Solution Focused Practice Around the World

A rich compendium of ideas, tips and shared experiences from SF enthusiasts in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

Great job!

Jenny Clarke, Director: SF Works, UK

Solution Focused Brief Therapy is no longer just the new kid on the block, it is shaping and influencing the way that services are delivered across the globe. This book ‘Solution Focus around the World’ provides ample evidence of the positive change that the approach is making in a remarkably wide range of applications and settings. But in growing up Solution Focused Brief Therapy has lost none of its exuberance, its enthusiasm, its energy and its capacity to surprise. In reading ‘Solution Focus around the World’ you will be both moved and inspired and excited, you will be challenged, your ideas about the approach will be stretched and you will take away new perspectives, new ways of thinking that will influence the way that you go about your work.

Evan George - Founder and co-director BRIEF London www.brief.org.uk

For the first time, a World Conference took place in 2017, bringing together Solution-Focused practitioners from all over the world. What an inspiring event! It was a lot of fun to do a workshop, together with colleagues, at this Conference in Frankfurt, and then, as part of this team, to write a chapter in this book. The various chapters you will find in this book describe the Solution-Focused practice from different contexts (coaching, therapy and others) and from different perspectives (e.g. research, and others) and show how diverse and creative the Solution-Focused approach is worked with around the world. Despite the diversity, a common ground remains: basic assumptions and common ideas, what constitutes Solution-Focused practice. So you can look forward to reading this book, and to being presented with various considerations, insights and stories from many different Solution-Focused practitioners. Enjoy it and have fun!

Ursula Buehlmann, Switzerland

As clinicians and SFBT tragics we want to know everything; from grass-roots to cutting edge, clinical to coaching, individual or groups, theory and practice, local and overseas. Who’s doing what, and where? This book has got a bit of everything. It’s a long way from the Antipodes to Europe, and we are sorry that we can’t often be there in person, but we really want books like this to help us keep in touch with what’s happening around the world. The AASFBT is committed to, and supports, having the SF world keep in closer contact, and this book certainly helps, even for us at the other end of the globe.

David Hains - President, Australia, and Emma Burns - Vice President, New Zealand - Australasian Association for Solution Focused Brief Therapy (AASFBT)

Solution Focus around the World is an important contribution to all SF practioners worldwide. The edited book by Dierolf, Hogan, van der Hoorn and Wignaraja displays both depth and breath. Topic areas vary from applying SF principles to music, to working with refugee torture survivors. All practitioners, regardless of their discipline, can benefit from the creative applications of the SF model in this edited book.

Sara (Smock) Jordan, PhD, LMFT, Program Director and Associate Professor of Couple and Family Therapy, UNLV, Editor-in-chief of JSFBT

How wonderful it is to get all those Solution Focused people from all over the world together for sharing and honoring the precious legacy of our masters and of course developing the next generation point of views of the Solution Focused approach. The conference in Frankfurt was the historical gathering, which was bringing together for the first time all the people from the organizational world and social and health fields and my great pleasure was to be part of the organizing team. But first of all, the brilliant heart of the conference was Kirsten Dierolf!

And how wonderful it is to have all that documented in this book. The chapters are helping to keep all the memories and learnings alive for us, who were there and even more important, gives the possibility for those people, who not yet participated our world conference.

The book is a great collection of theoretical and practical approaches and so beautifully shows how rich the Solution Focused life in the world, is.

Thank you to the excellent team for this highly professional and inspiring book. To the readers, many pleasure-filled moments with the harvest from our great conference!

Riitta Malkamäki, Finland

Are you interested in Solution Focused practice and research and especially the overlap between? Do you strive to attend conferences, benefit from and enjoy reading articles and books and sometimes have the feeling that you don´t have time to do it as much as you like: then this book is the perfect blend! At first glance, I felt that this is mainly for the professionals already with deep solution-focused knowledge and skills. Then I read it all and concluded: this is a book that goes back to the roots of Solution Focus Brief Therapy and also captures and visualize the ongoing development.

This book challenges your creative thinking! It is unusually varied and bravely out of the box in applying SF in a broad context and connects with different phenomena and theories. The authors are connecting SF with theoretical concepts like for example microanalysis, cognitive science, and philosophy. Phenomena that are now state-of-the-art for many SF-researchers and practitioners. It puts SF in different settings like social work, leadership coaching, mediation and conflict in organizations, schools, family therapy, in different cultures, with refugees, in written communication and more.

A main – and natural- focus is about SF-practitioners core capacities in solution building by enhancing interaction and break problem focus, in one-to-one coaching as well as in groups and teams. Many of the chapters show the process of conversation very explicit, with clever examples from real-life sessions as well as metaphors used in dialogue or to clarify the approach.

The book describes Solution Focus as it is: Simple but not easy! Straight forward and deep in reflections. If you read one chapter a day you will have three weeks of interesting reading along the path! You´ll have Solution Focused in a nutshell, without having to read many books, articles or go to conferences -you have all served in one.

Sussan Öster, VITAL GoodSolution Sweden, Master of Social Science – Public Health , ICF Professional Certified Coach.

