Talk: Constructing preferred future and resource conversations through solution-focused discourses with people with long-term physical health conditions

 

Joanna Cheng, Dr Ian Smith

This talk will describe our research which looks at how people with a long-term physical health condition (LTC) construct preferred futures and resources with their therapists using solution-focused (SF) conversations. We recruited participants in dyads of service users and SF practitioners. Each service user’s first SF session was recorded and transcribed. Data were analysed using a Discursive Action Model (DAM) informed approach, to examine how the participants talked about and made sense of their current situation. Through developing an understanding of how SF practice can be helpful and / or unhelpful for people with LTCs we will highlight the facets that may be central to the efficacy of SF both with people with LTCs and more generally, and what factors may play a part in such efficacy.

Joanna is a trainee clinical psychologist in her third year of training with Lancaster Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, United Kingdom (UK). Joanna’s clinical and research interests centre around resilience in people with life-long disability and long-term health conditions (LTCs). This research project was completed as part of her doctoral thesis. Over the course of her doctoral training she has completed placements in child & adolescent physical health, adults with LTCs, adult palliative care, children with co-morbid Intellectual Disabilities and LTC, and paediatric oncology and HIV. Dr Ian Smith is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the UK National Health Service, Lecturer in Research Methods and a Senior Clinical Tutor in Faculty of Health & Medicine, Lancaster University. He was the editor of Solution News, the Newsletter of the UKASFP, between 2006 and 2009.

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