SOL Talks 2019 BEING ASSERTIVE

1. SOL Talks 2019BEING ASSERTIVE

2. Being assertive

3. For training • For review/self-reflection • For research • To talk with other professionals • To protect the “brand”??

4. Solution Focus Practice

5. Solution Focus Practice

6. NOT SF Problems: • Origins • Causes • Cures SF Useful conversations

7. Theory SF NOT SF • Theories of change • Causality • Diagnosis/Recognition • Mentalistic or systemic effects • Interested in labels - static • What to pay attention to • Emergence • Every case is different • Interactional & contextual • Interested in differences - dynamic

8. Orientation NOT SF • Focus on what’s wrong • Analysis • Goals & action plans • Depth: Root causes and iceberg metaphors SF • Focus on what’s wanted • Description – signs of progress • Direction & small steps • Stay at the surface: “Since all is open to view, there is nothing to explain.”

9. Role of therapist NOT SF To diagnose and cure SF To talk about engaging in the world – having useful conversations

10. Talking about emotion NOT SF Abstract entities, 2nd order constructs, to be examined in isolation SF Activity set in a context – think of the verb, not the noun

11. Solution Focus Practice

12. YES!

13. YES! • More than 2800 publications annually in English and at least 12 other languages.  • 10 meta-analyses; 7 systematic reviews; 325 relevant outcome studies including 143 randomised controlled trials showing benefit from solution-focused approaches with 92 showing benefit over existing treatments.  • Of 100 comparison studies, 71 favour sft.  • Effectiveness data are also available from over 9000 cases with a success rate exceeding 60%; requiring an average of 3 – 6.5 sessions of therapy time. Source: Alasdair Macdonald www.solutionsdoc.co.uk

14. YES! • It’s efficient • It’s effective – brief • It’s affective

15. Talking about emotion NOT SF Abstract entities, 2nd order constructs, to be examined in isolation SF Activity set in a context – think of the verb, not the noun

16. And yet … “Presently, there is very little evidence that solution focused therapy is effective or that it is beneficial in helping people solve their problems …… Unfortunately, SFT has yet to achieve the kind of research support that would put it into the category of evidence based treatment. For that reason, I cannot extend an invitation to Elliott Connie to speak at the college.”

17. WHAT?! • I don’t like the evidence & can ignore it • If I took it seriously, I’d have to abandon all I’ve learned • I don’t understand what is going on in an SF conversation

18. Solution Focus Practice

19. How does it work?

20. How does it work? “The illness is not in the patient but the patient is in the illness, as it were; for mental illness is not a state in the head but an altered way of being in the world.” Thomas Fuchs

21. How does it work? Re-balancing the client’s way of being in the world by Having useful conversations about engaging with it

22. How does it work? • Narrative emergence – new narratives, “joining the dots” differently • World stretching – altering the way of being in the world by seeing new opportunities for action -“affordances”

23. Why World “Stretching”? • Stretching requires effort • There may be relaxation towards the earlier state • The impact of the stretched world may be immediately apparent – and it will continue as the client experiences the stretched world • “What’s better” questions stretch further

24. Look out for Mark McKergow’s upcoming works on the topic! From “shrink” to “stretcher”!

25. sfworkThe Centre for Solutions Focus at WorkBuilding progress rapidly in tough situations • Lots of free articles at www.sfwork.com

26. BEING ASSERTIVE