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Socratic Questioning Stool

The document provides tips for using Socratic questioning to challenge unhelpful cognitions related to trauma or self-blame. It recommends 1) understanding the specific thoughts and evidence behind beliefs, 2) asking questions to establish that the behavior made sense given what the person knew at the time, and 3) expanding their view of responsibility to include other causes and parties beyond themselves. The goal is to elicit the person's own reasoning and perspective rather than simply providing information.

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Nguyễn Kim Ngân
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104 views

Socratic Questioning Stool

The document provides tips for using Socratic questioning to challenge unhelpful cognitions related to trauma or self-blame. It recommends 1) understanding the specific thoughts and evidence behind beliefs, 2) asking questions to establish that the behavior made sense given what the person knew at the time, and 3) expanding their view of responsibility to include other causes and parties beyond themselves. The goal is to elicit the person's own reasoning and perspective rather than simply providing information.

Uploaded by

Nguyễn Kim Ngân
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Some Handy Socratic Questioning Tips

1) Identify their cognition and try to really understand their basis for
it.
E.g., if it's self-blame ("it was my fault"), you might ask, "Why was it your
fault?" and "What exactly do you think you should have done differently?"
E.g., if they think their child is "ruined" you might ask, "What do you mean
when you say that?" and "What is your evidence for that?"

It's much easier to challenge specific cognitions like "I should have known
he would rape me that night" or "I should have done X in situation Y" than
it is to challenge the less specific overall statements "I'm a bad parent" or
"It's my fault." Dig down and find the specifics.

One idea is to visualize a stool, where there are specific thoughts propping
up a belief. You can only eliminate the belief when you've taken out the
legs (or faulty "evidence") it stands on. You can even draw a stool and
have them fill in all the legs they can come up with. Then you can
challenge their validity together.

2) Ask questions to identify all the reasons their behavior made


sense at the time. A core assumption here is that all behavior makes
sense, given what was known and going on for them at the time. Set the
stage for their behavior to seem reasonable with questions along these
lines:
"What did you know at the time?"
"What were you thinking at the time?"
"Help me understand, why did you do [their behavior]?"
"Did you know [the trauma] would happen?" ("Why didn't you know?")
"What evidence did you have that [the trauma] wouldn't happen?" (Usually
they have a lifetime of evidence!)
"At the time, what did you think would happen?"
"What did you want to happen?" (Intention underlies responsibility)
"Had [the trauma] ever happened before?"
"Had [the same behavior] ever resulted in [the trauma] before?" (Flesh this
out--they may have been in the same situation hundreds of times without
consequence.)
"At the time, what evidence was there that [the behavior] was safe or
unlikely to result in [the trauma]?"

Basically, try to elicit all the internal and external conditions that made the
behavior feel or seem reasonable at the time.
I usually brainstorm a long list of questions and angles I'll take before the
session--it can be very hard to come up with good questions on the spot.

3) Expand their view of other causes and responsible


parties. Responsibility pie helps expand the window on all the people and
events that led to the trauma.

4) Psychoeducation can help, but whenever possible be Socratic.


E.g., a parent thinks, "She should have told me about the sexual abuse."
You might ask, "When kids are abused, guess how many of them speak
out?" before telling them.
Ask, "What are some reasons you can think of why a kid might not talk
about sexual abuse?" so they have to make sense of their child's behavior.

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