SIMPLY FOCUS Podcast: The Good Life Approach - Your weekly podcast with the little extra Solution Focus for your daily life!

Welcome to our weekly podcast for a little extra Solution Focus for your daily life! In this episode we talk about what fascinates us with the Solution Focused approach and what the podcast is about. Let yourself inspire and change your focus with our challenge of the week. The post SFP 1 – The Simply Focus Podcast appeared first on SF on tour.

Heather Fiske about Solution Focused Suicide Prevention. In today’s episode, we talk with Heather Fiske, PH.D., Author of "Hope in Action" and a great Solution Focused clinician, about Solution Focused Suicide Prevention. We start with what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how she felt like coming home when she attended Insoo Kim Berg's workshop, how her work and her listening changed after that, and her professional responsibility to stay hopeful and how she communicates that to her clients. Heather emphasizes the importance of what we say and what we don’t say. Get to know how she works in a Solution Focused way with people mentioning suicide as an option and their support system and how her work with parents changed over time. Find out more about reasons for living and the free webinar „Hope and Reasons for Living - Solution Focused Suicide Prevention" we did with Brigitte Lavoie and her. She also shows us how she asks the best hopes-question and the miracle question in suicide prevention and explains how her book title „Hope in Action - Solution-focused Conversations about Suicide“ emerged. Get to know the anectode of how she and Brenda Zalter-Minden crashed the train-the-trainer course of Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer as well as the importance of Solution Focused listening and mindfulness or having a quiet mind. And check out the challenge of the week: Before you go into a meeting or a conversation think about the common ground you share with the people that you are going to be talking to. The post SFP 27 – Hope in Action: A Conversation with Heather Fiske about Solution Focused Suicide Prevention appeared first on SF on tour.

Bill O’Hanlon about possibilities. In today’s episode, we talk with Bill O'Hanlon, Author of 30+ published books, Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist, Coach, Speaker, and Musician, about what fascinates him with Solution Focus, the moment when everything changed for him, the influence of Dr. Milton Erickson, and how he corresponded with Steve de Shazer and co-developed Solution-Oriented Therapy. Find out what changed for him after he encountered solution-oriented ideas, how he describes solution-orientation and how he called it possibilities therapy. Explore how he uses storytelling to e.g. help people focus on their preferred future and the importance of allowing yourself to feel two different things at the same time and not have it be a conflict. He tells us about the similarities between music and therapy and about not being hypnotized by the problem and believing in the possibility of possibilities and the normal range of human experience and its acceptance. He tells us the story of how he became the gardener of Dr. Milton Erickson as well as his student, and how Dr. Milton Erickson was the most alive person that he had seen and "just looked like the next moment was full of possibilities and somebody was gonna to do something amazing or he was gonna see something or hear something amazing at every moment." Check out the Challenge of the week: Catch yourself every time you say something that contradicts what you just did and instead put the word „and“ in. So substitute "this but this" or "this or this“ with "this and this" and find out how this shifts your feelings using the word „and“. And last but not least: He sings two of his songs - "Contradictions" and "Somebody to Someone" – live on our podcast! The post SFP 28 – In the Land of Possibilities with Bill O’Hanlon appeared first on SF on tour.

Dvorah Simon – poetry and SF in action. In today’s episode, we talk with Dvorah Simon, PH.D., Psychologist and Poet, about what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how she got in contact with SF in the late 80’s, how SF is a tradition that continues to evolve and is to a certain extend less necessary than it used to be, and how it spoke to her from a spiritual point of view. She mentions the evolution of Solution Focus and the importance of conversations about the essence of SF when the form is changing. Learn how SF and asking the questions may sound different in different contexts and how she doesn’t put the method above what might be useful for the client. Hear how you never loose when you ask and how she works “one person at a time“ with veterans, homeless people (people without housing), and everyone else. She mentions the Ericksonian influence, e.g. acceptance and loving your failures and the parts that don’t work, as well as how she tries to embody the SF principles as a supervisor and fosters what her employees are passionate about. Dvorah is a poet and you will hear her talk about poetry, her poetry workshops, her lovely book “Mercy” and the connections to Solution Focus. Check out how she would love to see SF practitioners being themselves and alive instead of following a protocol and do her challenge of the week: „Listen for a mistake that you make and love it.” The post SFP 29 – Words arise out of Silence: A Poetic Conversation with Dvorah Simon appeared first on SF on tour.

Dominik Godat about Solution Focused Leadership. In today’s episode, we talk with Dominik Godat, lic.rer.pol, Partner of the Center for Solution Focused Leadership, Author, Promotor of SF & SF Leadership, and Co-host of the SIMPLY FOCUS podcast, about what fascinates him with Solution Focus now and what fascinated him when he encountered SF for the first time, how he used Solution Focus in his HR and Leadership positions and what differences this made, what helped him to leave the responsibility with his conversation partners, and how Solution Focus supported his employees in acquiring expertise and making their careers. Learn how SF can be confusing for employees in the beginning and going slow helps them in adapting to it. Dominik tells us the story of the success bell that he and his team invented to give each other more appreciation and make things that what work visible, and how he became self employed to spread SF in organizations even more and assist them to adapt a productive focus. Check out his research on SF Leadership and the differences between SF Leadership and SF Coaching, his realization that SF Leadership is SF in everyday interactions and every aspect of their leadership life, and the differences micro-analysis can make for leaders, especially in listening and deliberately choosing their answering spectrum of their questions. Dominik furthermore shares three of his learnings of his SF journey: 1.) Going one step at a time: starting slow, focusing on what is working and doing more of that 2.) describing things that happen in an interactional way 3.) sharing success stories and inspire yourself and others by that. And this week’s challenge of the week is to ask a Solution Focused question whenever you are in a conversation where you think that the other person is not that Solution Focused and see what happens. The post SFP 30 – SF Leadership: Everyday interactions that make a difference with Dominik Godat appeared first on SF on tour.

Solution Focus is fascinating. In today’s episode, we re-listen to the fascinations with Solution Focus of all the interviewees we had on our podcast so far. Let yourself fascinate by the fascinations of Jonathan D. Sherman, Monica Rotner, Pamela King, Stephen Langer, Janet Beavin Bavelas, Haesun Moon, Thorana Nelson, Victor Nelson, Bo Yon Koh, Alan Kay, Brenda Zalter-Minden, Laura Cole, Bob Faw, Peter De Jong, Elliott Connie, Brigitte Lavoie, Heather Fiske, Bill O’Hanlon, Dvorah Simon, and Dominik Godat. And let us know in the comments section below “What fascinates you with Solution Focus?”. The post SFP 31 – Fascination Solution Focus appeared first on SF on tour.

Keiko Yoneyama about small differences. In today’s episode, we talk with Keiko Yoneyama, a Solution Focused Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and host of the international SF book club, about her fascination with Solution Focus, how she works with children and how SF helps them to talk, her work with parents, mothers, and women in postpartum period and how she focuses on small changes and small steps. Check out how she applies Solution Focus with her children and what she found out works well for them. Get to know how she offers mothers a space to talk in her parent support groups and how SF comes in there. And learn more about the differences between Solution Focus in the US and in Japan as well as the international Solution Focused book club she hosts. Keiko gave us the following challenge of the week: „Look for the SF essence in what you are reading or what you are hearing to celebrate the SF assumptions." The post SFP 32 – Small steps count: A conversation about SF parenting, SF in Japan and more with Keiko Yoneyama appeared first on SF on tour.

Angela Knox about pursuing happiness. In today’s episode, we talk with Angela Knox, doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, certified Wim Hof instructor, and passionate river surf(h)er, about what fascinates her with Solution Focus, what similarities she sees between SF and what she does in her life, how she grows her good moments and celebrates things that work well. She tells us how love helped her to see good moments during her healing journey and to do things that made her feel better. We further talk about the importance of having a preferred future and going small steps as well as passion and choosing the things that feel amazing. Learn more about the Wim Hof Method and hear what fascinates Elfie and Angela about it and the differences this practice makes for them in their lives. Hear how Angela river surfed in her bikini in the ice cold water in the winter. And check out Angela’s message to you: Stay true to yourself and let your vision keep changing. Ready for the Challenge of the week: Sink into the joy! Really celebrate that moment of love and joy, of the good feeling. The post SFP 33 – Surfing the waves: Sinking into the joy with Angela Knox appeared first on SF on tour.

Eve Lipchik about the beginning of Solution Focus. In today’s episode, we talk with Eve Lipchik, Co-Founder of the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee and the Solution Focused approach, Author, Certified Social Worker, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and Licensed Family and Marriage Therapist, about what fascinated her with Solution Focus at the beginning, how Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer met in Palo Alto, how they started the BFTC – the Brief Family Therapy Center – in Milwaukee, how they looked at the recordings of the sessions, tried out new things, and learned from their clients. She mentions how Steve de Shazer conceptualized what they were doing, what and who helped to promote Solution Focus, and how they learned and moved from the ecosystemic approach to Solution Focus. Check out how the question what clients don’t want to change led them to Solution Focused thinking, how they analyzed the conversations with the questions „What worked?“ and „What didn’t work?”, how scaling and the miracle question emerged out of their work and were refined. Learn more about the different backgrounds and styles of the founding members of BFTC and how she perceives the newer developments of Solution Focus. She mentions the importance of working with a philosophy to get beyond technique and the importance of constant learning and immersion in Solution Focus. Check out how she values emotions in Solution Focused conversation and her message to Solution Focused practitioners: Don’t mix Solution Focus with other things, commit to one method. And she also gave us a challenge of the week: Think about what it is you need to overcome to feel that you are more confident and adapted doing Solution Focus. The post SFP 34 – Back to the roots: A conversation about the beginning of Solution Focus with Eve Lipchik appeared first on SF on tour.

Gale Miller about observing Solution Focus. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Gale Miller, sociologist and emeritus research professor at Marquette University, about what fascinates him with Solution Focus, what intrigued him when he first came to the Brief Family Therapy Center (BFTC) in 1984, and the evolution from the ecosystemic approach to Solution Focus. He tells us how it came he could observe Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, how and what he observed that was going on at BFTC, and how they learned through observing, discussing, trying out and observing again. Learn more about the systematic review and the importance of the research committee at BFTC or how they watched therapy tapes and discussed them. And we discuss Gales perception of emotions in the Solution Focused approach. Check out the challenge of the week: At the next meeting, listen and observe who says what and who responds in what way and how the conversation goes on. What do you learn from this? The post SFP 35 – Observing Solution Focus: A conversation with Gale Miller about his time at BFTC appeared first on SF on tour.

Scott D. Miller about Solution Focus and deliberate practice. In today’s episode, we talk with Scott D. Miller, PH.D., founder of the International Center for Clinical Excellence, author, and promoter of deliberate practice, about how he got in touch with Solution Focus, how he moved to Milwaukee to work at the Brief Family Therapy Center (BFTC) in Milwaukee, what fascinated him with the work at BFTC, and how the way they worked back then has a lot to do with the work he does now. Learn more about how describing Solution Focus to others led to a standardized approach, what led him towards deliberate practice and how those therapists are most effective that measure their results, reflect their practice, and learn from feedback. Check out the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) and the Session Rating Scale (SRS) and how they can help you refine your practice. Scott also talks about how well Solution Focus fits to deliberate practice and how that way of learning could be transferred to other areas where Solution Focus is applied, like e.g. leadership. We furthermore explore the difficulty of measuring outcomes and the questions to ask and the importance of talking the language of our clients or talking about what’s meaningful for them. And check out this week’s challenge of the week: „If you think you are effective, why not find out? Download the measures and begin tracking your outcomes. And see: Are you effective with all your clients? Is it to the degree you thought?" The post SFP 36 – Deliberate Practice: Reflecting Solution Focused Development with Scott D. Miller appeared first on SF on tour.

Brenda Zalter-Minden and Heather Fiske about training trainers. In today’s episode, we are live at the SFBTA pre-conference “Train the Trainer”-workshop with Brenda Zalter-Minden and Heather Fiske, who facilitate the two days, and we talk with them about what fascinates them about training trainers, how they started the „Train the Trainer“-course and invited the participants to bring in their expertise, how they do this training in a Solution Focused way, and what the other person is doing that is unique for the other person, Solution Focused and very useful. Check out how they respond to the participants to foster learning and learn more about their best hopes for the second day or what they would like the participants to say at the end of the second day as well as their learnings from the Train-the-Trainer-journey over the years. And we listened to some of the participants and asked Marcella Stark, Nicolas Taylor, and Aryeh Keshet what inspired them or fascinated them on the first day of the “Train the Trainer“-course, what Heather Fiske and Brenda Zalter-Minden did that supported them in their learning, and what they learned about training trainers. We interviewed Michelle Orr how she might notice in the upcoming weeks and months that this training was useful for her and her “Train the Trainer“-courses, and what has already been useful and helpful in the course of the first one and a half days. We talked to Jay Valusek what it was that showed him that this training was Solution Focused, how Heather and Brenda invited the participants to join this co-creation process, and how he might notice in the future that this training will be beneficial. And we hard from Kristy Townsend, what was important and really made a difference for her, what Heather and Brenda did that was important for her learning, and how she might notice that she used the learnings in her trainings. The post SFP 37 – Training Solution Focus: Training Trainers with Brenda Zalter-Minden and Heather Fiske appeared first on SF on tour.