Solution Focused Brief Therapy has its beginnings in the late 1970s [feeling deep gratitude towards Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer for this wonderful approach]. Like a slow virus, it came to Singapore only in the 21st century where formal training in this approach was made available with the establishment of the Academy of Solution Focused Training in 2004. An approach that is "simple to understand but hard to practice," I first learnt it in 2013. To date, I am still learning to refine my practice with this approach. I recalled many moments when I didn’t get it right. Apart from my SF supervisors, there were few SF practitioners I could turn to in my early years of learning. I relied heavily on my imagination of Insoo saying, "It’s okay, just try again" (a quote I picked up from hearing stories of Insoo from one of my earlier supervisors) as a way to pick myself up each time I feel frustrated with my learning progress. So one can easily imagine how excited I was when I participated in the first SF World Conference in 2017, met with and learnt from more than 300 SF practitioners all over the world at the conference. ‘Solution Focus around the World’ is a such precious book, documenting an international collection of creative SF applications in a wide variety of contexts shared at the conference. May the ideas in this book continue to inspire and set off more sparkling SF moments for anyone passionate about this amazing approach in different corners of the world!

Lee Yi Ping, Master Certified Solution Focused Practitioner, Team Leader and Senior Youth Support Worker, Community Health Assessment Team (CHAT), Singapore

"A rich compendium of ideas, tips and shared experiences from SF enthusiasts in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Great job!"

Jenny Clarke, Director: SF Works, UK

"Solution Focused Brief Therapy is no longer just the new kid on the block, it is shaping and influencing the way that services are delivered across the globe. This book Solution Focused Practice Around the World provides ample evidence of the positive change that the approach is making in a remarkably wide range of applications and settings. But in growing up Solution Focused Brief Therapy has lost none of its exuberance, its enthusiasm, its energy and its capacity to surprise. In reading Solution Focused Practice Around the World you will be moved and inspired and excited, you will be challenged, your ideas about the approach will be stretched and you will take away new perspectives, new ways of thinking that will influence the way that you go about your work."

Evan George – Founder and co-director BRIEF London www.brief.org.uk

"For the first time, a World Conference took place in 2017, bringing together Solution-Focused practitioners from all over the world. What an inspiring event! It was a lot of fun to do a workshop, together with colleagues, at this Conference in Frankfurt, and then, as part of this team, to write a chapter in this book. The various chapters you will find in this book describe the Solution-Focused practice from different contexts (coaching, therapy and others) and from different perspectives (e.g. research, and others) and show how diverse and creative the Solution-Focused approach is worked with around the world. Despite the diversity, a common ground remains: basic assumptions and common ideas, what constitutes Solution-Focused practice. So you can look forward to reading this book, and to being presented with various considerations, insights and stories from many different Solution-Focused practitioners. Enjoy it and have fun!"

Ursula Buehlmann, Switzerland

"As clinicians and SFBT tragics we want to know everything; from grass-roots to cutting edge, clinical to coaching, individual or groups, theory and practice, local and overseas. Who’s doing what, and where? This book has got a bit of everything. It’s a long way from the Antipodes to Europe, and we are sorry that we can’t often be there in person, but we really want books like this to help us keep in touch with what’s happening around the world. The AASFBT is committed to, and supports, having the SF world keep in closer contact, and this book certainly helps, even for us at the other end of the globe."

David Hains - President, Australia, and Emma Burns – Vice President, New Zealand of Australasian Association for Solution Focused Brief Therapy (AASFBT)

"Solution Focused Practice Around the World is an important contribution to all SF practioners worldwide. The edited book by Dierolf, Hogan, van der Hoorn and Wignaraja displays both depth and breath. Topic areas vary from applying SF principles to music, to working with refugee torture survivors. All practitioners, regardless of their discipline, can benefit from the creative applications of the SF model in this edited book."

Sara (Smock) Jordan, PhD, LMFT, Program Director and Associate Professor of Couple and Family Therapy, UNLV, Editor-in-chief of JSFBT

"How wonderful it is to get all those Solution Focused people from all over the world together for sharing and honoring the precious legacy of our masters and of course developing the next generation point of views of the Solution Focused approach. The conference in Frankfurt was the historical gathering, which was bringing together for the first time all the people from the organizational world and social and health fields and my great pleasure was to be part of the organizing team. But first of all, the brilliant heart of the conference was Kirsten Dierolf! And how wonderful it is to have all that documented in this book. The chapters are helping to keep all the memories and learnings alive for us, who were there and even more important, gives the possibility for those people, who not yet participated our world conference. The book is a great collection of theoretical and practical approaches and so beautifully shows how rich the Solution Focused life in the world, is. Thank you to the excellent team for this highly professional and inspiring book. To the readers, many pleasure-filled moments with the harvest from our great conference!"

Riitta Malkamäki, Finland

"Are you interested in Solution Focused practice and research and especially the overlap between? Do you strive to attend conferences, benefit from and enjoy reading articles and books and sometimes have the feeling that you don´t have time to do it as much as you like: then this book is the perfect blend! At first glance, I felt that this is mainly for the professionals already with deep solution-focused knowledge and skills. Then I read it all and concluded: this is a book that goes back to the roots of Solution Focus Brief Therapy and also captures and visualize the ongoing development.This book challenges your creative thinking! It is unusually varied and bravely out of the box in applying SF in a broad context and connects with different phenomena and theories. The authors are connecting SF with theoretical concepts like for example microanalysis, cognitive science, and philosophy. Phenomena that are now state-of-the-art for many SF-researchers and practitioners. It puts SF in different settings like social work, leadership coaching, mediation and conflict in organizations, schools, family therapy, in different cultures, with refugees, in written communication and more.A main – and natural – focus is about SF-practitioners core capacities in solution building by enhancing interaction and break problem focus, in one-to-one coaching as well as in groups and teams. Many of the chapters show the process of conversation very explicit, with clever examples from real-life sessions as well as metaphors used in dialogue or to clarify the appro