When I was training as a GP, an experienced and wise colleague shared one of his high-yield questions with me. It was one he asked patients just after the latter had detailed their problems to him: ‘And what did you hope that I could do about this?’
The setting of well-defined goals is an important CBT process and key therapist competency. However I rarely succeed in achieving this simply by handing the client a sheet describing and giving examples of how to set SMART goals! So why and how should the client move from a vague wish-list to Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-framed goals?
I suspect I’m not the only trainee who has ever had the disconcerting experience of ‘barking up the wrong problem/goal tree’ with a client.