Teri Pichot about Animal-Assisted Solution Focused Brief Therapy. In today’s episode, we talk with Teri Pichot, LCSW, MAC, LAC, Solution Focused Animal-Assisted Brief Therapist and Solution Focused Trainer at the Denver Center for Solution-Focused Brief Therapy about what fascinates her about Solution Focus, what fascinated her when she learnt about Solution Focus for the first time, how her work changed as a result of getting to know Solution Focus, and how she works with her therapy dog and how her dog assists her in doing Solution Focused Brief Therapy. Learn more about how she started to bring her dog to work as a Solution Focused therapy assistant, how this influenced her work, and how having a dog around changes the environment and the interactions. Check out how she creates exceptions for her clients with her therapy dog and how she uses these exceptions in the session with asking Solution Focused questions. Learn more about the first third of a SF session - „What do clients want?“ -, the second third - „What do they have?“ - and the third third - „What is next?” and what she does in her Solution Focused trainings to teach participants to use SF on purpose. We also talked about how SF needs to be a model of attraction rather than promotion for her and about the books Teri wrote. And last, but not least the Challenge of the Week: 1.) If you have an animal: Notice how having an animal in the room or in your life makes you a better human 2.) If you don’t have an animal or want to do both: Think about the purpose of the Solution Focused question you ask. The post SFP 38 – Exceptional Sessions: Animal-Assisted Solution Focused Brief Therapy & More with Teri Pichot appeared first on SF on tour.

Simon Lee about creating ripples. In today’s episode, we talk with Simon Lee, Managing Partner of Brief Academy in Singapore and Accredited Master Executive Coach about what fascinates him with Solution Focus, how he met Solution Focus and what changed for him with SF, how the "7 questions every leader should ask“ originated, and how they can be used to have more effective meetings. Learn more about how to pay attention to what employees are looking for, the exact sequence of the 7 questions, and what differences these questions can make. Simon also talks about his fascination with training Solution Focused coaches, what they do at the Brief Academy Singapore, and how they focus on the clients in their trainings and let them create the agenda for the day. He further mentions how their trainings have developed, how they learn from their clients, and the differences SF has made in his family life. Check out how he promotes Solution Focus in other areas of life and how the work becomes lighter with SF. And of course, the Challenge of the week: 1) Come up with positive questions that you would like to be asked and 2) give a friend two or three of these questions and 3) ask them to ask you these questions the next time you meet. The post SFP 39 – Creating Ripples: 7 questions every leader should ask with Simon Lee appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Thorana Nelson about systems thinking, Solution Focus, and families. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Thorana Nelson, Professor Emerita of Utah State University about what fascinates her with Solution Focused Brief Therapy with families and how she came up with the idea of writing a book about SF and families. We explore the interactional view and the paradigm of systems thinking, the differences between "systemic theories“ as a coaching or therapy model and "systems thinking“ as a mindset, and the difference between deriving interventions from theory versus deriving interventions from practice with the client. Thorana Nelson describes systems thinking and the fit with Solution Focus or how Solution Focus is very systemic, how she works in a systemic and Solution Focused way, and how the different interactions in the therapy room can be used in other situations. She mentions the focus on reciprocal interactions that she would like Solution Focused practitioners to do more of and how solution focused questions can be used to enrich the work in a more depth way that she would like to see family therapist explore more. Learn more about what family therapists can find in her new book „Solution Focused Brief Therapy with families“ and about the importance of (positive) interactions. And check out the Challenge of the week: Just watch the interactions around you, e.g. when you go Christmas shopping, and observe the different ways people interact with each other. The post SFP 40 – Systems Thinking: Dr. Thorana Nelson about Solution Focused Brief Therapy with Families appeared first on SF on tour.

Johnny Kim about Solution Focus as an Evidence-Based Intervention. In today’s episode, we talk with Johnny S. Kim, Ph.D., LICWS, Associate Professor at the University of Denver, and Chair of the SFBTA Research Committee about his fascination with Solution Focus, how SF became an Evidence-based intervention, and why it is important for SF to be in the national registries of Evidence-based practices. Learn more about Solution Focus as an Evidence-based intervention and the differences it makes for practitioners that SF is seen as an Evidence-based intervention. Find out more about Johnny’s learnings from working with these national registries about doing «good» research, the importance of training for good research and research for good training, and learn more about implementation science and the first outcomes for Solution Focused trainings. We also explore Solution Focus as a multicultural approach and the different use of the “miracle” question in Taiwan, Hongkong, Japan, China or South Africa compared to Korea. Hear what differences Solution Focus makes for him and his wife in their parenting and family life, how SF can instill hope better than any other model out there, and the fit of SF and Schneider’s hope theory. Last, but not least - Check out the Challenge of the week: Surprise someone with a kind word, kind action or deed or a kind note to spread positivity. The post SFP 41 – Solution Focus is an Evidence-Based Intervention: The Impact of Research for Solution Focus with Johnny S. Kim appeared first on SF on tour.

Kat and Gary Barclay about diabetes prevention online. In today’s episode, we talk with Kat Barclay, PhD in Psychology, and Gary Barclay, MA in Health Psychology, about how they got in touch with SF, what fascinates them about Solution Focus, Gary’s and Kat’s story, and how that influenced their diabetes prevention program. Learn how they use Solution Focus in their online program from the first moment on, how they examine the future perfect of their clients, focus on what works, encourage small steps, and how they invite their clients into SF conversations. Hear examples of small little things in eating and activities that made differences for their clients and how they help them focus on what works in their life. Check out the advantages of online work and how online work and Solution Focus come together. And enjoy the Challenge of the week: „STOP – Stop – Take a breath, Observe and Proceed – Every time you walk to the Refrigerator do the Stop and think.” The post SFP 42 – Diabetes Prevention: Kat & Gary Barclay working online with Solution Focus appeared first on SF on tour.

Change is happening all the time. Make use of it. In this episode we talk about the assumption of "Change is happening all the time" and its implications. Let yourself inspire by the 3 Solution Focused focuses: 1. Our preferred future – as a driving force towards the life we want to live or how we created a great Christmas time! 2. Working on what works – as the valuable base for amplifying what’s already there or how we can make a great day out of a bad one! 3. Signs of progress – as a close guide towards our preferred future or how we celebrated our Christmas tree as a sign of being on track! And check out how the weekly challenge - Discovering all the changes that already go into a good direction - enhances your life. The post SFP 2 – Amplifying useful change in an ever changing world appeared first on SF on tour.

Your focus matters. And you can choose it. In this episode of our SIMPLY FOCUS podcast, we talk about the differences a Solution Focus makes in daily life. Find out how we dealt with our oil leak and how Solution Focused questions made a great weekend possible. Experience yourself the differences Solution Focused questions make compared to problem oriented questions and get started with our free giveaway: "21 Solution Focused questions to enhance your daily life". In the theory part we discuss that problem analysis doesn’t make sense in an reciprocal ever changing world and how we perceive things better when we have words for them. And check out our challenge of the week: Observe your focuses - When are you in a problem focus, when in a Solution Focus? Observe what you do differently when you are in a Solution Focus and how you manage to switch from problem to Solution Focus? Enjoy! The post SFP 3 – Solution Focus makes a difference appeared first on SF on tour.

Asking great questions is an art. In this episode of our SIMPLY FOCUS podcast, we talk about two important aspects to consider to master the art of asking great questions. Find out how your questions determine an answer spectrum in which the answers will most probably be and how the concepts that you introduce in your questions co-construct the conversation as much as the answers you get. Therefore it's important to choose both wisely and observe the answers you get. Practice this with our challenge of the week: Observe the questions you ask and the answers you get. Take a few minutes every day to reflect on that. Check the answer spectrum your questions implied and what concepts you introduced in your questions. Additionaly you can go through the questions in our free giveaway "21 Solution Focused Questions to Enhance Your Daily Life" and explore the concepts and answer spectrums there. Go for it and you will benefit! The post SFP 4 – The art of asking great Solution Focused questions appeared first on SF on tour.

Jonathan D. Sherman about the GREAT relationship. In this episode of our SIMPLY FOCUS podcast, we talk with Jonathan D. Sherman, a Solution Focused licensed family & marriage therapist, about what fascinates him with Solution Focus, what differences Solution Focus makes in his family life, and how he refocuses and trains his focus in his life. Jonathan shares his secrets to have a great relationship with his wife Cara and their kids. Find out what the GREAT relationship looks like and how it works. Learn how commitment, appreciation, and consistent loving behavior generate desired emotions over time and get to know the power and reciprocity of "turning towards" behavior and hyper appreciation. This weeks challenge is actually a 30 day experiment: Pick a loved one and refuse to say anything negative to them (no criticism, no complaint) and instead everyday find something to sincerely appreciate them for and verbalise it or write it to them. Go for it and let us know how it goes at www.sfontour.com/simplyfocuspodcast in the comments section of episode 5! The post SFP 5 – The GREAT relationship: Interview with Jonathan D. Sherman appeared first on SF on tour.

Listen for the brilliance of others. It makes a huge difference! In this episode of our SIMPLY FOCUS podcast, we talk about Solution Focused listening. Find out what we love about the topic “listening” and what differences it makes when we listen for the brilliance of people. Learn about the “T study” that shows that as listeners we are co-narrators: when we listen attentively people are much better storytellers. Get to know Nancy Kline’s time to think or how a good thinking environment produces better results, and listen how we do the “thinking rounds” and what differences these make in our relationship and our family life. In Solution Focused Listening we listen for the brilliance of people, their preferred future, everything that works, and signs of progress, then we select exact words of the other person that reflect that, and build with our questions and their answers a useful conversation (see also episode #4 – the Art of asking great Solution Focused questions). Check out how listen – select – build can be used in everyday conversations or how Dominik’s mum found 20 things that are already going in the right direction. And last but not least the weekly challenge: Chose one conversation each day where you decide to listen in a Solution Focused way for the brilliance of your conversation partner. After the conversation take a few minutes and discover what differences this made. Enjoy! The post SFP 6 – Solution Focused Listening appeared first on SF on tour.

Monica Rotner about Solution Focused Leadership live! In today’s episode of our SIMPLY FOCUS podcast, Elfie talks with Monica Rotner, Division Manager of the Community Justice Service in Boulder, about what fascinates Monica with Solution Focus, the differences Solution Focus makes in her daily life as a leader, examples of what she does as a leader and how these enhance co-creating an environment for change. They explore how they co-created a different kind of work environment in her division 8 years ago. Find out how she dealt with unrealistic inputs in the process of co-creating their vision and how she deals with things that cannot be done as they are non-negotionable. Learn how they applied scales and scaling questions to co-create scaling questions to co-create strategies to get from the current reality to the future vision and how they keep the vision a living thing that’s always changing too. Monica knows the importance of walking the talk as a leader and the differences staying curious makes. And check out the weekly challenge: Take a few minutes every day and notice the people around you that are inspiring one tiny little way of doing something different. It might not even be somebody you know. It just could be somebody you see on the street who inspires you. Be observant and look around for people that are role models. The post SFP 7 – Effective Leadership with Solution Focus: Interview with Monica Rotner appeared first on SF on tour.

Pamela King about play as Intervention. In today’s episode of our SIMPLY FOCUS podcast, we talk with Pamela K. King, Author, Speaker, Trainer & Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, about what fascinates her about Solution Focus, how she finds the path with children towards their solutions, what helps her to find out what kids like to start a conversation and how she manages to engage young kids in a good conversation. She tells us a great example of how she and a 5-year old kid with his mother used HOPSCOTCH, his favorite game, to scale and playfully talk about his life and the importance of noticing and using what’s right in front of you. Learn how she also applies Solution Focused play and toys in her trainings with organisations and find out what Steve de Shazer told her the first time they met. Check out what differences Solution Focus makes in her work as an employer and how she amplifies greatness and uniqueness of others. And play in the weekly challenge: Notice at least once a day the opportunities to play and step in: Do jump in with both feed and play at least once a day! The post SFP 8 – Let’s play…: Interview with Pamela K. King appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Stephen Langer has 34 years of experience in Solution Focused Brief Therapy. In today’s episode of our SIMPLY FOCUS podcast, we talk with Dr. Stephen Langer, a clinical psychologist and president of the Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association, about what fascinates Steve about Solution Focus, what is still the fascination to stick to this approach since 1984, and what he does that people come alive, start being hopeful, are more positive, start looking forward to things, and figure out their next steps towards their desired future. Hear how he is persistent in being curios to find out what his clients want to get out of the session and what they want different in their life that might somehow help them to move forward and have a better life. Find out more about the importance of really small and simple things people can do to get started and how exception seeking and good and meaningful tasks can still be very valuable for clients. He furthermore describes some of his favorite experiments and the differences they can make and the tasks of the Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association (SFBTA) and the Conference in November 2018. Check out the weekly challenge: Do at least one thing every week for your partner or a loved one that this person is likely to remember a month later. And the challenge is that it does not cost money or is no more than 5 dollars. The post SFP 9 – Persistent in being curios: Interview with Dr. Stephen Langer about Solution Focused Brief Therapy appeared first on SF on tour.

Janet Bavelas about microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue. In today’s episode of our SIMPLY FOCUS podcast, we talk with Janet Beavin Bavelas, Ph.D., F.R.S.C., Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Victoria, about what fascinates Janet about Solution Focus, what fascinates Janet about microanalysis (moment-by-moment analysis) of face-to-face dialogues, how she stayed curious to unfold and demystify all these things around communication, and what helped Janet to focus on the interaction even in times when people mainly focused on inner concepts and to start her career as a scientist on that. We talk about what she and her team see and see differently than others when they look at face-to-face dialogues moment-by-moment in microanalysis. Find out what calibration is, what is happening there and how that could be important for everyday conversations and for Solution Focus. Check out what changed for Janet since they wrote "Pragmatics of Human Communication" more than 50 years ago. Learn about hand gestures, facial gestures, and gaze and common misunderstandings around these co-speech gestures. Janet also talks about the overall goal of her research over the years and she challenges you in the challenge of the week: Look at one and the same conversation in two ways: First, look at only one person and start thinking hard about what’s going on in the person's mind, look at what the person is feeling, why she/he is doing what she/he does, what the person is thinking, focus completely on the individual. Go and get a coffee and afterwards look at the same conversation again. Look only at what’s happening between the people. What you are looking for has to be what somebody does observably - physically or vocally - that the other person would notice and that was aimed at the other person, that would effect the other person. The post SFP 10 – Seeing Interaction: Interview with Janet Beavin Bavelas appeared first on SF on tour.

