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© 2009, Coert Visser Steve De Shazer, an American therapist and co-developer of the solution-focused approach, once, in the nineteen-seventies, talked with a client who came for his second session. He asked the client what was better now. The client had spontaneously replied: “I’ve almost reached 10 already!” De Shazer began to play with the idea of using numbers to describe one’s situation. This started the development of the scaling question used in solution-focused therapy (Malinen, 2001). Today, scaling questions have developed into the most well known and most frequently used solution-focused techniques. Scaling questions are relatively easy to use and extremely versatile. Nowadays, many therapists, coaches and managers use them. Even many people who know little about the solution-focused approach know the scaling question. 1. Basic steps when using the scaling question Asking the scaling question is usually done by following a few basic steps. These basic steps consist of a serie...

© 2004, Coert Visser Scales (De Shazer, 1986) are among the simplest most appealing and accessible tools that have emerged within the practise of the solution-focused approach to change management. Scales are very easy to use and have many applications. With this article I want to give you a quick guide to using them. How do you use scales? Below, I will first explain the basics of using scales: Explanation of the scale: the coach explains that the scale goes from 0 to 10. 0 stands for the situation in which the problem is at its worst and 10 stands for the situation in which the problem is completely gone and the desired state has been achieved. Ask for the score: the coach then asks the coachee what his current position on that scal is (this is called ‘the platform). The coach has does not judge whether this score is ‘right’ or not. Focus on what is already there: then the coach asks how the person has already come to this position. What made this possible? Thus, the coach focuses s...