to commence an exploration of the uniquely directive nature of Motivational Interviewing best encapsulated by the Four Processes of MI. So let’s jump in and find out some more………

Read Issue 28

This issue’s editorial will be wrapping up our ‘Question Series’ commenced back in Issue 21 September 2015. This chapter of issues has presented different views of the power of well considered questions with some enthusiasm. To reinforce our balanced perspective, I will be discussing some cautions in the tale of buoyant questioning as we close the discussion today.

Read Issue 27

Last issue we spent time exploring how questions can be used to seek exceptions to a problem behaviour. Uncovering these exception experiences can reveal overlooked or dismissed resources. Reconnecting our clients to these resources is a powerful intervention that can reinforce our client’s competence and autonomy in the change process. If you’d like to have a quick revision you can access Issue 25 below

Sue Zbornik APD demonstrated a beautiful application of the exception idea at her Appetite Workshops in February. I invited Sue to contribute to this issue and talk a little about this special form of conversation she has with her clients.

Read on to engage with this wonderfully creative application of the ‘Exception Question’

Read Issue 26

So let’s see, in Issue 24 we spent some time thinking about directive questions that pull out our client’s preferred future by eliciting resources, strengths and visions of change. Broadly called ‘Solution Focused’ questions these types of questions are a powerful tool in the kit bag of behaviour change therapists.

Travelling along a similar vein in this issue, I am inviting exploration of questions that look for exceptions to the problem. These types of questions may offer a much more subtle and client focused alternative to imposing a new thought about change. ‘Exception Questions’ may do this by inviting the client to sift through their own experiences with a lens that captures times when the problem has been less of an influence.

Read on to explore more about what this angle of enquiry may have to offer your clients and what it may sound like in session…

Read Issue 25