The rhythm of change: tracing the relatedness of the solution-focused brief therapy and the I Ching in the phenomenological dimension of therapy

The growing mental health need in Taiwan challenged the compatibility of cultural values and the practice of Western psychotherapy. The purpose of this study was to re-search the Western psychotherapy model--Solution-Focused Brief Therapy with the Chinese cultural lens of the I Ching. The Problem in this study was to explore the related premises of the phenomenon of change in the context of this model and the I Ching--the Book of Changes. Next, the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy techniques, which were based on the related premises, could be identified. The overall research procedure was built on the phenomenological framework. The hermeneutic phenomenological approach was utilized as a foundation to apply the phenomenological analysis in the I Ching and the literature of this model. The identified techniques were implied in a two-session interventive interviews with a Chinese and an American female client. Then the 50 minute in-depth open ended interview were employed to elicit the clients' view of the phenomenon of change during the course of therapy, and the experience of being the client. Both interview were videotaped in order to introduce this model in Taiwan. The similar premises of the phenomenon of change existing in the I Ching and the studied model were: change was constant and inevitable, change occurred in an interrelated system, and the difference or chance inherent in the phenomenon of change enabled people to befriend change. The three techniques were identified from the related premises of change, which was illuminated by the hexagrams. The Chinese and American interviewees (clients) sensed that the phenomenon of change occurred when they could think or feel about their problems differently, and then the solutions could be generated. The clients described their experience as positive and concrete. The phenomenon of change existed with or without being acknowledged by human beings which was depicted by the I Ching, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, and the experience of clients. Therefore, the human beings can open up to the evolving phenomenon of change, which is the basis of complying and dancing to the rhythm of change.