ABSTRACT
To help workshop participants understand how the miracle question can work, I say, “If I asked each of you what is the first thing you’d notice, you might all say, I’d have won the lottery/had loads of money’”–watch for the head nods. “That’s not particularly useful, is it?” Then I say, “But if I then said, ‘what difference would that make?,’ how many different answers do you think I’d get?” I then lead into a discussion about how people use symbols for what they want (be rich, be thin, live somewhere different) and sometimes forget why they want those things, so focus on the symbolic goal rather than making goals for what they really want (and what is probably more attainable).
