Education and Training in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Thorana S Nelson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780789029270
• eBook ISBN: 9781317786641
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The one-of-a-kind book that provides training exercises illustrating solution-focused brief therapy!

As we recognize our own problem behavior in our lives, most of us struggle for ways to change it. Solution-focused brief therapy is the highly effective practice that works by changing concentration from 'problem' behavior to 'solution' behavior in just a few sessions. Education and Training in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy presents articles, essays, and a multitude of exercises that explain this unique type of therapy with an eye toward helping readers to use the ideas for use in their own training and practice. Detailed descriptions of training workshops and exercises spotlight the experiences of SFBT therapists to illuminate in-depth basic concepts and strategies.

Education and Training in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy relies on two fundamental ideas, that of a therapist discovering and reinforcing a clients' existing solutions and exceptions to the problem. Expert trainers discuss strategies that work for training and practicing Solution-focused brief therapy. Several exercises for clients are examined, as well as exercises for the training and supervision of other practitioners learning the process. Exercises include The Name Game, the Complaining Exercise, Inside and Outside, the 'Deck of Trumps,' and the Solution-Focused Scavenger Hunt. Each chapter explains the circumstances in which to use each exercise, the best ways to enhance effectiveness, and how to stay on track in the teaching or training. This one-of-a-kind book includes helpful tables, thorough questionnaires, penetrating case studies, and each chapter is extensively referenced.

Education and Training in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy discusses brief therapy principles such as:

• negotiating goals
  
• engagement through complimenting
  
• future orientation
  
• language should be imaginative and positive
  
• explanations and actions taken to solve problems are interconnected
  
• challenging the perceived causes of problems
  
• reframing the problem so that it becomes a friend
  
• acknowledgement and acceptance of client

Education and Training in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy brings together essential ideas, suggestions, strategies, and exercises for solution-focused brief therapy training, making this an invaluable resource for solution-focused brief therapists and therapists who teach and train this form of therapy.

Solution-Focused Training and Supervision

Solution-Focused Training for Social Workers

John Wheeler

SUMMARY. This article describes one solution-focused trainer’s efforts to learn more about how solution-focused therapy is practiced in different contexts in different parts of the world. Exercises for a training workshop are included. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivety Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Social work, training, solution focus

Introduction

I first encountered Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) at a time when I was reasonably happy with the practice theories at my disposal, but not fully so. As I heard about the possibilities of this newer approach, my interest grew. In particular, the approach appeared better able to deliver the respect, usefulness and empowerment I, as a social worker in a child mental health service, had been looking for from therapeutic models. Initially I assumed my social work colleagues in statutory settings would see what I was seeing, and proceeded to tell them what I had found through conversations and in-service training. Ironically, I was yet to apply solution-focused thinking to my solution-focused training. Given the nature of the material, some did become as excited as I, but some didn’t, and the proportion of course participants who actually went away and tried it out was usually small.

Following the third rule of Brief Therapy, “if it doesn’t work do something different,” I gradually figured out how to be more solution-focused in my training. This change was substantially assisted by a small research conversation with trainers from various countries, exploring what worked for them. This account, firstly, outlines the outcome of that research and then gives details of three exercises which have become reliable companions when I seek to introduce solution-focused practice to my social work colleagues now. The exercises typically fall at the beginning, middle and near the end of two days of training, which would usually be followed by a review day a month later to explore what has worked.

Research

To make contact with trainers from around the world, I posted a set of questions to the Solution-Focused List ([email protected])*, an Internet-based discussion group accessed by around 850 people from a variety of professions, including social work. I used five main questions to explore the use of SFBT in social work in different countries, connections to legislation, and ideas on promoting the approach to social workers.

In total, eight people replied: a social worker in the US who had left agency practice in order to better enhance his potential as a solution-focused trainer, practitioner, consultant and supervisor; a social worker in Sweden who had written a number of articles on SFBT; a social worker in Australia who taught SFBT in social work courses; a CEO from a voluntary agency working with children and families in Australia, who had provided training to social workers in Australia and New Zealand in SFBT; a Professor from a School of Applied Social Science in the US who had pioneered research into SFBT across a range of professions and settings; a social work researcher and trainer from Finland, who had taught SFBT to social workers and researched the effects of this on their practice; a UK social worker who worked in a voluntary agency and ran a local support group for professionals using SFBT; and another UK social worker who was running a project for a voluntary agency working with children and families, who had also trained other social workers in SFBT.

