The solution approach builds on Erickson’s beautiful starting point that everyone has more resources that they realise.

We can have a seemingly impossible situation, and after it is resolved, we can discover that the solution was something that we had, and had overlooked.

Erickson told me “When a client t comes to see you, they always bring their solution with them although they don’t know it, so have a very nice time, talking with your clients, helping them to discover the solution they brought that they didn’t know that they brought”.

I found this inspiring and yet daunting - how can we do this?

When any of us is engaged in some experience that we like, we have all the resources we could need right at our fingertips otherwise we would hardly like the experience.

Asking a client what they like, what they like to do, and what it is that they like about this experience predictably shifts the mood from a heave problem-soaked one to a lighter, resource-soaked one.

Also I noticed an exquisite relationship here - the experience which is present in the likes, will be absent in the problem [that’s why it’s a problem] and the resource that is missing in the problem is ALWAYS present in they likes.

Next time you’re with a client, I invite you to start with a conversation where you explore their experience of being absorbed in something they like, and be willing to be pleasantly surprised with what follows.

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Rob