Haesun Moon about microanalysis and language of hope. In today’s episode of our SIMPLY FOCUS podcast, we talk with Haesun Moon, Co-Director of the Canadian Centre for Brief Coaching, about what fascinates Haesun about Solution Focus and microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue, what differences microanalysis makes for her as a teacher and as a person, and how it enhances «real life» learning - from day one on of the Solution Focused Coaching training. Learn how dialogue cannot be divided and is the smallest unit to study and about the importance of microanalysis for everyone in dialogic practice. Haesun tells the heart touching story of how «Language of Hope» came about, how this changed her life, and how she wants to see that dialogues change at home, at school and at the work place. Find out more about Haesun’s thesis and the way she studies «hope» in dialogue, how there is always another way at looking at things, and how your choice of looking at dialogue is worthwhile to observe. Check out the Challenge of the week - the Complaining exercise: You are pairing up, one person is complaining, the other person is listening for 5 solid minutes, then the listener gives the complaining person a feedback on what the person is caring about. Listen with the filter: what does that person really care about? We are looking forward to seeing many of you at the BRIEFFEST in Toronto! The post SFP 11 – Language of Hope: Interview with Haesun Moon appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Thorana Nelson about SF Supervision, the interactional view, and relationships. In today’s episode of our SIMPLY FOCUS podcast, we talk with Dr. Thorana Nelson, a.o. Professor Emerita of Utah State University and author of many Solution Focused books about what fascinates her about Solution Focus (SF), how she got in touch with SF and how she met Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg and was then involved in the Hammond Conversations that led to SFBTA and the SFBTA Conferences (a great example of friendpower). Find out how her fascination for SF stays and is growing, how formulation (listen – select – build) was «like a light coming on» for her, and how important it is to deliberately choose and ignore things. Check out what Rana picks and what she leaves out when doing Supervision, what makes her so passionate about Supervision, and the importance of “what do they want” and “what’s important to them”. Rana furthermore shares her passion for systemic thinking (the interactional view) and the power of relationships (and relationship questions). And we talk about her new book that she is about to finish where she brings together systemic thinking for SF therapists and SF thinking (stance and practices) for family therapists. Are you up for the Challenge of the week? Just a few times next week, stop and think about what’s happening that you made this choice, slow yourself down and think what are you going to keep, what are you going to ignore, and what are you going to add that will work towards your goal. And please let Rana know in the comments section what you liked about it. The post SFP 12 – Interactional Relationships: Interview with Dr. Thorana Nelson appeared first on SF on tour.

Victor Nelson shows us Solution Focus at work. In today’s episode, we talk with Victor Nelson, a Solution Focused Pastoral Counselor and Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, what fascinates him about Solution Focus and how a Solution Focused stance is unique for so many professionals. Find out what he does when he combines spirituality with Solution Focus, how he introduced a Solution Focused way of working with church congregations, and how spirituality (spiritual journeys) and Solution Focus connect for Vic and Elfie. Get to know how he was introduced to Solution Focus by his wife Dr. Thorana Nelson and got interested in a very effective Solution Focused program for violent offenders that he applied in his own counseling center. Check out how they brought SF to the community and learn more about the Solution Focused community worldwide (SFBTA, EBTA, colleagues in Europe and China, etc.). Explore how as a leader Victor empowered his employees to use their best abilities, how he applies SF in class and how he supports his graduate students to become professionals. And get a glimpse at his work, his funny stories and his application of SF in his fly fishing shop and learn more about his advice to be willing to join the Solution Focused community and ways to do that. The challenge of the week: Become aware of the kind of questions you use in your conversations with the Good Questions Diary. The post SFP 13 – Solution Focus at Work: Interview with Victor Nelson appeared first on SF on tour.

Elfie Czerny & Dominik Godat about inspiring others. In today’s episode, we talk about where we are right now and where we are heading next, we explore what inspired us in the interview podcasts we did with Jonathan D. Sherman, Monica Rotner, Pamela King, and Stephen Langer. And we added a little extra fun at the end for you to enjoy and smile. And what inspired you in these four episodes? Check out SFP 5 – Episode 5: The GREAT Relationship: Interview with Jonathan D. Sherman, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist; SFP 7 – Episode 7: Effective Leadership with Solution Focus: Interview with Monica Rotner, Division Manager of the Community Justice Service, Boulder; SFP 8 – Episode 8: Let’s play…: Interview with Pamela K. King, Author, Speaker, Trainer & Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist; SFP 9 – Episode 9: Persistent in being curios: Interview with Dr. Stephen Langer, clinical psychologist and president of the Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association (SFBTA) The post SFP 14 – Inspiring others: A reflection with Elfie Czerny & Dominik Godat appeared first on SF on tour.

Elfie Czerny & Dominik Godat about inspiring others again. In today’s episode, we talk about where we are right now and how we enjoyed two cold dips – one in Canmore and one in Calgary, we explore what inspired us in the interview podcasts, we did with Janet Bavelas, Haesun Moon, Thorana Nelson, and Victor Nelson, and we invite you to join the community. Check out SFP 10 – Episode 10: Seeing Interaction: Interview with Janet Beavin Bavelas, Ph.D., F.R.S.C., Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Victoria; SFP 11 – Episode 11: Language of Hope: Interview with Haesun Moon, Co-Director of the Canadian Centre for Brief Coaching; SFP 12 – Episode 12: Interactional Relationships: Interview with Dr. Thorana Nelson, Professor Emerita of Utah State University and author of many Solution Focused books; SFP 13 – Episode 13: Solution Focus at Work: Interview with Victor Nelson, Pastoral Counselor and Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist The post SFP 15 – Inspiring others again: A reflection with Elfie Czerny & Dominik Godat appeared first on SF on tour.

Elfie and Dominik celebrate one year on the road. In today’s episode, we celebrate and talk about our first year on the road, some fun facts of our first year, where we are and where we are heading to next. Get to know one of our favorite Solution Focused games on the road: Solution Ping Pong. Hear some of our highlights of the first year living in our Hearty, what we did that helped us to experience these highlights, some of our learnings, what each of us contributes to make a positive difference for the others and our journey, and our best hopes for the upcoming weeks and months. Let's celebrate small successes, anniversaries and life and inspire us - in the challenge of the week - and share how you celebrate your small and big successes, your anniversaries and your precious life. The post SFP 16 – Celebrating one year on the road with Elfie Czerny & Dominik Godat & Bibiana appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Bo Yon Koh about music and teaching Solution Focus. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Bo Yon Koh, Co-Director of the Canadian Centre for Brief Coaching, about what we like about Toronto, what fascinates her about Solution Focus, music and the connection to Solution Focus, how she uses Solution Focus in her work as a music teacher and directing work with a choir, and the concept of audiation and its connection to SF. Learn more about the importance of reflective practice, teaching Solution Focus, their learnings in teaching Solution Focus. And hear about the Brieffest Summer Intensive Coaching Training at the Canadian Centre for Brief Coaching and their passion about Solution Focus and training. Experience the value of recording your own coaching sessions in trainings and reflecting them with microanalysis. And hear what she likes and inspires her most about her work and what she is listening for. The challenge of the week: Notice and share with us in the comments what is it that you are passionate about and what attracts you to Solution Focus? The post SFP 17 – In Tune with Solution Focus: Interview with Dr. Bo Yon Koh appeared first on SF on tour.

Learning SF. Teaching SF. In today’s episode, we are live at Brieffest with Bo Yon Koh and Haesun moon, exploring their best hopes for the Brieffest, what was most useful in the first 3 1/2 days of learning Solution Focus for the participants, the linguistic audiation model that Bo Yon Koh and Haesun Moon use in their trainings to orient the clients towards the preferred future and what’s already working, and what Bo Yon Koh and Haesun Moon did that supported the participants’ learning. Check out the challenge of the week: Notice your progress and tell us how you do it and how it flows back into your own practice. The post SFP 18 – Learning together: Teaching Solution Focus at Brieffest with Bo Yon Koh and Haesun Moon appeared first on SF on tour.

With Alan Kay at the round table. In today’s episode, we talk with Alan Kay, a Solution Focused Change Facilitator, about what fascinates him about Solution Focus, how he uses Solution Focus to support people in many different areas, like advertising and marketing or strategic planning and his favorite area to use Solution Focus at the moment. Find out how Solution Focus helps him in difficult situations and how he facilitates round table conversations. Learn how change begins as soon as you start asking Solution Focused questions and get t know his book “Fry The Monkeys. Create A Solution. The Solutions Facilitator’s Handbook” and the SFIO (Solution Focus in Organisations). The challenge of the week – Create your own Solution Focused application: „Start thinking of all the things you know and the things that you have been told by people (…) and turn these concepts into a page, two pages that you can share with people. I call them applications of Solution Focus.” The post SFP 19 – At the Round Table with Alan Kay: Solution Focused Applications appeared first on SF on tour.

Brenda Zalter-Minden about FROG or Forever Recognize Other's Greatness. In today’s episode, we talk with Brenda Zalter-Minden, a Solution Focused consultant and greatness detective, about our highlights since we are here on this beautiful „honeymoon point“ island, what fascinates her and keeps fascinating her with Solution Focus, the three phases of learning the Solution Focused approach, and the FROG and the acronym „Forever Recognize Other’s Greatness“ it stands for. Learn more about the differences it makes for teams, organizations, and individuals when Brenda works with them on appreciating each other and recognizing their greatness, the different ways of giving appreciation, the appreciative power of Solution Focused questions, and playful ways of getting people up and moving. She further tells us how to learn the best ways from our conversation partners and what her favorite SF questions, the surprising "tap on the shoulder“-questions, are as well as the differences they can make. Find out how practicing Solution Focus with ourself and our loved ones can make all the difference. And check out the Challenge of the week: 1.) Come up with at least 10 things that you really admire about yourself and write those things down 2.) Get 5 small things (5 little frogs, 5 pennies, etc.) and put them in one pocket at the beginning of the day as a reminder that there has to be at least 5 people in the day that you pay a really genuine compliment to or ask an indirect compliment kind of questions of that by the end of the day that you either handed out the five frogs or have the 5 pennies in your other pocket. The post SFP 20 – Frog or Forever Recognize Other’s Greatness: Interview with Brenda Zalter-Minden appeared first on SF on tour.

Laura Cole about her first three weeks with SF. In today’s episode, we talk with Laura Cole, an organisational coach and mediator, that just got in touch with Solution Focus (SF), about what fascinates her with SF, what differences SF has made for her, her clients, her friends and her family in the last three weeks, and how she applied Solution Focus right away in a meeting with 35 people. Learn from Laura what she already did in the past that made it easy for her to embrace Solution Focus as well as what she did that she would now consider SF and is excited to continue. She is now heading towards the preferred future in her dialogues: Hear how she shifted the focus of a conversation with a friend and how she now notices in her conversations that she wants to have a different kind of conversation. She also applies SF with her 7-year old daughter, e.g. to support her to perceive her teacher in a different way. And she realized that she wants to support Christian coaching to move from Saturday conversations more and more to the hope and the promise of Sunday conversations. Check out the challenge of the week Laura gives you: Change the answer to „How are you?“ to something different or even better, come up with a different greeting to have more intentional meaningful relationships. And don’t miss the surprise after the end. The post SFP 21 – Living in Sunday Right Away: Interview with Laura Cole about her first three weeks with SF appeared first on SF on tour.

Bob Faw energizes! In today’s episode, we talk with Bob Faw, Author, Key-Note Speaker and Positive Change Agent, about what fascinates him with Solution Focus, what he does to energize people, teams, and organizations, his book “Energize”, his most favorite brain tool, and how he works with teams to re-energize themselves. Learn how Bob focuses on what’s beautiful in people, what he does to energize himself and how he makes strangers laugh and pays attention to people. Check out how you can listening for what you really like and how beauty can inspire. And learn about the importance of finding balance through positive news. Challenge 1 of the week: 1) Create a positive goal, 2) find out who is already doing something good and beautiful about it, 3) find a way to build on those things by making positive changes in the right direction 4) and whenever you can celebrate people doing the right thing. Challenge 2 of the week: Find people you disagree with on some things. And first find out something beautiful about that person. Talk with the person about that before you address anything else. The post SFP 22 – Energized: Interview with Bob Faw about energizing ourselves and others appeared first on SF on tour.

Peter de Jong about co-creating conversations. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Peter de Jong, Professor of Social Work Emeritus, LMSW, author and former adjunct at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where solution focused practices first were developed, about his book "Interviewing for Solutions" that he wrote with Insoo Kim Berg, what fascinates him about Solution Focus, what changed for Peter since he was introduced to microanalysis, and the learnings and applications of microanalysis. Find out what he is listening for in a conversation and learn about the three-step dance of calibration or how conversations are being built between the participants. Check out his take on the relevance of microanalysis for practitioners, topic selection and how what we choose of the clients' words directs the conversation. Learn more about intentional listening and how the way we listen influences the conversation and how clients tend to follow where the practitioner goes and hence the importance of choosing useful focuses. He furthermore tells us about his fondest memories with Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg in terms of listening and privileging the client's voice. And check out the challenge of the week "Listen to someone about something that isn't going right, or a problem or a concern. Be quiet, let the person tell the story, and listen to the story with the intention to give the person three compliments." and how to formulate compliments with the focuses of "What do they care about?" and hints of what they have already done. The post SFP 23 – What directions do you choose in your conversations? – A face-to-face dialogue with Dr. Peter de Jong appeared first on SF on tour.

