ABSTRACT
Values can be hard to elicit and questions about them often lead to lots of ‘I don’t know’ responses. Sometimes, the client is expressing a genuine sentiment and does not have any idea as to what really matters to them. Perhaps life has not yet afforded them the opportunities to build up the experiences that allow them to legitimately describe their values. More commonly, ‘I don’t know’ responses reflect the arrival of obstacles in the client’s mind about taking action, and this can include even talking about values. In such instances, it can be useful to creatively use miracle questions to navigate around the internal obstacles that arise when doing values work. The standard version of the miracle question, often used in Solution Focused Therapy, asks clients to consider a miracle occurring which removed their problem(s). It happens in the night without the client’s knowledge and the client is asked to consider how they might begin to discover that the miracle had occurred. Here are a few of our favourite alternative miracle questions, designed to elicit values.
Suppose a miracle happened and whatever you did, people gave you absolute approval. You could find the cure to cancer or you could throw cats in rubbish bins and it absolutely does not matter. Whatever you do, you get to bask in the warm glow of human approval. What kinds of things would you find yourself doing?
Imagine you go to sleep tonight, and in the middle of the night a big lightning bolt strikes you right in the head, a miracle occurs, and when you wake up the next day, your anxiety/depression/worry has changed so that it no longer has an impact on you. It’s like a monster who’s had its claws and fangs removed. There’s nothing that can stop you. You can do whatever you want. What do you do?
The zombie apocalypse finally strikes, as you knew it would. Humanity is brought to its knees and in its wake, you emerge the other side as the sole survivor. You’ve managed to take care of the survival essentials: you’ve got safe shelter, you’ve found years’ supply of baked beans and you’ve figured out how to take care of the zombie threat. Now there’s no one left on the planet to judge your actions, criticise you or say things to hold you back. What would you do to build a meaningful life?
