In solution focused brief therapy one of the most important things is the idea of focusing on the preferred future description. That's really what solution focused brief therapy is based on and it's grounded on and one of the most important questions to doing that is what we refer to as the miracle question. So in this video I want to talk about the essence of the miracle question and clear up one of the biggest confusions of the miracle question that I see as I travel around and teach people. this approach. So the miracle question traditionally sounds like this.
Suppose you went to sleep one night and a miracle happened that solved all of your problems. When you woke up the following day, what would you notice? And people have often referred to this as a goal-setting question or a question that's really good for helping the client figure out what they want from the therapy and that sort of thing. But I want to talk to you about the way that this question has evolved because now I'd like you to think about it in two parts. When a client first comes into therapy, the first thing we're going to ask them is what is their best hopes from therapy?
And what we're after is a present focused response for what they want is their desired outcome from therapy. Right. So I might say, suppose you want to sleep.
I'm sorry. I might say, what do you best hope for our therapy? And the person say, I want to be happy.
So I'm going to take the word happy. And then later on in the session, I'm going to ask the miracle question. But instead of saying, suppose you want to sleep one night and a miracle happened, it's all. all of your problems, I'm going to say, suppose you went to sleep one night and a miracle happened, and I'm going to use a positive, meaning present focused way of answering the question. So suppose you went to sleep one night and a miracle happened and you woke up and the happiness you're seeking is present.
What's the first thing you would notice? And then that's not a goal setting question for us. That question literally is the therapy.
We're going to spend the rest of the session answering this question. I'm going to say, what's the first thing you would notice? What would your wife notice?
What would your children notice? What would you notice as you were getting dressed for work? What would you notice as you were driving to work? When you got to work, what did the people notice about you that would let them know that your happiness was present? Literally extrapolating every detail possible in that person's preferred future description that's related to the presence of their happiness.
Like that really is the point of the miracle question. I have been in workshops and conferences and lectures. and heard people talk about solution-focused brief therapy, not really understanding the way the best hopes question ties into the miracle question, and kind of confusing it too.
I even heard someone say that the best hopes question replaces the miracle question. This is not true. The best hopes question, the whole purpose of that, is to get language we could use for the presence of the client's desired outcome, and the miracle question is to use that language to get to a detailed preferred future description. So I hope this video helped clear up a little bit around the miracle question. And please, if you like this video, give me a like, share this video on social media, and let's make sure everybody around the world knows the true essence of the miracle question and how to do a preferred future description with your clients.
Thanks for watching.