I have found it helpful to have a positive outlook regarding the people who consult me regardless of their histories and circumstances. This includes a belief that humans are naturally resilient and desire healthy relationships and qualities of life. I have also found it helpful not to be constrained by discourses of pathology and dysfunction. As I mentioned earlier, I do not think in terms of categories of people or kinds of problems, though of course I could find similarities across-the-board if I looked for them. This does not mean that I think diagnoses, for instance, should be thrown out the window, but rather I keep in mind that diagnoses, like other deficit discourses, can pose limits to possibilities if we only see the diagnosis and not the unique person. Instead, I have found it helpful to create more conventional frameworks of understanding with my clients that are less confining, more likely to yield a increased sense of personal agency, and more likely to hold the promise of different futures. I think of each person and each family I meet as one I have not met before. I am in interested in learning about them and their distinctive circumstances from their perspective and creating with them a unique response to what they are seeking consultation about.
Possibility Futures
In conclusion, if a therapist assumes a philosophical stance such I am describing, they will naturally and spontaneously create a space that invites and encourages conversations and relationships in which clients and therapists “connect, collaborate, and construct” with each other (Anderson, 1992, 1997). And, where each member will have a sense of participation, belonging, and ownership: all combine to promote effective outcomes and their sustainability. Because the philosophical stance becomes a natural and spontaneous way of being as a therapist, theory is not put into practice and therapists do not employ techniques and skills as we usually think of them. Instead, the stance flows from a set of philosophical assumptions that inform a way of being in relationships and conversations that are collaborative and dialogical. In other words, the philosophical stance is a way of being, an attitude that, as suggested above, sets the “tone” for the way in which we orient ourselves to be, respond, and act with another person. It invites the other into shared engagement, mutual inquiry, and joint action—the process of generative and transforming dialogue (Anderson, 1997, 2003)—making collaborative therapy and other collaborative endeavors withness insider practices with possibility futures.
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