The co-author of Love Is a Verb distills her twenty-plus years of psychotherapy and radio counseling down to four essential solutions--the thinking solution, the action solution, the dreaming solution, and the feeling solution--to help women create the lives they want.
The account of a couple’s voyage in a small sailboat from New York to Greece is unique. They best describe it themselves: “We are both writers, and we were aware that...the passage would affect us deeply and possibly change us in unforeseen ways, both as individuals and as a couple. “We agreed to meld the events, insights, and emotions recorded in our separate logs into one narrative. We realized that it is the internal, private voyage that one remembers long after the memories of dark wind and sunny wave crests have faded.”
This book is a distinctive collection of narratives of female Solution Focused practitioners, from across six continents, sharing their unique ways of using the approach at personal, professional, and social levels. Nineteen female practitioners from around the world share their practice and experience, and reflect on how their gender has influenced their work within different cultural, sociological, and socio-economic contexts. The editors introduce the concepts of a Solution Focused DNA and then encourage the contributors as well as the readers to answer questions such as: What are the common characteristics that are a part of your Solution Focused DNA? Which of them are related to gender, Which of them to the Solution Focused Approach, and Which of them to your sociocultural context? Contributors also provide insights on how they work from the Solution Focused approach integrating their own creative styles using embodiment and dance, animal assisted therapy, and humour. The chapters in this book explore a wide variety of themes and contexts, including shelters, trauma, the LGBTQ community, prisons, schools, refugee camps, veterans, the medical field, research, children, and more. This book will inspire practitioners regardless of gender to reflect on their own practice and to use and apply the Solution Focused Approach in innovative and creative ways.
This second edition of Solution-focused Therapy remains the most accessible yet comprehensive case-based introduction to the history, theory, research and practice of solution-focused therapy (SFT) within mental health care and beyond. Drawing on contemporary research and the author′s own extensive experience, the fully revised and updated new edition includes: " discussion of recent developments relevant to research and training " a new chapter on challenges to SFT and the integration of SFT with other therapeutic approaches " extended discussion on ethical issues " topical exploration of the application of SFT with patients with personality disorders and dementias " contemporary research on solution-focused coaching and approaches to organizational change " new case material. This highly practical guide should be on the desk of every student or trainee studying this strongly supported, growing approach. It is also a useful resource for practitioners wanting to update their core skills and knowledge.
`On a scale of 0-10 I would give the Handbook of Solution Focused Therapy a nine - it met my best hopes in terms of an insight into the theory and mechanics of SFT, and gave me ideas for extending my current use of the therapy. I found it engaging, readable and well-presented, with useful reference lists within each chapter to guide further reading′ - Solution News `This collection of fifteen chapters, each written by a different specialist in the SFT field, is a valuable contribution to the Solution-Focused therapist′s bookshelf. A must-read for any informed SF therapy practitioner - Mark McKergow, The Solutions Focus `This book has 14 chapters on diverse applications of Solution-Focus, between introductory and closing chapters by Bill O′Connell. The book relates to work being done in the UK and in Ireland, excepting Alasdair MacDonald′s piece on research in SFT, which is an up-to-date and welcome review of research findings world-wide. All the chapters are succinct and they convey a clear impression of the lightness and excitement of this approach, for service-users and therapists alike. The book is a good read for any therapist, professional helper or service manager′ - Robert Cumming , Nurturing Potential Solution-Focused therapy is an increasingly popular approach, used by practitioners in a wide range of contexts and settings. Illustrating the breadth and depth of contemporary practice, the Handbook of Solution-Focused Therapy brings together contributions from leading practitioners in fields such as social work, education and health care to show how solution-focused techniques can be effective in many different situations. Beginning with an introduction to the origins and theory of the approach, the book examines different areas of practice, explaining how and why the solution-focused approach is applicable and highlighting the issues specific to each context. Each chapter features a case-example, which demonstrates the practical advantages and difficulties, involved in using the solution-focused approach. The Handbook of Solution-Focused Therapy is an ideal text for training courses in solution-focused therapy and a source of new ideas for practitioners trained in other approaches who want to integrate solution-focused techniques with their existing practice. Bill O′Connell is a Senior Lecturer in Counselling at University of Birmingham and author of Solution-Focused Therapy (SAGE 1998) and Solution-Focused Stress Counselling (Continuum 2001). Professor Stephen Palmer is Director of the Centre for Stress Management and the Centre for Coaching, London. He has written and edited over 25 books.
