1st Edition
Doing Something Different Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Practices
Many books on solution-focused brief therapy provide histories, overviews, and uses of the approach. Doing Something Different does not do any of those things. Instead, it provides those interested in the solution-focused approach with a plethora of ideas for practice, training, and simply enjoying the solution-focused approach and its practice in therapy, consulting, coaching, and training. It contains a varied and rich array of interventions, training ideas, uses with different populations and approaches, and resources written by contributors who represent many countries and viewpoints, and who are well known in the training and practice of the solution-focused approach. Chapters are presented in simple language, as befits the solution-focused approach, and complement the many serious and whimsical sections of the book, which include practice and training ideas, favorite quotes and stories, “outrageous” moments in therapy, and a list of solution-focused songs. Anyone who enjoys the approach in any manner should find something that grabs the interest and tickles the senses and sensibilities. Readers will come away informed, thoughtful, and entertained.
Section One: Interventions and Practices
1. The Optimal Zone Scale: Coert Visser
2. 7-Eleven: Frank Thomas
3. The Solution Focus: A Universal Tool, Carole Waskett
4. Scaling Agency with Clients when they Begin Taking Antidepressants, Frank Thomas
5. Using Scaling to Assess Couple Readiness for Therapy, Lee Shilts
6. Solution-Focused Assessment, Clare Scott
7. A Convergent Couple Scale, Paul Hackett, Kevin Ball
8. Dis-ease Free, Kathryn C. Shafer
9. A Colorful Solution-Focused Game, Tomasz Switek
10. "Visitor," "Complainant," "Customer" Revisited, Philip B. Ziegler
11. Appreciating What Works in the National Health Service, Carole Waskett
12. Sparkling Moment, Evan George
13. A Singing Miracle, Mark Mitchell
14. A Clinical Exercise: Common Ground, Heather Fiske
15. Using Scales with Multiple Goals, Coert Visser
16. Focus on Microprogression in Solution-Focused Conflict Resolution, Gwenda Schlundt Bodien
17. Reducing Personnel Turnover Rate from 50% to 10%, Paolo Terni
18. Opening for Brief Coaching Sessions, Paolo Terni
19. A Solution-Focused HR Professional, Gwenda Schlundt Bodien
20. Resiliency and Change, Liselotte Baeijaert, Anton Stellamans
21. Coaching for Resilience, Liselotte Baeijaert, Anton Stellamans
22. Strength-Based School Meetings, Jay Trenhaile
23. Responding to Bullying in Primary Schools, Sue Young
24. Solution Focus in UK School -- One Therapist's Practice, Paul Avard
25. Extreme Listening: Taught by People with Aspergers Syndrome, Vicky Bliss
26. Big Brother, Lyndsey Taylor
27. Engaging the Imagination, Rob Black
28. Breaking Down Barriers, Paul Avard
29. Working with Chaotic Families, Lyndsey Taylor
30. Paper, Scissors, Stone: An Interactive Family Scale, Paul Hackett
31. Diabetes Education and Support Group: A Different Conversation, Tommie V. Boyd, Yulia Watters
Section Two: Training
32. How Do People Learn SFBT?, Tomasz Switek
33. A Goal-Setting Questionnaire, Brenda Zalter
34. The Miracle Question, Brenda Zalter
35. Strength Identification, Lorenn Walker
36. Solution-Focused Dominoes, Tomasz Switek
37. Quotable Quotes, Brenda Zalter
38. E-Mail from the Future Supervision, Steve Freeman
39. The Artful Diagnostician, Bruce Gorden
40. Circle Exercise, Arnoud Huibers
41. TAKEN DRUGS, Ian Johnsen
42. Stuck in Isomorphism and Coaxing the Way Out: Via Less Dolorosa, Bruce Gorden
43. Scaling Practice, Heather Fiske
44. A 10-Minue Solution-Focused Interview Training Exercise, Heather Fiske
45. Workplace Training Exercises, Heather Fiske
46. Four Constructive Conversations, Heather Fiske
47. Description, Reflection, Speculation (DRS), Ian Johnsen
48. The Worst Things You Could Ever Hear in a Therapy Hour, Bruce Gorden
49. Evidence-Based Supervision: Identifying Successful Moments in SFBT, Sara A. Smock
50. Training Therapists for SFBT Group Work: A Multidimensional Approach, Adam S. Froerer, Sara A. Smock
51. Psychiatry Should Be a Parenthesis in People's Lives, Harry Korman
