Solution Focused Brief Therapy

Can be taken as an individual course or as a part of:

Approved by the British Psychological Society for the purposes of Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

2 days 9:30am – 4:30pm 14 CPD hours

Course Brief

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Solution Focused Brief Therapy offers at least an enhancement to existing therapeutic approaches and at best an alternative to other evidence based therapies. It utilises process techniques that predate CBT but which the latter has begun to embrace, whilst sharing a great deal with both Systemic and Client Centred approaches. This course gives you an in-depth introduction to this effective approach.

Can be taken as an individual two-day course or as a part of a Certificate in Resource Based Therapies (3 modules/5 days training) approved by the BPS.

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This evidence-based two-day course is designed to provide you with the highest possible standard of training, a solid grounding in Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) and enable you to make immediate use of your learning on return to your workplace. It is invaluable in a range of health care and social services environments across the age span.

What you will take away from the course:

  • An understanding of the principles and techniques contained within Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
  • A toolbox of simple but effective strategies and tips for working more successfully with your clients, no matter how difficult or stuck they are
  • An approach for dealing with increasing work pressures more productively
  • Discover how “brief” doesn’t have to mean “superficial” or “second rate”, but can mean “better and more effective”
  • New insights into your clients and into solutions to their problems. Understand what “client centred” really means
  • Techniques to prevent client dependency
  • Increased confidence for working with your most complex and difficult clients

Why you cannot afford to miss this course:

  • Learn how complex multiple problems don’t need lengthy complex solutions
  • Effect change in behaviour, thoughts and feelings with only 1-4 contacts… even with very “stuck” clients
  • Identify your most challenging clients’ personal strengths and resources
  • Discover how to be optimistic and motivated with your most difficult clients
  • Learn how to be brief when you were trained to be deep and spot complex causes and needs
  • Extensive real case illustrations
  • Video demonstrations of techniques
  • Case consultation with lots of opportunities to address delegates’ difficulties with clients

Course outline:

  • Introduction to Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
  • Evidence base and applicability to different client and staff groups. Understanding the trap of the CLEPPER approach in traditional models of helping.
  • Softening Things Up
  • Rapport building (with a difference!).
  • Introducing problem variation and change perception
  • Scaling to identify client resources and solutions
  • The role of Exceptions and how focusing on how things could be worse makes them better
  • Why don’t people solve their problems
  • The role of “experimental behaviour” Doing The problem in detail and pattern intervention
  • What constitutes a complex case?
  • Future causality and social constructionism as a way of viewing complex cases differently
  • Involuntary/mandated clients and ASD diagnoses
  • An introduction to the Miracle Question (MQ)
  • Outline and purpose of the MQ
  • Video / live demonstrations of the MQ
  • The Miracle Question Continued
  • MQ practice
  • Where does the MQ fit into therapy and where do you go afterwards ?
  • Dealing with unhealthy and unrealistic Miracles
  • What to do if your client’s preferred future is one you can not support ?
  • Pretence and treating weaknesses as strengths
  • Treating deficits as resources and the therapeutic value of faking
  • Case consultancy

FAQ about this course:

  • Do I need prior knowledge of Solution Focused Brief Therapy?
    No prior knowledge is required. However, a background in a "helping profession" working within a defined model of practice is desirable but not essential.

  • How will I know if Brief Solution Therapy will work with my clients? They are very unmotivated/ damaged/cognitively impaired.
    The evidence base for Brief Solution Therapy is now very extensive and one of its key strengths is that it does not require the client to even agree they have a problem in order for the approach to be used. The only requirement is that the client is able and willing to communicate with you in some way. The approach has been used with those identified as offenders, those with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and those with severe enduring mental health problems – amongst many others

  • I’m not a Brief Solution Focused Therapist. I’m a CBT Therapist/Client Centred Therapist/ Exploratory Psychotherapist/Group Therapist. Is this course any use to me?
    Yes! There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, Brief Solution has often been described as a non-theoretical approach. Without going into further detail here, you are likely to find that many of its components “bolt onto” your existing therapeutic modality. It does not require you to “give up” your current approach in order to use it. Secondly, it has a strong evidence base regarding its outcome effectiveness. It is also supported by a great deal of work within general psychology (especially neuropsychology). Thirdly, although providing new and different tools, you will find much that is already familiar and similar to the approach you use.