Elliott Connie about Solution Focus, love and hope. In today’s episode, we talk with Elliott Connie, MA, LPC, Psychotherapist, Author, Researcher, Lecturer, and Founder and President of the Solution Focused University (SFU) about what fascinates him about Solution Focus, how Solution Focus makes logical sense, and how he shares his work and makes Solution Focus visible. Learn how his book „The Solution Focused marriage“ inspired us - how something transformative happens when we re-experiencing moments of joy, re-co-construct a memory and co-construct a future. Check out how he supports people to move towards their best hopes and how he co-constructs the future and past with his clients and invites them into an optimistic, positive state of mind. Elliott emphasizes that we have to train ourselves when we say someone is beautiful, smart or wonderful to also share how come and what`s right. We furthermore talk about his recent journey to South Africa with the train of hope, what he does in his trainings that is specific Elliott, and what we can all do to fall in love with love, with hope, and with caring for humanity. He talks about his upcoming Solution Focused University Conference in Taos, about creating a conference that inspires, educates and has „WEness“ attached to it and about reaching people that are not easy to reach. And check out Elliott’s challenge of the week: 1.) Think of the most beautiful, utopic world you’d like to live in. If you could design the world in the most wonderful, beautiful ways: Think of what that would look like and with intention go look for it, because you likely already live in a world that has most of what you would want in your utopia anyway. Spend more of your time looking for your utopia. 2.) Do something every day to or for someone else that makes their utopia easier for them to see. The post SFP 24 – Being in Love with Love: Interview with Elliott Connie appeared first on SF on tour.

Brigitte Lavoie about implementing an SF suicide prevention program. In today’s episode, we talk with Brigitte Lavoie, M.P.s, Solution Focused therapist, trainer and supervisor, about what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how she got in touch with SF as the director of Suicide Action Montreal in 1997 and how SF made sense in the suicide prevention field especially also for traditional men. She shares the story of how one moment in the implementation process of the suicide prevention program, that Brigitte developed for the Province of Quebec, changed her perception in the way she does trainings ever since. Learn how they met with the people that were most against the project, really saw them as experts, and listened to them with an SF stance to develop a shared vision. Get to know the differences this 3-day training on suicide prevention makes and the hope it gives. Listen to the metaphors Brigitte uses to talk about SF and how she shows the difference between SF and problem talk. And learn more about the Solution Focused stance as well as the Pygmalion effect and how it applies to Solution Focus. We furthermore talk about the SFBTA 2019 conference in Montreal and Brigitte’s passion to spread SF among the French speaking community, speaking the client’s language and translating SF practice into our clients' words, and being curious and learning more from different voices. Check out the challenge of the week: Pick someone that is difficult for you to deal with and take 5-10 minutes to imagine that this person is doing his/her best, that the person has something that you can admire, imagine it's your favorite client, your favorite person, what is it that touches your heart with that person, and enter the room with that person and see what differences it makes. Stay tuned for Elfie’s Birthday project about "SF and suicide prevention" and enjoy one of Brigitte’s highlights of this podcast and funny end. The post SFP 25 – Seeing Opportunities – Pull the Golden Ribbon: Interview with Brigitte Lavoie appeared first on SF on tour.

A storytelling method. In today’s episode, we are celebrating half a year SIMPLY FOCUS podcast with “That Reminds Me of A Story” by Hannes Couvreur. In the first 10 minutes, we talk with Hannes Couvreur, Founder & Local Wisdom Cultivator of “That Reminds Me of A Story”, Resourcefulness Detective & Founder of Superbly Human, about the SolWorld CEE where we met Hannes, where he scaled with shoes and introduced „That reminds me of the following story”. He tells us how it works and how he accompanied by Anton Stellamans came up with it. And Hannes gave us the following challenge of the week: „Share a story that you were reminded of when you listened to this podcast.” Then we do it live as a celebration and reflection of our last half a year! Wow, thank you for this great community and all the people who made these and so many more stories possible! And remember when you pass „That Reminds Me of A Story“ to others, please tell the story of Hannes Couvreur and quote Gregory Bateson. Thank you! The post SFP 26 – Celebrating Half a Year SIMPLY FOCUS Podcast with That Reminds Me Of The Following Story by Hannes Couvreur appeared first on SF on tour.

Reflecting reflections - Beyond goals, beyond habits. In today’s episode, we talk about Solution Focused reflections, the differences to normal reflections, and how we reflect, e.g. the New Year. Learn more about our fascinations for reflection, how they can be joyful und supportive, how they can fit to our ever changing world and how they can make an impact in your life. Get to know the crazy three – a fun and easy way to make progress and your first little steps towards your preferred future - and learn more about the importance of interactional aspects in reflections and valuing the past and what worked so far. Our gift for you: The 5 questions for your reflections that we used to reflect our 2018 and 2019. And check out the challenge of the week to learn even more about your own way: „Think of your latest reflection(s) - What worked well there? What differences did this reflection make for you and for others? And what of that might be useful in your future? The post SFP 43 – Beyond Goals, Beyond Habits: 5 Questions for your Reflections appeared first on SF on tour.

Sara Smock Jordan about observing moment by moment. In today’s episode, we talk with Sara Smock Jordan, Ph.D., LMFT, Associate Professor, Program Director of Marriage and Family Therapy, and Graduate Coordinator at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, about her fascinations with Solution Focus, with microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue, and how she started working with Janet Bavelas to capture Solution Focus in an observable way. Get to know her her research project about positive and negative content choices, their analysis of the miracle question, and her hopes for that research. Find out more about teaching Solution Focus and how she lets her students analyze their own work moment by moment with microanalysis of their recorded conversations, what differences she noticed with her students since she uses microanalysis in her teaching as well as the importance of giving feedback of observable behavior. Check out her learnings when teaching Solution Focus with microanalysis and how educators could benefit from microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue. And experience the Challenge of the week: Record a conversation about your preferred future and look at it in the future (See the full details at 32:04). The post SFP 44 – How to learn to have effective conversations with Sara Smock Jordan appeared first on SF on tour.

Mark Mitchell about the body and tribe. In today’s episode, we talk with Mark Mitchell, Solution Focused Marriage and Family therapist, coach, and seminar leader about including body experiences, movement, and singing in Solution Focus and how to support the transition period from an active military to a veteran with the focus on tribe and community. Listen to Mark’s fascination and passion of bringing SF into many different fields since the 80’s, how he asks the miracle question using singing, how he includes the body, movement and songs in Solution Focus as well as the questions he asks and language he uses. Check out his stories about his work with veterans and active military like the Navy Seals and how he uses scale walks and the embodied experiences of the participants. Learn more about the transition period from an active military to a veteran or coming from a „we“ to a „me“ and the importance of tribe and community in this process. And check out the challenge of the week: „Find something to enjoy and what works, especially what makes you feel good." The post SFP 46 – Solution Focus for every-body with Mark Mitchell appeared first on SF on tour.

Yvonne Dolan about SF trauma work and a meaningful life. In today’s episode, we talk with Yvonne Dolan, M.A., founding member of the Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy, internationally acclaimed author, lecturer, trainer, and therapist about Solution Focused recipes, her friendship with Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer, and what we can learn from the Solution Focused approach to trauma for our everyday life. Learn more about the role of food in the early development of Solution Focus, what fascinates her and has fascinated her with SF, how she got in touch with Insoo and Steve, ended up on the team at the BFTC, and started her own SF team in Denver. Yvonne emphasizes the importance of compassion, counterbalance, and coping, and tells a wonderful story of the miracle question or how a patient spent her last days. Learn about asking Solution Focused questions in a heartfelt and soulful way, explicit and implicit hope in Solution Focused questions, and the importance of ending Solution Focused sessions with evidence-based compliments. And check out her challenge of the week: „Give evidence-based compliments to the people in your life.” The post SFP 47 – Solution Focused Recipes: From Trauma to Everyday Life with Yvonne Dolan appeared first on SF on tour.

Stacy Nelson about valuing and experiencing humanity in everybody. In today’s episode, we talk with Stacy Nelson, rebel girl and peaceful warrior for humanity, who voluntary lived on the streets for about 7 years about her journey and her takeaways from living on the road. Stacy shares with us how resourceful it is to have Solution Focused parents, how it comes that she has a cooler full with supplies for people living on the street, how she dumpster dived for food and shared it with other homeless people, and how everybody can recognize people living on the streets and engage with them. Learn what she offers people living on the street as harm reduction and her reasons for not giving money, how she is clear on what she wants to give and where her boundaries are, and how she lets people choose what to take out of her supply box. Check out what differences having lived on the streets makes for her now, how she found and built community on the road, and how she still seeks out people living on the streets as her community. And do her challenge of the week: „Keep protein bars in your glove box (of your car). When you see somebody on the street corner, flying a sign asking for help, give them a protein bar, smile, look them in the eyes and acknowledge them as another human being”. The post SFP 49 – Living on the streets: A conversation about connection, humanity and the importance of community with Stacy Nelson appeared first on SF on tour.

Benjamin Finlayson about SF in rural Texas. In today’s episode, we talk with Benjamin Finlayson, Ph.D.(c), Solution Focused practitioner, researcher, teacher and Solution Focused champion at Texas Tech University, about wellbeing, integrating SF in health care in rural Texas, and the hope for sexual and gender minorities. Ben tells us what fascinates him about Solution Focus, how Sara Smock Jordan influenced him as a teacher, and how he has used Solution Focus in his own transition. Check out what he says about the keynote he gave on wellbeing with a charity organisation, how they integrate Solution Focus in health care in rural Texas, and his experiences being out there as a therapist. Ben shares his success recipes as a new SF therapist working in a medical setting with doctors, nurses and patients, how Solution Focus offered a different way of working and shaped the perspectives as well as the hope of the people involved, and how Solution Focus makes therapy more approachable and less threatening. Find out what fascinates Ben with Solution Focus and research and his best hopes for his research. He furthermore talks about locus of control or how SF can change the perception of how people view themselves and the ability to doing something different.The Challenge of the week: “Find that one conversations, that one situation that you are most hesitant to have and open yourself up into ways that that conversation could be different.” The post SFP 50 – Being out there with Solution Focus: A hopeful perspective for the medical sector and sexual minorities with Benjamin Finlayson appeared first on SF on tour.

SF Counseling at TCU. In today’s episode, we talk with Assoc. Prof. Becky Taylor, Prof. Frank Thomas, and Assoc. Prof. Marcella Stark and three of their Ph.D. students about their Solution Focused Counseling Program at Texas Christian University (TCU). Hear what has fascinated them with Solution Focus (SF), what makes their counseling program at TCU special and the differences Solution Focus makes in it. They share how they teach Solution Focus, what they have learned from each other, how they put the differences of their students to work, and what (they think that) their students say about the program and their teachers. We also asked them about the differences SF makes for them as a team and in their work and they told us about the importance of building relationship in teaching and staying open to being a lifelong learner. Check out the Challenge of the week: What superpower do you bring to your professional future that’s going to help you to reach your goals? And we also talked to their Ph.D. students Lindsey Tardif, Ashli East and Franchesca Fraire about their Solution Focused superpowers and how they use them in their SF work, how the Solution Focused Counseling Program at TCU supports them, and about the superpowers of their teachers that are useful for them. The post SFP 51 – Putting differences to work: The Solution Focused Counseling Program at TCU with Becky Taylor, Frank Thomas, Marcella Stark and three of their PH.D. students appeared first on SF on tour.

Elfie and Dominik about connecting and sharing. In today’s episode we celebrate the anniversary of the SIMPLY FOCUS podcast with our guest host Prof. John Murphy who interviews us, Elfie & Dominik, about our journey. Find out what Solution Focused ideas have helped us to do our journey and have sustained traveling for almost 2 years or what kept us going, especially when it didn’t go the way we wanted it to. Learn more about the potential of the assumption that change is happening all the time, the power of our preferred future or the turn our journey took after connecting to the Solution Focused community in North America, and the meaning of receiving the Steve de Shazer Memorial award 2018 at the SFBTA conference. We talk about our aim to share the great Solution Focused work that people do and to build up an audio library for the SF community and beyond, about giving and receiving or how we bring Solution Focus to people who may not come in touch with it otherwise and the differences these conversations made for us, and about bringing joy and ease to the world and making differences in people’s lives. We share our view on appreciating differences and the advantages of different versions of Solution Focus, on supporting each other, and going the journey together as a Team Solution Focus. Check out the basic assumptions that most Solution Focused practitioners, who we met, share, the connections and the hope Solution Focus can instill in other people and ourselves, and how we engage people in meaningful conversations – in one to one meetings and when working with groups, e.g. with University students at several Universities we were invited to in the US. And check out John’s challenge of the week: „Go out and tell 5 people in your life about SF on Tour and tune in to the ideas of Dominik and Elfie.” The post SFP 52 – Happy Birthday Simply Focus Podcast: A meaningful conversation about our journey with John Murphy appeared first on SF on tour.

Becky Taylor about miniatures and sand trays. In today’s episode, we talk with Assoc. Prof. Becky Taylor at the TCU Counseling Program about Solution Focused work with children and adolescents. Becky shares with us what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how she started to focus on resources instead of deficits, her fascination for resilience, and how she got in touch with Solution Focus. Hear her tips and tricks on how to use miniatures and sand trays in a Solution Focused way with children and adolescents and what differences she has noticed. Learn more about her book "Solution-Focused Therapy with Children and Adolescents: Creative and Play Based Approaches“ which is coming out in April 2019. Check out embodied learning or how she uses the miracle question, rehearsing the preferred future, and scaling with miniatures with children and adolescents, how she involves the parents, teachers, or friends of the child, and how she gets them playing. And accept her challenge to look for what’s right about people, the good things people do, and to help people realize that. Check out The Challenge of the week: When you see children and their parents, do something that lets the parents know that you appreciate something that they do with their children or let the children know that you appreciate them. The post SFP 53 – Solution-Focused Therapy with Children and Adolescents: Creative and Play-Based Approaches with Becky Taylor appeared first on SF on tour.

Marcella Stark about SF supervision. In today’s episode, we talk with Marcella Stark, Assoc. Professor at the TCU Counseling Program and Board Member of the SFBTA, about her fascinations for Solution Focus, the differences it has made for her, and how Solution Focus is not only for positive people. Hear how she supports students that Solution Focus gets more natural and in becoming more curious about their own progress. Check out how creative Solution Focused ways, like working with miniatures when supervising students, or scaling and goal setting with horror figures and superheroes. Learn what fits best when or when the miracle question and when fast forwarding questions fit best. Get to know what drew Marcella to Solution Focused supervision, what differences applying SF makes for her and her students, her research projects and insights about applying Solution Focus in different settings, like counseling, leadership, and supervision, and the Solution Focused community and her engagement in the SFBTA. And do the Challenge of the week: „Look at how far you’ve come in your journey and answer yourself „how?“. How did I do that? How did I get here? How did I know to do that?“ The post SFP 54 – Wellness factor Solution Focus: A conversation about SF supervision with Marcella Stark appeared first on SF on tour.