52. When the Client Doesn't Follow the Script, Joel Simon
53. Semaphore, Metaphor...Two-by-Four, Frank Thomas
54. Certificate of Competence, John Wheeler
55. Toolbox for Work-Life Balance, Brenda Zalter
Section Three: Theory
56. Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Watercolours, Paul Avard
57. Neuroscience and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Or How SFBT Can Change the Brain, Philip B. Ziegler
58. Change We Can Believe In, Paolo Terni
Section Four: Stories, Poetry, Quotes, Songs, Outrageous Moments in Therapy, Solution-Focused Quotes, and a Bibliography
59. Friday Night Service, Harriet Kiviat
60. Michelangelo's Secret Weapon, Carole Waskett
61. Creating Calm Out of Chaos: Using Solution-Focused Techniques with Family Members, Harriet Kiviat
62. Insoo, Jay Trenhaile
63. The Damn Dog, Thorana Nelson
64. Poems, Dvorah Simon
65. Solution-Focused Haikus, Frank Thomas
66. Solution-Focused Song Titles, Frank Thomas
67. Favorite Questions, Quotes, and Ideas, Various Contributors
68. Quotes that Sit well with Solution-Focused Approaches, Various Contributors
Section Five: Outrageous Moments in Therapy
69. An Unusual and True Answer to the Miracle Question, Jeff Change
70. Liar, Liar, Philip B. Ziegler
71. F**k-Off Therapy, Dvorah Simon
72. T-Shirt, Paul Hackett
73. Over-Developed Emotions, Chris Iveson
74. Outrageous Moments in Therapy, Paul Hanton
Section Six: Resources
75. Solution-Focused Quotes, Various Contributors
76. Contributions of Steve de Shazer (1940-2005) to Brief Family Therapy, Janet Campbell
Biography
Thorana Nelson, PhD, has been practicing and teaching family therapy for over 25 years. She is currently a Professor of family therapy in the department of Family, Consumer, and Human Development at Utah State University; a clinical member and approved supervisor of AAMFT; a founding member and member of the Board of Directors of the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Association; and an author and co-editor of several books.
"Doing Something Different is something delightfully different. For those who consider solution-focused therapy an over-simplistic therapy-by-numbers, it could be a revelation. Experienced practitioners, lots of them, working in a wide range of settings, demonstrate the high level of creativity the approach can inspire in therapists and in clients." - Brian Cade, MFT, co-author, A Brief Guide to Brief Therapy
"Wide-ranging in scope and practical in application. This exciting book is a solution-focused treasure chest, chock-full of fresh, innovative ideas that therapists, trainers, supervisors, and managers will want to apply to their practice immediately. I highly recommend this book for those new to solution-focused brief therapy and experienced practitioners as well!" - Jim Duvall, Editor, Journal of Systemic Therapy; Director of Training, The Hincks-Dellcrest Institute, Toronto, Ontario
"This book shows Solution-focused Brief Therapy to be thriving, and it shows that it can fit many client groups and care agencies well. It also shows us the personal interpretations and local dialects used by many of its exponents, which are subtly altering it. Readers can go to it for sound new ideas for their practice, but--departing from the behavioural emphasis of the approach--the different ways of thinking are just as captivating. ...a good read for experienced professionals." - Robert Cumming, British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, Vol. 39, No. 3, June 2011
"The structure of [this book] is emblematic of the solution-focused approach. Each of the 76 chapters presents something different from the previous one; interventions, interesting quotes, anecdotes, case studies, diagrams, transcripts, tips and more are offered by 42 international contributors. The usefulness of creative practice in order to discover 'what works' is the theme which unifies the book. It is remarkable that although the chapters of the book are so colourful and the backgrounds of the contributors so diverse, the book manages to retain such a sense of coherence." -Kirsty Entwistle, University College London in Journal of Mental Health, February 2012