Training Course in Solution Focussed Therapy
A few years ago I met with twenty-two other local psychotherapists and councilors and was dumbfound when the picture emerged of twenty-two people demotivated or feeling unfulfilled in their work. Listening to stories of how they sometimes had to wait months or years before they saw positive change in their clients. And how often these professionals felt overwhelmed by the mass of information a client gave them. What on earth was happening? How come I felt the polar opposite?
I realised that one of the differences between their skills and mine was that I used solution focused brief therapy.
My guess is that like you, these therapists went in to their profession with an aim of helping people feel better and make the most of their life. So what happens along the route to skilled enthusiastic people with sincere motives to make them feel bogged down? No matter how much you work with best practice and evidence based approaches they do not provide a route to respectfully simplify multiple problems. And not all clients will fit into the models you have learnt. Solution focused therapy allows for a totally unique and individual approach with each client and carves through complex multiple issues.
Solution focused therapy has basic understandings such as:
- the client possesses unique skills, resources and strengths that can help them overcome any difficulties
- a detailed history is not essential to help a client move forward. This might come a shock for some of you but in some cases retrospective analysis can make a client worse. Especially when a client is very anxious or depressed
- articulating the preferred changes is more important than understanding the problem
- it is important to set clear achievable, mutually agreed goals
- do more of what is already working
- effective therapy is a collaborative process, the therapist is mindful of the client’s unique circumstances experience and character
After this training you will be able to
- understand why the APET model and brief therapy can make a difference so quickly
- use reflective reframing
- minimize or overcome so called ‘resistance’
- see through confusing detail, identify and address patterns that hold problem thinking or behaviour in place
- discuss a preferred future and make clear mutually agreed goals
- manage client sessions so that you help the client develop a positive expectation
Use language skills that
- relax your client’s emotional brain, and help them gain access to their cognitive processes
- quickly shift a client’s negative orientation
- build advanced levels of rapport
- re-connect clients to their resources and increase motivation and belief in a positive outcome
- help your client and yourself be clear about what needs to happen – cut down on the guess work!
And understand how to
- help the client recognise the positive changes in between sessions
- reconnect the client with their unique experiences to bring a sense of resourcefulness and hope
- use scaling to clarify goals and positive emotional changes
- keep the therapy moving in the right direction
‘Jill, I can’t thank you enough for bringing Solution Focused therapy training into my professional life. Although I had spent years working as a Psychodynamic therapist, within weeks of practicing my new skills and awareness I saw clients literally transform before my eyes! All I can say is I wish I had done this training years ago and been able to help so many more people more quickly. I now enjoy my work more and find it less stressful and more satisfying. Thank you!’ SB Psychodynamic Therapist
You will learn how to
- use questions to initiate expectation of positive change
- set goals to create a clear mutually understood path for therapy
- look at patterns not detail: how to avoid getting sucked in to a client’s negative mind set
- uncover and utilize a client’s innate resources and areas of competency
- teach missing skills to aid recovery
- use scaling to clarify goals and decrease emotional arousal
- develop your creative use of verbal and physical metaphors
- use a knowledge of the basic needs to help ensure lasting change
Develop skills to
- change limiting labels
- reframe unhelpful beliefs
- help your client gain clear perspective about what they do want not just what they don’t want
- set tasks for continued change outside the therapy room
- keep therapeutic intervention moving towards the goals
- separate fact from imagination
Solution focused brief therapy: The increasing choice of many professionals From its initial development in Milwaukee in the 1970’s by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, Solution focused brief therapy has become the choice of therapy for many professionals working in education, family centers, the health service, psychotherapists and complementary therapists.
Who will benefit from this course in brief therapy? Existing or training • Psychotherapists • Councillors • Coaches • Teachers and student support workers • Hypnotherapists, and practitioners who use NLP EMDR and other such therapies • Social workers • Human Resource managers • Senior executives in business • Front line health workers such as doctors, nurses, CPN”S and staff in psychiatric and addiction units
How effective and how brief? The Milwaukee Brief Family Therapy Clinic conducted a study, which showed that one-year after the therapy; seventy percent of patients felt their problems were resolved or significantly better. Although there is no study to conclude how many sessions are needed, many suggest between one and six sessions to achieve the client’s goal. It is our experience that often just one session is needed and when more, you can still expect good outcome from the first session.
Cost £299.00 inclusive 0f all training materials
You will get
- 6 teleconference sessions
- detailed lecture notes
- MP3 recordings of the lectures
- access to a dedicated chat page so you can ask questions, gain answers and reflections from your colleague’s and trainers
- access to 3 client session DVD’s using solution focused therapy
- assignments that help to consolidate your knowledge and make the skills instantly applicable to your work
- a certificate of attendance after successful completion of assignments
- detailed notes of all principles and techniques from lectures • our promise is for a fun and uplifting course that will give you skills that will immediately enhance your effectiveness with your clients
Please contact us on info@within-sight.com for more information and dates of next course.
Your Trainers All the trainers at Within Sight have a fun and memorable style of presenting. Jill and Donna are experienced trainers have used their brief therapy skills with thousands of clients; so bring a wealth of experience to share.