In general, participants’ comments indicated that the interest in SFBT amongst social workers was developing at different rates in different countries. Respondents could only comment on their impressions; no one knew of any formal auditing of the approaches used by social workers. The positions of respondents may thus have influenced their estimates of the use of SFBT amongst social workers. For my own part I believe there is growing interest in the UK, but then I often choose to meet with social workers who are interested, so this will also influence my view.

When I asked what had helped the incorporation of SFBT into social work practice, responses suggested that this varied quite substantially from country to country. Efficacy and benefits for the worker were thought to be important in the US. Meeting the needs of a young profession seemed to matter in Sweden. Fitting well with the culture was reckoned to be important in Finland and a good fit with social work values was thought to be most important in Australia. In practice, it may be that to some extent or another, all of these factors have been important in each country, with culture and the context of social work practice determining which matters most.

When I asked whether particular government policies had helped, most respondents, apart from those from the US, saw a good fit between SFBT and legislative changes in their country. In my view, solution-focused practice relates well to most legislative trends in the UK. It is to be hoped that there is a global trend towards working in partnership with service users and working in a manner that enhances users’ strengths and confidence. If this is so, this should help to ensure that solution-focused practice is increasingly relevant to what social workers are expected to do.

When I asked whether there were particular constraints to the acceptance of SFBT amongst social workers in their countries, respondents pointed to the importance of professional credibility as a contextual factor when social workers are considering a new approach to practice. In the UK, for example, Social Work has had to work hard to achieve credibility amongst other professions such as Medicine, Psychology, and Law, which all have lengthier formative training compared to Social Work. Criticisms of the profession in the media in the UK are also an ongoing influence on the levels of confidence in the profession as a whole.

When I asked what participants had found to be the best way of working with any constraints they had come across, each respondent, not surprisingly, recommended that the assumptions of SFBT should also guide how the approach is presented. Social workers come to training with experience and knowledge and it is important to invite participants to consider SFBT as something they might incorporate into their practice, not something they accept as an entire alternative to their current practice.

In drawing conclusions, it must, of course, be held in mind that I only conversed with trainers with Internet access, and those who were reasonably fluent in English. The methodology inevitably excluded those who do not have such facilities. All respondents were from developed countries, so the study was not fully international. It also is important to bear in mind that whilst participants drew on a wealth of experience, each inevitably spoke from their own perspective. A conversation between eight participants and I could not represent a full account of social work in five different countries. Nonetheless, hearing from practitioners from several other countries, who I might not otherwise have encountered, greatly helped to refine my thinking on how I might best share solution-focused practice with social workers.

When figuring out what to do differently, I came to the following conclusions.

• When training social workers, it is important to be sensitive to the context within which social workers find themselves, both locally and nationally. In particular, I needed to be more appreciative of the culture of social work in the UK and the general level of confidence in the profession.
• It is important to try to meet participants where they are and, where possible, to link the training material to their positions, much as a gardener would graft a shoot onto a growth point in the branch the graft is being joined.
• Participants come to training with a wealth of practice and life experience. What they already know about effective practice is likely to fit quite easily with solution-focused thinking, because the approach itself has been developed out of what works.
• Participants can be left and trusted to do their own figuring out, just as clients do. This is more likely to happen if training opens up spaces for thinking to happen and for participants to engage in learning which is uniquely useful to them.

Power-With vs. Power-Over Exercise

Background

This exercise was introduced to me by St. Luke’s, Anglicare, Australia, and I am thankful to them for giving permission to share this adaptation. The exercise is designed to fall at the beginning of training, to prepare the ground for people to hear about the assumptions and techniques of SFBT. In the busyness of social workers’ lives, it can be difficult to step outside of the patterns of interaction that emerge with clients. In particular, it can be difficult to always appreciate the extent to which professional power contributes to users’ actions. Although social workers may not necessarily have been formally trained in an interactional view of behaviour, all will have had some experience of being on the receiving end of power. The exercise ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction: The Birth of the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Association
• Founders’ Meetings
• Using Solution-Focused Brief Therapys
• Teaching Exercises
• Training Workshops
• Solution-Focused Training and Supervision
• Index