  • Actually I’m not a psychotherapist/counsellor at all! Is this course any use to me?
    Yes… as long as you are involved in the field of helping people to change their behaviour and attitudes! For instance, it has been used in a variety of health behaviour change fields (including smoking cessation and weight loss) and with client groups as diverse as the unemployed and those with learning difficulties. One of the major UK books in the field is written by a Speech and Language therapist and it is also used as a management, supervision and team building approach.

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Accreditation Level 1 (Foundation) is the level of accreditation you obtain by attending any of the modules comprising the above Certificates via live training or live/recorded webcast.

This level of accreditation gives you a Certificate of Attendance, as well as access to the course materials and other resources, and enables you to state in your CV that you have SDS Accreditation in Certificate in Resource Based Therapies Level 1 (Foundation).

Your accreditation currently lasts for 3 years, after which you cannot make the above statements and access course resources.

This level of accreditation is renewable by sitting an online refresher course or attending a live course/webcast. Successful completion of the online refresher, which includes the associated exam, gives you SDS Level 2 Accreditation.

SDS Accreditation, Level 2 (Assessed Academic Competence) is the level of accreditation you obtain by attending all modules of an SDS Modular course via live training or live/recorded webcast and passing an appropriate online exam after completing the whole course.

This level of accreditation gives you a BPS Approved Certificate in the appropriate subject, as well as access to the course materials and other resources. It also enables you to state in your CV that you have Level 2 (Assessed Academic Competence) Accreditation as a Practitioner in Certificate in Resource Based Therapies.

Your accreditation currently lasts for 3 years, after which you cannot make the above statements and access course resources.

This level of accreditation is renewable by sitting an online refresher course or attending a live course/webcast listed as a suitable refresher course. Should you renew your accreditation within these 3 years, your access to these refresher courses is discounted by 50%.* Should you let your accreditation lapse, you pay the full price for the refresher training.

SDS Accreditation, Level 3 (Clinical Proficiency) is as Level 2, with the addition of:

  • Submitting a project of an acceptable standard (3,000 words) at the end of your Certificate training. The purpose of the project is to illustrate that you can apply the academic knowledge gained from the course to a clinical situation.
  • Submitting a written statement from your Clinical Supervisor confirming the regularity and duration of your supervision with them and your Competence as a clinician in the chosen topic. Your Clinical Supervisor should meet our qualification criteria in either Motivational Interviewing and/or Solution Focused Therapy.

This level of accreditation gives you a BPS Approved Certificate in the appropriate subject, as well as access to the course materials and other resources. It also enables you to state in your CV that you have Level 3 (Clinical Proficiency) Accreditation as a Practitioner in Certificate in Resource Based Therapies.

You also will be given an option to be listed in the SDS Register of Qualified Practitioners in the appropriate field – our Network of Qualified Practitioners.

Your accreditation currently lasts for 3 years, after which you cannot make the above statements and access course resources.

This level of accreditation is renewable by sitting an online refresher course or attending a live course/webcast listed as a suitable refresher course and by submitting a new written statement from your Supervisor. Should you renew your accreditation within these 3 years, your access to these refresher courses and the written assignment is discounted by 50%.* Should you let your accreditation lapse, you pay the full price for the refresher training.

Course Tutor

Paul Grantham
Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Founder and Director of SDS Seminars

Paul Grantham, Chartered Clinical Psychologist, a Senior Associate of The Royal Society of Medicine, Accredited CBT Therapist. He is the Founder and Director of SDS Ltd and one of the most popular and inspirational tutors in the field of psychological skills training.

Testimonials

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This video series is an attempt to give practitioners a clear explanation of the SFT process and guidance about its use with the variety of clients. You will see unique footage of a live consultation with a client conducted by an experienced SFT practitioner Stephen Conlon. The interview is not rehearsed and the therapist (just like the viewer) doesn’t know what problem the client will want to address during the session. You will watch how the therapist approaches the issue, builds trust, explores the possible solutions with the client – all in front of the viewer's eyes.

Addressing a Client’s Relationship with Drink (Solution Focused Live Case Consultation)

DVD by Bill O'Connell, Steve Conlon

This video series is an attempt to give practitioners a clear explanation of the SFT process and guidance about its use with the variety of clients. You will see unique footage of a live consultation with a client conducted by an experienced SFT practitioner Stephen Conlon. The interview is not rehearsed and the therapist (just like the viewer) doesn’t know what problem the client will want to address during the session. You will watch how the therapist approaches the issue, builds trust, explores the possible solutions with the client – all in front of the viewer's eyes.