This article was written by Coert Visser on www.solutionfocusedchange.com:
Solution-Focused practitioners often have to interview two clients at once who are in some kind of close relationship with each other (a dyad). This is called conjoint interviewing. In these situations it is often the case that one of them is more motivated that the other for the conversation. A complicating factor may be that they are angry at each other. In these situations it often helps to ask a well formulated question which focuses on the relationship between the two. Here is an example of how a solution-focused practitioner may respond:
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Client 1
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John is so lazy and manipulative! He lets me do all the work. And afterwards he even tries to take credit for my work.
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Client 2
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Pete is always complaining and playing the victim … Such a baby! Grow up, man!
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SF-coach
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Okay, I understand, things between the two of you are not going the way either of you want them to. Is that right?
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Client 1
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You got that right!
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Client 2
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Yeah, right.
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SF-coach
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Okay, then I understand that the both of you are here trying to improve things…. What would need to come out of this conversation so that you would say: things between us are moving in the right direction now?
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This type of response helps to avoid the clients to start elaborating on causes of problems but instead…read more here http://solutionfocusedchange.blogspot.com/2010/01/focusing-on-relationship-in-conjoint.html