Prof. Frank Thomas about learning from client feedback. In today’s episode, we talk with Frank Thomas, Professor at the TCU Counseling Program and former Archivist of the SFBTA about Practice-Based Evidence. He shares what fascinated him and drew him towards Solution Focus from 1985 on and what makes him passionate about Solution Focus today. Hear more about his article about the evolution of compliments and the importance of retaining complimenting in Solution Focus. Learn more about Practice-Based Evidence, how we can engage our clients in the process and learn from and with them, and the difference between Evidence-Based Practice and Practice-Based Evidence. Frank tells us a touching story with the taxi metaphor and the different ride with letting clients participate in the process. We explore how and what to ask clients to elicit client feedback on how it is going and how to involve them in the experience. And he shares how he teaches Practice-Based Evidence with his students at the TCU and how he invites seasoned practitioners to embrace this form of learning as well as the value of formalizing client feedback with FIT and/or PCOMS. As founding archivist of the SFBTA archive he saw the foreshadowing of future discoveries in the video tapes of the BFTC. And he stresses the rumor of Solution Focus, spreading the good news, and valuing differences in doing SF. Challenge yourself with the challenge of the week: „Choose one or two clients or conversational partners and simply have a conversation about your conversation. And see what similarities and differences come out of the understanding of what took place." The post SFP 55 – Practice-Based Evidence: Looking at what is effective in what we do with Prof. Frank Thomas appeared first on SF on tour.

John Murphy about asking clients. In today’s episode, we talk with Prof. John Murphy about client-centered practice. Find out what has fascinated him with Solution Focus, how he came in contact with SF, and what kept him on this road. Learn from John what respect, respectful curiosity, putting the client in the center, and letting their answers drive the conversation, can mean. He stresses the uniqueness of conversations and how questions can open up for possibilities and different stories. He shares his thoughts about client-directed practice and the willingness to let ourselves be shaped into effectiveness by our clients, the common factors research and how Solution Focus Brief Therapy empowers the important variables, as well as the value of not assuming and instead asking clients about their experiences. Find out more about giving credit, the influence of personal agency questions, and about planting seeds with our questions and invitations. We also talk with John about his book „Solution Focused Counseling in Schools“, who should definitely read it, as well as taking the time and remaining open to learn more about the complexity of people. And what a rewarding challenge of the week: „Think of something you want to accomplish and make a list of people who want you to succeed with that. Select one person and ask yourself how you might go about recruiting this person to give you a hand.” The post SFP 56 – Don’t assume, ask: A unique conversation about common factors, respect, and keeping clients at the center with Prof. John Murphy appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Adam Froerer about a shift in perspective. In today’s episode, we talk with Assoc. Prof. Adam Froerer about seeing people at their best. Find out what fascinates him with Solution Focus, how questions change with a different perception, how to be minutely curious about clients being at their best, or how to come to more meaningful places with Solution Focus. Learn how to focus on change in the past, present and/or the future. Adam also tells us about their „late nights“ family ritual or how Adam and his wife have important conversations with their children. And he talks about how he uses Solution Focus with his students at Mercer University and how staying persistent in seeing people as capable of figuring out their own answers pays off. We explore his research project about different presuppositions in Solution Focus and the importance of understanding how language is used, listening, and the meanings of the client. And check out his challenge of the week: Find a person that you don’t know and practice finding out about their brilliance. ”What do you do best? How did you get good at that? …” The post SFP 57 – Our Perception matters: How to be minutely curious about clients being at their best with Dr. Adam Froerer appeared first on SF on tour.

Sébastien Vernieuwe about Luc Isebaert’s legacy. In today’s episode, we talk with Sébastien Vernieuwe of the Korzybski Institute in Bruges (Belgium), about Dr. Luc Isebaert’s “Three Questions for a Good Life”. Check out what fascinates Sébastien with Solution Focus, how he trained Solution Focus, and how this changed his practice. Get to know the ideas and the development of the “Three Questions for a Good Life” and the Bruges Model that integrates the greek classics with the Ethos, the Pathos, the Logos, and the Oikos. Listen how they chose „happiness“ and „gratefulness“ as topics for the 3 questions and learn more about the social media campaign „3 Questions on 3 May“ and Sébastien’s best hopes from the challenge. And we go out and ask participants of the conference of the Swiss Network for Solution Focused Work (NLA) about the differences these questions make for them. Check out what Katalin Hankovszky, Regula Flury-Wahlen, Dr. med. Ursula Bühlmann, Dr. Sandro Vicini, Sandra Dietrich, and Andy Balmer say and do the Challenge of the week: Try out the “Three Questions for a Good Life” and share your experiences with us in the comments section of this podcast episode (www.sfontour.com/simplyfocuspodcast). The post SFP 58 – Celebrating the SFWorldDay: The Three Questions for a Good Life with Sébastien Vernieuwe and members of the Swiss Network for Solution Focused Work (NLA) appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. David Weber about communication choices. In today’s episode, we talk with Assoc. Prof. David Weber at UNC Wilmington about how he uses Solution Focused ideas in University teaching. Check out how he got into Solution Focus and what fascinates him with SF, how he supports his students to see Solution Focused communication choices, how he coaches his students to major in communication and develop their personal and team skills, and the concept of Tikun Olam. Listen to a story of a student using the miracle question in a team meeting and ways of teaching this question. David tells us what helped him to find his own SF style and the differences living in different countries made for him. We explore co-creation in the classroom and how he sees his students as solution searchers. And we talk about how he started using SF in the classroom, how these experiences encouraged him, the differences SF makes in his everyday life, and how the SF community provides this studio for being a real human being. And do David’s challenge of the week: "When you are in a situation ask yourself „What can I learn from this experience?“. The post SFP 59 – Supporting communication choices: How to use Solution Focused ideas in university teaching with Dr. David Weber appeared first on SF on tour.

Jennifer Gerwing and Sara Healing about what sciences really knows about communication. In today’s episode, we debunk some myths of communication. We talk with Jennifer Gerwing, Ph.D., and Sara Healing of the International Microanalysis Associates, about what fascinates them with (microanalysis of) face to face dialogue. They share examples of communication myths (in Health Care) and what we really know when we analyze interaction. They debunk the myth of body language and explain the remarkable contributions of facial gestures, hand gestures and gaze in conjunction with our speech. Together we explore how to show the importance of looking very closely at specific, observable behavior in interaction, how to see what’s actually happening, and the difference of looking at individual behavior versus the looking at interaction. And they bust myths about listening and show the importance of really paying attention to the client and the interaction. Check out what the benefits of engaging in the interactional view and microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue are, and how Solution Focus fits to all this scientific research. And check out the Challenge of the week: Pay attention to conversations around you and observe how hand gestures, facial expressions, and gaze add to the speech. The post SFP 60 – In Interaction: Debunking Myths of Communication with Jennifer Gerwing and Sara Healing appeared first on SF on tour.

Andrea Schovancová and Marek Koreň about Solution Focus in Slovakia. In today’s episode, we talk with Andrea Schovancová, HR Manager at GGB Slovakia and Marek Koreň, CFO at Team Industries, s.r.o., about what fascinates them with Solution Focus, their Solution Focused journeys and how their paths crossed, how they use Solution Focus in their companies and the differences this is making, and how they collaborate to share Solution Focus in their communities, in schools, in families, and in their everyday life. Find out more about Ben Furman’s Kid Skills and how they promote this in their local teacher’s community. We also explore how Solution Focus can support to build communities and the importance of stopping for a while and (re)focusing. And check out the challenge of the week: „Stop for half an hour. Make a list of 15-20 people or stories that inspired you. Select one of them and call or write the person and tell her or him about the differences it made." The post SFP 61 – Crossing Paths: Solution Focused Practices and Community Building in Slovakia with Andrea Schovancová and Marek Koreň appeared first on SF on tour.

Kati Hankovszky about community building. In today’s episode, we talk with Katalin Hankovszky, Solution Focused trainer and coach, chair of the Swiss Network for Solution Focused Work, organizer of many Solution Focused conferences, and member of the SolutionSurfers, about how she is connecting people. Find out more about what fascinates her about Solution Focus, her Solution Focused journey and how she began to do the work her way. Kati tells stories about their SF-way of organizing the SOLWorld-conference 2005 in Interlaken, how they dealt with „troubles“ while organizing this year’s SOLWorld-conference in Budapest, and her best hopes from bringing people together, building SF networks, translating SF books, and encouraging SF exchange. Hear what she would like to see more of in the SF communities she is in, her transforming work inside organizations, like e.g. her work as Chair the Swiss Network for Solution Focused Work, and what she learned from her work of connecting people for her work in and with organizations. Learn how she is checking for the attractiveness of what people want to do, to foster the sustainability of their engagement. Let yourself inspire by their teamwork and how they managed for the right people to show up at the right time, and how she is going with her full energy for what she wishes for and enjoying what she gets. And do the Challenge of the week: „Think who you really want to do a task together with and tell them. If you have to do this task with someone else, be grateful for exactly the people you are doing it with.“ The post SFP 62 – Connecting People: How do you do it? with Kati Hankovszky appeared first on SF on tour.

Sarah McVanel about greatness. In today’s episode, we talk with Sarah McVanel, Speaker, Author, HR & OD Professional about recognition and the flipside of failing. Check out what fascinates her with Solution Focus and what changed for her with SF. Learn more about the recognition of greatness when working with teams, FROG - Forever Recognize Others’ Greatness - and how to „frog“ people, and her new book the „Flip Side of Failing“. We talk about how people handle failing, Solution Focused questions to refocus and elevate, her vision for her life right now and the steps she took with her family to make this come true, how our conversation when visiting Sarah in her home inspired her for her new book, and how we can redefine the stories we tell each other and ourselves. Sarah also shares how being involved in the community helped her to start and grow her business. And she gave us this challenge of the week: Think of a label you give yourself, decide if it is working for you, and if no, allow yourself to envision a different possibility and a more helpful description. The post SFP 63 – The Flip Side of Failing: Exploring Greatness with Sarah McVanel appeared first on SF on tour.

Ute Habenicht & Norbert Wandl at the WANDeLHAUS. In today’s episode, we talk with Ute Habenicht and Norbert Wandl, hosts at WANDeLBERATUNG and the WANDeLHAUS in Klagenfurt, about their work combining Systemic Structural Constellations (SySt®) and Solution Focus. They share what fascinates them with Solution Focus, different ways to acknowledge the problem view of the clients, when and how to orient them towards a Solution Focus, and what fascinates them about being hosts and making people feel at home. Find out more about their journey into Systemic Structural Constellations (Syst®) and Solution Focus and they how they the two approaches. Learn more about the client and the representatives in Systemic Structural Constellations (Syst®), the differences their work makes for their clients, and how they decide what they do with their clients. They share lovely stories of how they apply Solution Focus in their private life as a couple or in their business and emphasize how making the context part of the change and seeing that change is happening all the time can be important. And for the first time, we have two Challenges of the week: 1.) Try to change the context when you get stuck. 2.) Collect friendly encounters. The post SFP 64 – Applying Systemic Structural Constellations SySt® and Solution Focus with Ute Habenicht and Norbert Wandl appeared first on SF on tour.

Joel K. Simon about opportunities in dialogue. In today’s episode, we talk with Joel K. Simon, Solution Focused Clinical Social Worker and Therapist, LCSW, BCD, ASW, and program chair of the SFBTA conference 2019, about his Solution Focused journey. Joel shares with us what attracted him about Solution Focus and still fascinates him today, how and when he got in touch with Solution Focus, and how he introduced SF in the agenciy he worked for. Listen to his stories with the Solution Focused Brief Therapy Center in Milwaukee, Insoo Kim Berg, Steve de Shazer, Dan Gallagher and others. We talk about working with people instead of diagnosis or labels and “End of Life and Grief Counseling” with Solution Focus, his books in this field, and his article „Opportunities: Organizing the Solution-Focused Interview“ that he wrote together with Lance Taylor. As program chair of the SFBTA conference 2019 in Montreal he also shares what fascinates him about the program. And a classic as challenge of the week: „Find out what’s working and do more of it." The post SFP 65 – Nothing special about it – From Mental Health to End of Life and Grief Counseling with Joel K. Simon appeared first on SF on tour.

Guy Shennan and the power of conversations. In today’s episode we talk with Guy Shennan, Solution-Focused Practitioner, Author, and former Chair of the British Association of Social Workers , about his fascination for the ordinary nature and the forward movement of solution-focused conversations. Guy tells us what changed in the 2nd edition of his book "Solution-Focused Practice: Effective Communication to Facilitate Change" and how hope is different from desire. We talk about the UKASFP conference and his best hope to have a collective and interactive ethos. Learn more about collectivising solution-focused practice, the Solution-Focused collective and their manifesto for a socially engaged solution-focused practice. Guy highlights the power of conversations and the importance of working with others. And check out the Challenge of the week: „Post poems about hope: Share your favorite or an own poem about hope in the comments section at www.sfontour.com/simplyfocuspodcast and then go to this episode.“ The post SFP 66 – Towards Collectivising Solution-Focused Practice: Into the Community with Hope and the Ordinary in Action with Guy Shennan appeared first on SF on tour.

