ABSTRACT
In the child and family services division of a large community mental health center, treatment is often brief and the treatment goals well focused. This kind of environment lends itself well to Solution-Focused Therapy techniques that, “Focus on people's competence rather than their deficits, their strengths rather than their weaknesses, their possibilities rather than their limitations” (O'Hanlon and Davis, 1989, p. 1). However, a common complaint of clients treated using this model is that they don't feel heard by the therapist. O'Hanlon and Davis clearly point out that becoming set in your own agenda (of being solution focused) to the point of failure to recognize client responses is a recipe for a therapeutic sticking point. To sidestep the impression that the therapist has suddenly mutated into Pollyanna, grafting the strategic intervention of the paradoxical prescription of complaining becomes an important intervention. The complaint technique allows the client to feel heard while allowing the therapist to continue focused, goal-directed brief therapy.