“If you do one thing different, read this book! It is filled with practical, creative, effective, down-to-earth solutions to life’s challenging problems.” —Michele Weiner-Davis, bestselling author of Healing from Infidelity Tired of feeling stuck all the time when you’re trying to solve a problem or are facing conflict? Do you get easily flustered or angry when a negative confrontation arises? Have you ever wished you could communicate more easily with your spouse, kids, colleagues, or anyone else you have a difference in opinion with? In this newly updated edition of Do One Thing Different, Bill O’Hanlon will arm you with his ten easy Solution Keys so that you can move quickly from “stuck” to “smooth sailing” in all aspects of your life. Humorous, direct, and—most important of all—effective, these keys will help you change how you view and “do” your problems—from difficult relationships to enhancing sexuality and resolving conflicts of all kinds. The next time you have a problem, try one of these Solution Keys: Break Problem Patterns: Change any one of what you usually do in the problem situation by doing one thing different! Example: If you usually get angry and defensive, sit quietly and listen. Find and Use Solution Patterns: Import solutions from other situations where you felt competent. Example: What do you say to resolve a problem with an angry customer that you don’t say to your angry partner? Shift Your Attention: Focus on what you would like to have happen rather than on what is happening. Grounded in therapeutic practice, Do One Thing Different will put you back in control of your emotions and your life.
Through inspiring stories illustrating the diverse application of coaching within Asian contexts, this data-rich volume dives into the theory and practice of Solution Focused coaching offering numerous tools and techniques that can be used immediately. With the rising demand for coaching across Asia, there is a need for coaches to have access to up-to-date practice-based evidence of its effectiveness. The Solution Focused approach, as a social-constructionist approach, privileges the clients’ experience, resources, and preferred future over an 'analytic' or deficit-oriented stance. Contributors analyse real case examples from many countries across Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. Practical in its approach, the book offers new insights into established areas of coaching and also highlights innovations in coaching in areas where Solution Focused coaching and other models have not reached until recently. These areas include health and wellness coaching for medical compliance needs, faith-based coaching, and coaching incarcerated fathers. This is an essential and comprehensive resource that is written for both beginner and experienced coaches and addresses the need for effective and culturally sensitive coaching models in Asia. It will also be beneficial for managers and health care professionals looking to enhance their work through coaching skills.
The effectiveness of group counselling, as a treatment modality, has been well established. And while additional theoretical work will always be needed, perhaps the greater challenge for contemporary group practitioners lies in crafting theoretically sound applications of group theory so that group methods can be used more effectively to benefit clients struggling with various psychological and developmental problems. This book responds to this need by offering fourteen chapters of creative, useful examples of how group methods can be successfully applied to a wide range of problems and populations. Each chapter, written by innovators from the fields of counselling, social work, psychology and psychiatry, focuses on specific mental health problems of issues that will interest a wide population. A careful analysis of each psychological or development problem greets the reader, followed by a discussion of the theoretical basis for the interventions. Each chapter utilises practical recommendations, outlines of procedures, and liberal use of case examples to illuminate important process points. Each broad category, Adults; Children and Adolescents; and Training and Theory; includes interesting chapter topics such as Group counselling with late deafened adults, Marital restoration groups, Therapist's uses of self in group psychotherapy, and Group play therapy with abused children. The elegant combination of theory and practice offers the reader a range of easily implemented methods and techniques applied to each specified problem. Modern Applications to Group Work is a valuable companion text for any group-oriented course. Undergraduate and graduate courses in group can use the text to illustrate the application of general group principles to specific psychological concerns. Modern Applications to Group Work may he used as the primary text for advanced courses in group counselling, psychology and social work programs. Practitioners will he attracted to the book due to die comprehensive scope and the strong theoretical basis of each chapter that is followed by pragmatic treatment strategies.
How does a boy learn to be a man? A man learns masculinity primarily from his father. But generations of boys who grow up without caring fathers or male mentors to emulate are left to guess what "men" are really like. They rely on cultural icons--larger-than-life images--as models of masculinity. As a result, they grow up mirroring overblown myths of manhood. Obsessed with being "man enough," they become philanderers, controllers, and competitors--constantly overcompensating for their loss of a true role model, yet sorely unprepared for family life. In Man Enough, psychiatrist and family therapist Frank Pittman explores what it is like to grow up male today. With great poignancy, humor, and candor, he weaves together case studies from his practice, examples from literature and films, plus personal vignettes from his own experiences as a father to examine these hyper-masculine men and to illustrate how they developed and how they can change. Dr. Pittman asserts that men can move past proving their masculinity and start practicing it by striving with the other guys rather than against them, achieving equality and intimacy with their mates--and by fathering. A man raises himself as he raises children and learns to understand and forgive his parents as he becomes one. An important book for men and women, Man Enough offers a new approach to issues of commitment, caring and control and creates a positive model for the fathers of tomorrow's men.