Erin Cusanno is doing more of what works. In today’s episode, we talk with Erin Cusanno, Solution-Focused Practitioner, School Counselor (NCC) and Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), about Solution-Focus in School Counseling. Erin shares with us what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how her conversations as school counselor have changed with Solution-Focus ,and what differences this has made for her and her students. Learn how she got in touch with Solution Focus, how she landed in a train-the-trainer course with Brenda Zalter-Minden and Heather Fiske at the SFBTA conference in Santa Fe and what fascinated her back then. Find out how she started using it in her own work as school counselor and how she started to train school administrators and others in her school district and in the community. We talk about how she builds on what works and does more of it, her experiences at the SFU conference and at BRIEF Summer School, and about the mastery and the art of Solution-Focused practice. Erin mentions the importance of acknowledging and honoring it when clients share their struggles, the power of a small step, and the valuable differences that talking with Solution-Focused practitioners can make. And join in the Challenge of the week: „Challenge yourself to take a small step in a direction that feels helpful to you.” The post SFP 67 – Building on What Works: A Different Kind of Conversation in School Counseling with Erin Cusanno appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Biba Rebolj about unteaching SF. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Biba Rebolj, international Trainer and Practitioner in Solution-Focused Practice, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and co-founder of "Solution Focused Possibilities", about what fascinates her with Solution Focus, what she did have to unlearn to do Solution Focus and what helped her to unlearn, how she got referred to BRIEF and how she started training with them - or how she moved from Slovenia to London. Check out how the BRIEF training fit to her endeavour to be minimalistic. Biba shares her thoughts on unlearning and unteaching Solution Focus and talks about the SF Possibilities-trio - Biba Rebolj, Greg Oberbeck, and Ben Scott - and how they celebrate their differences. Find out how she started training people in Slovenia and what helped her doing that as well as her way of cooperating with young people and the value of observing and showing your own work. And check out the Challenge of the week: „Look for ways where SF is not present." The post SFP 68 – Inspiring the Next Generation: Unlearning and Unteaching Solution-Focused Practice with Dr. Biba Rebolj appeared first on SF on tour.

Jonas Wells about the history of SF. In today’s episode, we talk with Jonas Wells, Solution-Focused Practitioner, Trainer, Author and Manager about his story of exploring the history of Solution Focus. Find out more about what fascinates him with Solution Focus, the Solution-Focused playlist and music as a different language game, his interest in the history of Solution Focus and his learnings for today, as well as the importance of the early period and the vibrant learning atmosphere back then. Listen to the four versions of how the miracle question might have emerged, how this view on the history of SF could be useful for our own practice, and the political and ethical dimension of Solution Focus. Get in contact with the SF community, a rich and inclusive resource. And check out the Challenge of the week: Ask yourself the following five questions: „What am I doing? Why am I doing it? How am I doing at it? How am I doing in it? What am I bringing to it?". This episode is a tribute to Björn Johansson and all the people who contributed to Solution Focus. The post SFP 69 – Mutually Influenced: A Talk about the History of Solution Focus with Jonas Wells appeared first on SF on tour.

Andrew Gibson and the URP. In today’s episode, we talk with Andrew Gibson who is helping small businesses and charities to grow with Solution Focus, about what fascinates him about Solution Focus, a story of how he helped someone recently and the differences this question can make, his Solution Focused process of how he helps small businesses and charities to grow, and what he enjoys most about his work and how he has a seven day „weekend”. Learn more about the idea of the URP (Unique Referral Point) and his new book „What’s your URP? Don’t just make a living; make a life.”. Find out more about what is helpful for small businesses to grow and how Solution Focus can be helpful in this process, the shift from „doing“ to „noticing“ observable noticeable differences and the differences this shift made for him, as well as the challenges that people face who want to bring Solution Focus into the business world. Andrew tells us about his passion as member of the committee of the UKASFP (UK Association for Solution Focused Practice) and SFiO (Solution Focus in Organisations) and the power of stories and why to make someone else the hero of the story. And do the challenge of the week: „Notice when someone has made a difference and compliment the person for it.” The post SFP 70 – What is your URP? Helping Small Businesses and Charities to Grow with Andrew Gibson appeared first on SF on tour.

John Brooker about Team Facilitation with Solution Focus. In today’s episode, we talk with John Brooker, Solution-Focused Meeting Facilitator and Innovator, Author, and Co-President of SFiO (Solution Focus in Organisations), about how to facilitate change with teams with Solution Focus. Check out what fascinates him with Solution Focus, what differences Solution Focus made for him in the beginning, and how his team facilitations changed. Learn more about his constructive rant or how to turn difficult topics into „what they want instead?“ in the beginning, solution-focused collaboration, and John’s DNA metaphor. Listen how he navigates and maintains space and pace in team workshops and how his team impetus, an agile metaphor for teams, works. Check out SFiO and and his vision as co-president of SFiO (Solution Focus in Organisations). Join in the Challenge of the week: „Think about what you could contribute to the development of SF. What is one tiny little thing you could do?” The post SFP 71 – Facilitating Change With Teams: John Brooker About Collaborating and the DNA of Solution Focus appeared first on SF on tour.

John Wheeler about the practitioner’s perspective. In today’s episode, we talk with John Wheeler, M.A., Social Worker, UKCP Registered Systemic Psychotherapist, Solution Focused Trainer, Supervisor and Consultant as well as Board Member of the EBTA, about what fascinated him with Solution Focus at the beginning and how his conversations changed. Check out how he and Greg Vinnicombe collected Solution-focused assumptions, categorized them into four groups, have been teaching them, and how this focus on assumptions keeps him on track. He shares a great story of learning from our clients or an example of how adapting to the session rating scale (SRS) changed his conversation - from roughly connecting to truly connecting to our clients. Learn more about Solution Focused Supervision and how to be mindful of our own special perspective and the different contexts. Listen how they bridge quality assessments in a solution-focused way in their SF trainings. And check out the Challenge of the Week: „Look out for what you love most about your use of SF, based on the benefit you see it bringing to the people you are working with.” The post SFP 72 – A Unique Perspective: Seeing an Elephant with a Rhino Horn with John Wheeler appeared first on SF on tour.

Rayya Ghul about Solution Focus and Problem Solving. In today’s episode, we talk with Rayya Ghul, MA (Ed.) Dip.COT, Solution-Focused Therapist, Life Coach, Trainer, and Lecturer in University Learning and Teaching at the University of Edinburgh, about differences between Solution Focus and problem solving or how humans are not washing machines. We explore with her what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how to identify the best in a person and reactivate their capabilities, her book „The power of the next small step“, and how she brings Solution Focus to everyday people and everyday life. Learn more about the differences between better and different or the question „what differences would that make?", Solution Focus as a language for being useful for each other, the differences Solution Focus can make for self-help groups as well as evidence-based compliments and her „moan, moan, moan“-exercise about how to listen to people who complain. Find out more about her show „Are you a problem addict?“ at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and how Solution Focus should be available for everyone in everyday life. Check out the Challenge of the week: "At the end of every day, on a scale of 0 to 10 (on a topic of your choice) where are you today and how could you maybe do better tomorrow?" The post SFP 73 – A Genuine Alternative: Differences Between Solution Focus and Problem Solving with Rayya Ghul appeared first on SF on tour.

The post SFP 74 – What Makes Solution Focus Beautiful? Solution Focus as an Aesthetic with Dr. Mark McKergow appeared first on SF on tour.

The post SFP 75 – Building a Platform: Inviting to a Paradigm Shift with Jenny Clarke appeared first on SF on tour.

Sue Lickorish about spirituality in SF. In today’s episode, we talk with Sue Lickorish, a conversation changer and Solution-Focused practitioner, about what fascinates her with Solution Focus, her „wow“-moments in the beginning, and her solution-focused journey. Sue shares how she is mindful in her work to have a different kind of conversation, how her conversations changed with Solution Focus, and how she developed her own way of Solution Focus including what is important to her. She mentions he we leave imprints on each other and on our clients. And she tells the story of how her menopause experience influenced her solution-focused practice and helped her find a new kind of sovereignty. Learn more about how she is including spirituality and found her own way. Check out her reset for change spiral with the oneness in the center and the changing world at the outside of the spiral. We talk about the importance of showing up, finding your own voice in the solution-focused world, and radical acceptance with the possibility to make a small next step. And do the challenge of the week: "In your life, over the next 24 hours, take any moment and accept it radically. And ask, “From this moment, am I moving in the direction of my preferred future, with intention?” The post SFP 76 – Reset for Change: A New Kind of Sovereignty with Sue Lickorish appeared first on SF on tour.

Chris Iveson about the BRIEF minimalism. In today’s episode, we talk with Chris Iveson of BRIEF, about being neutral in Solution Focused conversations. Check out what fascinates him with Solution Focus and the BRIEF minimalism, how they developed lists, the best hopes question, the tomorrow question and much more. Learn more about how they got into Solution Focus and started BRIEF, the value of trying to be neutral in conversations with our clients, the shift from „doing“ to „noticing“, and what fascinates him about neutrality. He shares how to keep it simple and open up possibilities for our clients, the magic of detailed descriptions when using the miracle and the tomorrow question, and the importance of not using presuppositional questions. Check out how to help clients to formulate detailed descriptions and how to make questions content free. Get a glimpse of the work with Evan George and Harvey Ratner. And try out the challenge of the week: „Your next embrace with somebody you love: Notice how you show each other your mutual love in the way that you conduct the embrace, sort of microsecond by microsecond.“ The post SFP 77 – It’s Not Your Life! Being Neutral in Solution Focused Conversations with Chris Iveson appeared first on SF on tour.

Janine Waldman on performance management and resilience. In today’s episode, we talk with Janine Waldman, MSc FCIPD, solution-focused coach, trainer, facilitator and author, about applying Solution Focus in performance management conversations and how Solution Focus amplifies resilience. Find out what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how she learned Solution Focus and how her work changed with it, as well as how her understanding of being Solution Focused changed. Check out the Solution Focused tools that fascinate her and the projects where she currently applies Solution Focus. Learn more about Solution Focus in performance management conversations and in everyday interactions at the workplace, the brilliance of skillful managers applying Solution Focus, and offering Solution Focus as a choice in trainings. Janine shares her work on resilience and Solution Focus as well as the four dimensions of resilience. She emphasizes that clients are doing the work, so trust the process, as well as the power of using and amplifying positive differences. And check out the challenge of the week: „ Over the next week, rate your days at the end of the day. 10 is the best it’s been and 1 is the opposite. And ask yourself: "How come it was so high? What did I contribute? What was the best day? How come? What is useful in this?" The post SFP 78 – Positive Differences: Solution Focus for Performance and Resilience with Janine Waldman appeared first on SF on tour.

Paul Z Jackson about improv and Solution Focus. In today’s episode, we talk with Paul Z Jackson, Solution-Focused practitioner, author, improviser, co-founder of the Bristol group, SOLWorld and the Applied Improvisation Network (AIN), about the fit between improvisation and Solution Focus. Find out what fascinates him about Solution Focus (SF), how he got into Solution Focus, and how Solution Focus is very well aligned with improvisation. Learn more about what fascinates him with bringing together SF and improv, the improvisation space in Solution Focus, and how knowing improv in SF and knowing SF in improv could be beneficial. Check out how they train SF practitioners with improvisation and invite their participants to improvise and the „Yes, and…“-mentality in SF and improv. Paul talks about how we learn from what works and the misconception that we mostly learn from our mistakes, the differences between an interactional - co-created emergent - and an individualistic world, and how we support our SF conversation partners to improvise in their life. Hear more about how Paul integrated Solution Focus in his life, his applied improvisation course at a University in Austria, and how SF could be used for a better world and society. And check out the challenge of the week: „Notice how you are responding in the moment to something that is important to you, something you care about, something that you are working on and allow yourself to see possibilities. Allow yourself that moment to see what other ways there might be of doing it. And try it out and see what works." The post SFP 79 – Flow: Where Solution Focus Meets Improv With Paul Z Jackson appeared first on SF on tour.

Ira Mollay about an encouraging space for change. In today’s episode, we talk with Ira Mollay, Chief Encouraging Officer and Founder of the Mutmacherei, about what fascinates her with Solution Focus, about the Mutmacherei and how it started with the good news initiative, and about focusing on progress towards a preferred future for the world. Ira shares some of the initiatives that go into that direction, her preferred future, and her contribution as chief encouraging officer directing the attention to what is already working. She talks about the „Mut in the City“-walks and how seeing positive initiatives encourages people to participate, her „soil“ metaphor, and how to contribute to a fertile common ground. Check out how Ira’s space fascination – iridium flares, iridium satellites, orbital mechanics, the overview effect and more – informs her practice, how you can apply space metaphors in coaching, and the differences her space knowledge makes for her and the Mutmacherei. Ira stresses that there is beauty to be found everywhere and that it needs practice to see it. Let’s try that out with the challenge of the week: „Go out into the world and notice what you notice. What captures your attention? And then consciously try to spot the positive things and find the beautiful things.” The post SFP 80 – Looking up: An Encouraging Space for Change with Ira Mollay appeared first on SF on tour.

Julia Kalenberg on daily SF habits. In today’s episode, we talk with Julia Kalenberg, a Solution-Focused Practitioner and expert in applying Solution Focus to yourself, about useful habits and tools to refocus in everyday life. Check out what fascinates her with Solution Focus and how she constantly strives to focus in her life. Learn more about her solution-focused tools that she applies for herself on a daily base, e.g. her little preferred future or the I-O principle, and the differences that makes for her and people around her. Find out how she applies tools for herself very consequently to create useful habits, her fascination of working with leaders of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and how she invites other people to use SF ideas for themselves, e.g. with the personal flourishing instruction, the smiley stones, resource gossip, the diary of solutions, the bean experiment and more. Listen to the ripple effects leaders create with the tools she lets them experience, her „fulfilled life“-project and the story of Aschi, as well as how she uses SF in her community, e.g. at the 10 years anniversary of the local store in Zimmerwald. She shares what is important to her in her work and how showing vulnerability is important for her. And check out the challenge of the week: „Ask yourself everyday the I-O questions: "What have I done that I am really happy with? Tap on your own shoulder. "What has another person done that made a difference in your life? And have you also told them?" The post SFP 81 – Useful Solution-Focused Habits and Tools: Refocusing in Everyday Life with Julia Kalenberg appeared first on SF on tour.

