Structured Methods and Striking Moments: Using Question Sequences in "Living" Ways

Abstract

This article draws together two seemingly incompatible practices in social constructionist therapies: the use of structured questioning methods (associated with solution-focused and narrative therapies) and the poetic elaboration of "striking moments" (associated with conversational therapies). To what extent can we value and utilize both styles of practice? Beginning with practitioners’ concerns about the use of structured question sequences, I explore possibilities for re-situating these methods in different conceptual and metaphorical frames, selectively drawing on ideas from the philosophy of striking moments. The aim is not to reduce one therapeutic style to another, but to encourage the teaching and practice of structured methods in more creative, improvisational and "living" ways.