Solution-Focused Therapy

Brief Therapies

by Bill O'Connell

`O'Connell presents a comprehensive introduction to Solution-focused therapy (SFT). His writing is accessible making this an easy book to read. The way in which the material is organized and presented is appealing. The tone of the writing is down to earth and I imagine that few readers would feel alienated by the language regardless of training or theoretical background. This book provides not only an in-depth introduction to SFT but also provides the more experienced therapist with further ideas and principles. O'Connell manages to keep an air of hope and optimism in his writing which left me with a renewed sense of enthusiasm for working with clients in a SFT way. Having read a substantial amount of literature in brief therapy, I found this book to be one of the best I have come across. O'Connell communicates his ideas in a clear and rational way and most importantly with an essential dose of humanity. I would recommend this book to almost everyone regardless of their professional background as it instills a sense of hope and change ' - Counselling Psychology Review `A thoroughly enjoyable read about an inspiring approach to facilitating others without pathologising them, this book not only offers practical guidelines for beginners and validating supportive ideas for the more experienced, it could also inspire those who are simply interested in efficient and effective ways of empowering people via reminders of their potential to live zestful, creative, fruitful, connected lives' - Nurturing Potential `Solution-Focused Therapy is a comfortable introduction to SFT, which is best suited for students or those new to the model, or to professionals in other fields. It supports the novice practitioner in feeling that providing good therapy is within their grasp. Bill O'Connell's presentation of solution-focused therapy encourages theoretical integration, practicality, and trust in the abilities of the client over purity. Hopefully, such an approach would appeal to all therapists ' - The Brief Therapy Networks Solution-Focused Therapy, Second Edition a is a popular introduction to the theory, practice and skills of an approach which is increasingly used by a variety of professionals including counsellors, psychologists, mental health workers, and social workers. Its popularity lies in the fact that it is both time-limited and cost-effective, which are key considerations for many practitioners nowadays. For this, the Second Edition , the book has been fully revised and updated and now includes new sections on solution-focused supervision and running a solution-focused reflecting team. Most chapters include brief practice points for counsellors. This book will be of great interest to trainees of solution-focused therapy, as well as practitioners who work in a range of contexts where the emphasis is on providing effective brief interventions. Bill O'Connell is Director of Training for Focus on Solutions Limited in Birmingham. He was previously Head of the Counselling Department at Westhill College of Higher Education, Birmingham, and is co-edito of Handbook of Solution-Focused Therapy (Sage, 2003).

Genres: Psychology

Paperback

First published September 14, 1998

Reviews

[Edward Hardie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a guide to solution-focused therapy intended for therapists rather than a self-help book for patients. The main idea behind SFT is that if we want to improve our lives it is better to figure out what the solutions to our problems might be rather than work out how they have arisen in the first place. We don’t want to know that someone stole a lollipop from us when we were three, however traumatic that was. If we concentrate too much effort on our problems they may assume even greater importance in our minds, and if we try to determine how our problems arose then therapy might last for years. So SFT is a brief, ‘quick fix’ therapy aiming for improvement in a few sessions.

Another basic idea of SFT is that the therapist does not adopt the role of expert. She doesn’t listen to the client with a view to labelling the problem and imposing ready-made solutions from some theoretical model. Solutions must come from the clients who are, after all, more expert on their lives than the therapist.

The philosophy of the SFT approach is clearly explained and the book outlines the strategies available to the therapist very clearly. But SFT is not the only therapy available as a brief alternative to problem-focused therapy. Transactional analysis might achieve the same thing for certain clients and no doubt advocates of NLP would make the same claim. As a carer, rather than a professional psychologist or therapist, I am not capable of making an informed choice between these approaches. Also, while the theory of SFT is clear it seems to me very difficult to apply in practice. To be successful, the practitioner would have to build up experience and it is hard to see how this could be done without disadvantage to the clients he first works with – which is no doubt true of other therapies as well.

But maybe weakest link of this therapy is its central tool, the miracle question. The therapist asks the client to identify one area where things could be improved and uses the answer as the first stage in moving on. But how many times can the client be asked this question and still yield results?

[Tedi31]

Bought: December 4, 2014
Location: Booksale (Megamall)
Price: P145