Jesper H. Christiansen about Solution Focus everwhere. In today’s episode, we talk with Jesper H. Christiansen, Chaos-Pilot, Solution Surfer, Solution-Focused Facilitator, about what fascinates him with Solution Focus, where and how he uses Solution Focus in problem-oriented training settings, his program „Rethink your Business“ that he does with Edgeware, and the balance of non-profit and profit projects. Learn more about how he supports clients in their success and makes his contribution visible, SOS – the shiny object syndrome or how he applies Solution Focus everywhere, partnership for performance, making a different kind of conversation – his SF way of doing performance conversations, and the story of how he started doing SF writing master classes. Check out the SolutionSurfer’s class reunion and other ways of exploring the preferred future,examples of preferred future conversations under given circumstances, and how they apply SF in their family life and their marriage. And try out the challenge of the week: Challenge yourself to come up with ideas of how SF could be used and how it could look like in situations where SF doesn’t seem to fit.“ The post SFP 82 – SOS: Using Solution Focus Everywhere with Jesper H. Christiansen appeared first on SF on tour.

Tara Gretton about empowering young people. In today’s episode, we talk with Tara Gretton, Solution-Focused Practitioner, Solution-Focused Trainer, and Social Worker, about giving young people a voice. Find out what fascinates her with Solution Focus, what her best hopes from working with young people are, and how she introduces the solution-focused language in schools with her group work, e.g. doing solution-focused DJ and drama workshops. Check out what they do in their SF DJ workshops and how she uses strengths cards to support young people to see what they have coped and managed before. Learn more about the importance of giving space and really listening to young people, how she brought in young people into the workshop at the UKASFP conference, the differences the DJ workshops make, and what the teachers notice. Find out how offering an SF conversation early with young people could make a huge difference to mental health issues. Tara tells us about her mission to see Solution Focus in every school in her local area and how she focuses on the SF assumptions in training SF. Get to know how drama and Solution Focus inspire each other and the privilege to invite children to see them in all their glory. And enjoy the challenge of the week: „Think about something in your life that has worked well, that has helped you. While doing that close your eyes, consciously breath and just think about that thing, whatever it is, that helped you in that moment." The post SFP 83 – A Passion for Empowerment: Giving Young People a Voice with Solution Focus with Tara Gretton appeared first on SF on tour.

Jocelyne Lopez-Korman about trusting the model. In today’s episode, we talk with Jocelyn Lopez-Korman, mental health nurse, social worker, family therapist and supervisor of family therapy, about what fascinates her about Solution Focus, how she maintained her curiosity for Solution Focus over the last (almost) 40 years, how it was in the beginning in the 80’s,and what fascinated her back then, and how she started SF and learned to be more present in the room and to trust the model. Hear what helped her to trust the model, how SF therapy, teaching and supervision mutually influence each other, and the differences taping a conversation and looking at it with a microanalysis lens make. Check out how they looked at their tapes 40 years ago and how they do it now. And learn more about what she does when doing supervision, how she involves the group in group supervision, what intrigued her with doing supervision in the first place. Listen to her when she talks about finding a balance with SF in a relationship and tells a story with Steve de Shazer that made a difference in her practice. And do the Challenge of the Week: „Setup something very small you want to continue doing that is useful for you and do it for a while. Then evaluate it with someone that knows that you are doing it (in an SF way).“ The post SFP 84 – Trust the Model: A Constant Immersion in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Teaching, and Supervision with Jocelyne Lopez-Korman appeared first on SF on tour.

Harry Korman on interviewing for efforts. In today’s episode, we talk with Harry Korman, Solution-Focused Psychiatrist, Therapist, Trainer, Speaker, about effort focused interviewing and microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue. Find out what fascinates him with Solution Focus, the difficulty of doing Solution Focus, complimenting for efforts instead of traits, and how he got into effort focused interviewing. Check out more about how effort focused interviewing has influenced Harry’s practice, the difference between interviewing for efforts instead of success, and recognizing the efforts in Solution Focused practice. Harry mentions the different listening posture with effort focused interviewing and tells us more about his journey with microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue. Together we explore how microanalysis has influenced our practice and the value of having videos of your own work and watching them. Hear the story of how Steve de Shazer told Harry that he is working too much and the six second rule or how to wait for answers. And do the Challenge of the Week: "Look for, when you ask questions that have to do with effort, without something necessarily being successful. Look out for it.“ Send an email with stories or comment in the comment section below. The post SFP 85 – Interviewing for Efforts: Exploring Effort Focus and Microanalysis of Face-to-Face Dialogue with Harry Korman appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Peter Röhrig on SF in Leadership and Conflict Management. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Peter Röhrig, Solution-Focused Practitioner, Trainer, and Author, about what fascinates him about Solution Focus, signs that showed him that Solution Focus could work in business settings, what he did differently in his trainings after being introduced to SF, and the differences this made for his participants. Check out what makes SF the perfect approach for leaders, how Peter trains leaders in Solution Focus, and how he spreads confidence in trainings. Learn how to prepare challenging conversations and hear more about Solution Focus in conflict management and the new book he edited with Martina Scheinecker. Check out the "User's Guide for the Future" and the country of the ants. Learn how to be a progress detective and get an idea of how to give advice in Solution Focus. And check out the Challenge of the Week: In your next team meeting, look back at last year. Check minute 27:05 for the full description of the Challenge of the week. The post SFP 90 – Being a Progress Detective: Solution Focus in Business Settings and Conflict Management with Dr. Peter Roehrig appeared first on SF on tour.

Ellen Quick about decision making. In today’s episode, we talk with Ellen Quick, PhD, BCC, Clinical psychologist, Solution Focused therapist, life coach, and author about her fascination with Solution Focus and how Solution Focus can support good decision making. Ellen points out to see the extraordinary in the ordinary and how to make these useful details that work visible. Check out how she came up to write a book about Solution Focus and decision making, how people suddenly know when they know, how decisions can ripen, and how she invites people to embrace this ripening process with a ripening scale. Hear how she uses obstacles in a Solution Focused way and focuses on people’s agency, how she acknowledges problems and combines strategic work with Solution Focus. And check out the challenge of the week: "When you hit a rough patch or face a lot of stress, just keep going, do those simple things that you already know how to do. Those things that on one level are ordinary and on another level are extraordinary. And you might reflect, imagine it’s tonight, you are looking back on how you handled it, and you are really feeling proud of the good decisions you made: What will you be remembering what you did?" The post SFP 45 – How to decide: A Solution Focused approach to making better decisions with Ellen Quick appeared first on SF on tour.

Worldwide ripple effects. In today’s episode we are at the SFU Conference in Taos and talk with 15 Solution Focused practitioners from around the world about their fascinations for SF, their takeaways from the SFU Conference that they take home to their practice, and the takeaways they hope that the participants will take with them from the workshops and plenary sessions. What a great compilation of SF applications, learnings and inspirations worldwide! And we talk with the hosts Adam Froerer and Elliott Connie about love, hope, their relationship and collaboration, the hope that people live their lives from a point of inspiration,and that we are better when we support each other. Thank you Lori Scott (Georgia, USA), Erin Cusanno (New York, USA), Jennifer Watson (Texas, USA), Beverley Kort (British Columbia, Canada), Paut Kromkamp (the Netherlands), Ann Davis (New Zealand), Jacqui von Cziffra-Bergs (New Zealand), Amelia Barrera (Chile), Caroline Minelli (Switzerland), Alyssa Courtnage (Ontario, Canada), Denise Yusuf (UK), Keiko Yoneyama (Colorado, USA), Pamela King (Utah, USA), Rachelle Bloksberg (California, USA), Evan George (UK), Adam Froerer (Georgia, USA), Elliott Connie (Texas, USA). The post SFP 48 – 19 Voices: Learnings and Inspirations from the SFU Conference in Taos appeared first on SF on tour.

Wei-Su Shu on SF in China and Taiwan. In today’s episode, we talk with Wei-Su Hsu, Professor at the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, about the cultural adaptions of Solution Focus (SF) in Taiwan and mainland China. Check out what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how her SF journey started, how she worked with Insoo Kim Berg, and what she learned from her. Enjoy her craziness for Solution Focus and what she learned from translating SF books into Chinese. Find out more about cultural adaptions of Solution Focus in Taiwan and mainland China (e.g. with the miracle question, scaling or complimenting), what helps her to learn Solution Focus, and how she benefits from practitioners, students, and clients. Learn more about SF in schools and her research “The Effectiveness of Solution-Focused Group Therapy in Ethnic Chinese School Settings: A Meta-Analysis”. Hear her take on complimenting and reframing in the Chinese culture and persuading people to accept Solution Focused concepts. Wei-Su shares her teaching of Solution Focus in Taiwan and mainland China and her aim to be less the expert and to wonder more. She closes with two stories about Insoo Kim Berg or how she showed her not to be the expert and do her own things. The Challenge of the week: “I invite you all to practice to learn to believe in miracles.” The post SFP 86 – Crazy for Solution Focus: Spreading Solution Focus in Taiwan and mainland China with Prof. Wei-Su Hsu appeared first on SF on tour.

Kirsten Dierolf about the ICF Core Competencies and Solution Focus. In today’s episode, we talk with Kirsten Dierolf, M.A., MSFP, MCC, Solution-Focused Practitioner, Trainer, Coach, Author, and President Elect of ICF Germany about the ICF Core Competencies and Solution Focus. Find out what fascinates her with Solution Focus now, what attracted her in the beginning, and what kept fascinating her since. Hear how she got into working with organizations and leaders and what she likes about this work. Learn more about the core competencies of the International Coach Federation (ICF) and the compatibility with Solution Focus, how the ICF Core Competencies influenced her work, and what could be interesting to explore more as solution-focused practitioners. Check out how she partners with clients and elicits what clients really want, her take on narrative and solution-focus as combination to ICF mastery, the difficulty of assessing coaching quality or recognizing solution-focus, and the good reasons to go for ICF certification. And try out the challenges of the week: 1.) When you are coaching someone (or do therapy or other solution-focused practice), and you notice yourself judging someone, find a hook to suspend your judgement and see how that feels. 2.) Listen to some of your recordings of solution-focused practice and look at all the situations where you could give your client a little bit more say in how the session is run. So, am I leading the session? Is the client leading the session? Are we co-creating it together? And what tells me that we are doing one of those three? The post SFP 87 – Partnering with your Clients: Inspirations from the ICF Coaching Competencies for Solution Focused Practice with Kirsten Dierolf appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Ursula Bühlmann on doing SF beyond language. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Ursula Bühlmann, specialist in child and youth psychiatry and psychotherapy, supervisor, coach, trainer, and EBTA board member, with qualifications in solution-focused brief therapy, creative children’s therapy, hypnotherapy and Traditional Chinese Medicine, about using different forms of expression in Solution Focused therapy and coaching. Find out what fascinates her about Solution Focus, how she found out in her first job as medical doctor that she won’t be happy to be the expert and came to Solution Focus in child psychiatry. Listen to a story with Steve de Shazer and what differences it has made not be the expert. Hear how to do Solution Focus in other ways than with language and how to let your clients lead you to what you do with them. Check out what fascinates her with working with athletes and what she does with them, how she combines SF with other elements, and her experiences in training Solution Focus in China. She tells us stories of adapting Solution Focus to different contexts, how an experience with Steve de Shazer helped her to trust the process even more, and emphasizes the importance of joy when working with the Solution Focused approach. Listen to her thoughts about how much space there is for the problem or for difficulties in the Solution Focused approach. And do the Challenge of the Week: Once a day, find little things that work, give yourself a tap on the shoulder and observe what’s happening in your body and what differences that makes for you. The post SFP 88 – Beyond Language: Adapting Solution Focus to Other Forms of Expression with Ursula Bühlmann appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Peter Szabó on re-tuning to a totally different mode. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Peter Szabó, co-founder of SolutionSurfers, Coach, Trainer, and Author, about walking alongside clients. Find out what fascinates Peter about Solution Focus, the quality of listening and the story of Momo by Michael Ende, the first experience of this completely different mode of interaction or walking alongside, and what becomes possible when not wanting to be helpful and useful. Check out how to know when to ask questions and when it’s time to listen. Peter elicits how his work has changed and the reinforcement through the developments at BRIEF. Learn more about the history of re-tuning and how it changed everything for him, his gratitude for being exposed to and supported by Insoo and Steve, and Insoo’s way of re-tuning and his public confession of deleting the most important chapter in his German book with Insoo. And the Challenge of the Week is the classical prediction task: „1.) Predict: Will you catch yourself in the coming days being present like Momo. 2.) Check if you were right. You get points for correct predictions (The full challenge at 35:19). The post SFP 89 – Being present like Momo: A totally different mode of interaction and re-tuning with Dr. Peter Szabó appeared first on SF on tour.

Naomi Whitehead on Solution Focus as a celebration of who people are. In today’s episode, we talk with Naomi Whitehead, IASTI accredited Solution-Focused Practitioner, Coach, Therapist & Trainer as well as EBTA Board Member, about bringing Solution Focus to Communities. Learn what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how John Wheeler, Mathias Schwab, and Tara Gretton influenced her work, and how she sees Solution Focus as a celebration of who people are. Find out more about Curve Chats and how she brings Solution Focus to communities, e.g. to a barber shop in Sheffield. Check out how she supports equality in her work and fundamentally trusts her clients. Naomi tells us about her events that she is organizing in Sheffield and her workshop that she will do with Tara Gretton in Switzerland (stay tuned!). She elaborates how the lived experience of people can inform the service design, e.g. in her work with Ben’s Center and their vulnerable people project as well as her work with soul food. Listen to what kept her passionate about Solution Focus in the last 17 years and how that connects to her lived experience in Bolivia and her use of Solution Focus in her volunteer work in a prison in Bolivia. And do the Challenge of the Week: When at some point over the next week a person annoys you, acknowledge that and think about all the qualities that the other person has shown when doing this act and what else you appreciate about that person. The post SFP 91 – Fundamentally Trusting Your Clients: Bringing Solution Focus to Communities with Naomi Whitehead appeared first on SF on tour.

Kenneth Kwan with stories of hope. In today’s episode, we talk with Kenneth Kwan, Solution-Focused Conference Speaker, Author, and High Performance Strategist, about Covid-19 and the differences Solution Focus can make and has made in Singapore. Check out how Solution Focus was useful when people started being affected by Covid-19 at the “Grace Assembly of God” church in Singapore, how they dealt with the sorrows and fears of people, how they started a dialogue of hope and optimism with their church members, and how they talked about their best hopes at the board level. Find out what we can learn from the experience they made in Singapore. Listen to the importance of sharing stories of hope, love and elements that work, asking and co-creating with people, and how people step up to help and support. Hear the good news and how life is slowly coming back on the streets after 5 weeks of staying at home. Kenneth also shares what small and medium sized enterprises could do during these difficult times and proposes a small next step that leaders could do, a small next step that facilitators and coaches could do, and a small step that everyone could do. And we focus on the silver lining - the good things that are happening during this crisis. The post SFP 92 – Covid-19: Stories of Hope with Kenneth Kwan, Elfie Czerny and Dominik Godat appeared first on SF on tour.

Petra Müller-Demary on abundance. In today’s episode, we talk with Petra Müller-Demary, Solution-Focused Executive Coach, Team Coach, Business Consultant, and Founder of SolutionSurfers Romania, about the importance of the Solution Focused (SF) community for her, bringing SF to Romania in a Solution Focused way, sharing and spreading this mindset of abundance, and looking for the jewels in the dust. Get to know their format ‘solution café’ that is spreading worldwide, the language of space or how she combines Solution Focus with Systemic Constellation work, and micro-constellations or how she teaches this combination. Listen to some great examples of team coaching or the differences her Solution Focused work with teams can make and her frame for human connection. And enjoy the Challenge of the Week: Petra’s Good Morning Coaching – find out how it works at minute 33:17. The post SFP 93 – A Community of Abundance: Getting Connected to this World of Possibilities with Petra Mueller-Demary appeared first on SF on tour.

John Henden on what it takes to thrive. In today’s episode, we talk with John Henden, Solution-Focused Trainer, Author, Therapist and Performance Coach about Solution Focused Suicide Prevention and severe trauma and stress recovery. Learn more about the Bristol Solutions Group that led to SOLWorld, what fascinates John with Solution Focus, and the triple twins of solution-focused success. John emphasizes the importance of being solution-focused and not solution-forced. He tells us about Solution-Focused suicide prevention with a zero suicide rate, working on the phone with people with suicidal thoughts, and even “smaller“ SF interventions. Check out what it takes to thrive after trauma, his work in severe trauma and stress recovery, what helped John to thrive after trauma, and vicarious resilience. John invites us to continually remind ourselves that all our clients can find a way and to the challenge of the week: Remind yourself that adopting a solution-focused stance will bring us all forward. The post SFP 94 – Zero Suicide: What it takes to thrive after trauma and the triple twins of SF success with John Henden appeared first on SF on tour.

Brigitte Lavoie on becoming cancer free with SF. In today’s episode, we talk with Brigitte Lavoie, M.P.s, Solution Focused therapist, trainer, supervisor and receiver of the SFBTA Insoo Kim Berg Memorial Award, about what we can learn from going through cancer for this situation now. Listen to what fascinates her with Solution Focus right now after her cancer episode in the last 1 1/2 years, how she applied Solution Focus practices to her life with cancer, how she knows that she had more good days than bad days, and how she used exceptions from the past to deal with the situation. Learn more about how to talk about the preferred future in a way that effectively supports you, Ellen Quick’s appropriate caution questions that helped Brigitte in her situation, and the miracle question with bad days. She highlights how everybody has good reasons for doing things and differences the letter she wrote to her daughter about all the things she admires about her made. Check out what she kept doing that helps her now with COVID19, the ten positive emotions by Barbara Fredrickson and the connections to Solution Focus, and the fact that we often underestimate our capacity to get through rough times. And have fun with the Challenge of the Week: Ask yourself: What kind of animal would I like to be? And when in your past were you already more like this animal? The post SFP 95 – Writing the Headlines of our Life Today: What we can learn from going through cancer for the situation we are in right now with Brigitte Lavoie appeared first on SF on tour.

Joe Chan about working with young people. In today’s episode, we talk with Joe Chan, Solution-Focused Practitioner and Head of Youth Services at Reach Community Services in Singapore, about their work with young people. Check out what fascinates Joe with Solution Focus, where they are with their research project right now, how Solution Focus influenced the practice of the Youth Center staff members, and what he aims at with Solution Focus at the REACH Youth Center in Singapore. Learn more about the concept of ownership and how they support the young people to become owners of what they want, how they provide a spectrum of activities to fit the idea that every person is unique, how they integrate Social Media and internet activities in their programs, and how his practice evolved over the years with Solution Focus. Joe talks about being solution-focused as a leader, the Youth Resource Pack that they developed, and how they will notice that they are the place to go for youth work with Solution Focus. And he emphasizes the importance of embracing the stance of not knowing with young people. The Challenge of the Week: Put yourself out there on Social Media and share something about yourself and your SF practice. The post SFP 96 – Reaching out to Young People: Solution-Focused Community Work with Joe Chan appeared first on SF on tour.

The post SFP 97 – Solution Focus in Schools Works: From Garza Highschool to the Worldwide Evidence with Cynthia Franklin appeared first on SF on tour.

Rob Black on doing SF. In today’s episode, we talk with Rob Black, accredited solution-focused practitioner by the UKASFP, qualified social-worker, clinical team leader at Bath Spa University, about how Solution Focus can (also) look like in practice. Check out what fascinates him with Solution Focus, in what settings he is adapting Solution Focus, and the differences in language when working with different client groups. Rob talks about the value of problem-free talk and connecting with our clients. Find out what supported him in connecting with young people, how he first came across Solution Focus and how watching people do the work helped him develop his practice, how he let Insoo Kim Berg guess football results, and what Guy Shennan would love to hear Rob talk on this podcast. Rob shares detailed stories of how he applies Solution Focus with young people where silence, giving people space, trusting the process, and adapting the next question to fit (even) better were key elements. We also talk about pace, enthusiasm, staying with the client’s perception, and the art of Solution Focused practice and keeping on learning. Find out what Rob discovered about himself since working virtually with clients and how he established an evidence-base for his own work. At the end he also shares two funny stories with Chris Iveson. The challenge of the week: Notice the times when you used silence effectively and the differences that made in terms of the interaction in the conversation. The post SFP 98 – Solution Focus in Practice: Connecting with Rob Black appeared first on SF on tour.

Elfie Czerny & Dominik Godat answer your questions. In today’s episode, we celebrate 100 episodes of the SIMPLY FOCUS podcast with your questions. We talk about what fascinates us about Solution Focus at the moment, what fascinates us even more now than when we set out on our journey, what has had the most profound impact on our practice, and the differences SF has made to our lives. We explore what tells us that episode #100 is really unique and significant, our favorite questions we love to ask, how our knowledge changed, what surprised us the most during our 100-podcast journey. We tell stories about the “making of“ of the podcast with painful, funny, and hilarious moments as well as some scary situations on our journey. Check out how Solution Focus fits to volatile and insecure times, solution-focused everyday interventions that work very well in our family, how we manage both to look so good and charming, and the many heart-touching and moving encounters that influenced our lives. We share the first feeling about episode #100, our podcast statistics, the possibility to support the SIMPLY FOCUS podcast with donations - THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED US! – and the things we have learned and things that pleasantly surprised us on our podcast journey. Listen to our favorite story of how it came that we are doing this and what we are thankful for. And check out the Challenge of the Week: We invite you to comment on our podcast, to share what inspired you in this episode, and to write a review about our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and other platforms, so that other people can find it, too. When you post on social media, please add the hashtags #sfontour #simplyfocuspodcast The post SFP 100 – Celebrating 100 Episodes with your Questions with Elfie Czerny & Dominik Godat appeared first on SF on tour.

Beverley Kort on telephone therapy with SF. In today’s episode, we talk with Beverly Kort, a Solution Focused Practitioner, registered Psychologist in private practice and Therapist about what fascinates her about Solution Focus, how she is constantly learning and staying curious about her practice, and how she is doing telephone therapy with Solution Focus. She tells us about her experiences with the condensed version of Solution Focused Possibilities and her adaptions in her work. Learn more about vicarious resilience and the research she is doing together with Adam S. Froerer and Cecil R. Walker about SF, common factors, and principles of change. And listen to her stories of using the reflecting team in different situations. The Challenge of the Week: Be really generous with yourself when you say to yourself that you are doing something wrong and ask yourself: “What is my good reason? And what would I like to see instead?”. The post SFP 101 – Being most useful for our clients: Single session telephone therapy and more with Beverley Kort appeared first on SF on tour.

Anna-Julia Szabo on teaching with SF. In today’s episode, we talk with Anna-Julia Szabó, Solution-Focused Practitioner, Teacher and Trainer about how she co-creates school with her students. Check out what fascinates her with Solution Focus, the differences SF makes for her and her students in school, and how she applies SF as a teacher. She tells us how she uses scaling with her students and how she does WOWW-observations in her classroom with senior citizens and her own students. Find out more about how her students are already well trained in SF and demand SF dialogues, her online teaching in corona times and building on what’s there, how she co-creates school together with her third and fourth-grade students, and how she integrates the curriculum with what the students want to learn. And she emphasizes the active contribution in shifting the focus.The challenge of the week: Be alert and see where your focus is at and then try to actively shift it at some point. The post SFP 102 – WOWW: Co-creating school together with the students with Anna-Julia Szabo appeared first on SF on tour.

Michelle Orr on SF in Suicide Prevention. In today’s episode, we talk with Michele Orr, Mental Health Nurse, Team Leader and pioneer of the Brief Intervention Team in Adult Community Mental Health in Eastern Metropolitan Melbourne, Solution-Focused Practitioner, and Board Member of the ASFA (Australasian Solution Focused Association), about her use of Solution Focus in the Suicide Prevention Space. Check out what fascinates her with Solution Focus, when she first got in touch with SF, and how she started working with it. Find out what helps her to bring in SF in a problem saturated world, how she applies SF in her team meetings and in the organisation, how people with suicidal thoughts react to her solution-focused way of talking, and how she shifts conversations about critical incidents and difficult situations. Learn more about her new research project to show the effectiveness of SF in suicide prevention, and how to elicit reasons for living and the „insteadiness“. Listen to what is sometimes difficult and how she manages to deal with that, how to maintain your SF fitness, and connecting to the SF community worldwide. And check out the challenge of the week: Come up with the first 10 things that come to your mind that you do well in your SF work. The post SFP 104 – A Regular Dose of Solution Focus: SF in the Suicide Prevention Space with Michele Orr appeared first on SF on tour.

SF 24 with Steve Flatt and Paul Z Jackson. In today’s episode, we talk with Steve Flatt and Paul Z. Jackson, about the upcoming 24-hour online conference “SF 24 – Building Hope, Empowering Change”. We talk with Steve and Paul about what fascinates them about Solution Focus, the upcoming worldwide 24-hour online conference „SF 24 – Building Hope, Empowering Change, August 6 & 7, 2020“, their favourite stories of how the idea of this endeavour came up, who is involved and what we can look forward to, and the collaborative, SF, and improvisational way of organizing a conference. Listen to their best hopes for and from the conference, the signs of progress they can already see, and how many people might join the conference conversation. Help spread the word with Elfie’s pre-challenge. Take the opportunity to hold sessions (check out the website to send in your workshop proposal), check out how to register for the conference, and do the Challenge of the Week: Make a very short video asking a solution-focused question and upload it here. The post SFP 105 – “SF24 – Building Hope, Empowering Change” with Steve Flatt and Paul Z. Jackson appeared first on SF on tour.

Katrin Berger about SF in Schools. In today’s episode, we talk with Katrin Berger, Solution-Focused School Counselor and Trainer, about applying SF Support Groups and WOWW in Schools. Find out what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how Solution Focus reminded her on what she did as a child, and how she makes everyday life more joyful for herself applying SF. She tells us how she brings more joy to schools with Solution Focus and how she applies Sue Young’s support groups in elementary schools. Learn more about elements that help to create cooperation between students and how she strengthens the personal agency of the children. Listen what fascinates her about WOWW - Working on What works in classrooms - and how she applies WOWW-coaching in her schools. Learn more about how she brings SF to her school counseling team, the importance of being in a good dialogue and connecting with each other instead of asking the „right“ question. And check out the Challenge of the Week: How could you change your perspective to make daily situations that you don’t like that much, more fun. The post SFP 106 – Creating Cooperation in Schools: Solution-Focused Support Groups and WOWW in Schools with Katrin Berger appeared first on SF on tour.

Camille Jeanmonod on how she got into Solution Focus. In today’s episode, we talk with Camille Jeanmonod, Solution-Focused Coach and Psychologist in Private Practice, about challenging what we already know and getting into SF. Learn more about what fascinates Camille with Solution Focus, how she came across Solution Focus, and what grabbed her interest. Check out her first steps with Solution Focus in her private practice and how she kept going. She tells us how she got from Hypnotherapy to Solution Focus or how she challenges what she has learned, what helped her in Elliott Connie’s training to change her way she practices, and how her coaching, therapy, and training sessions changed. Get to know how her career coaching changed with Solution Focus and how she explores her own way of doing Solution Focus. Find out how she applies Solution Focus with her children and the way her kids responded and how she stays curious and is finding her own way. And check out the Challenge of the Week: Just experiment with one aspect of Solution Focus that you want to put in whatever you do right now. The post SFP 107 – Challenging What You Have Learned: Getting Into Solution Focus With Camille Jeanmonod appeared first on SF on tour.

Marianne Roessler and Wolfgang Gaiswinkler about their solution-focused work in child protection services. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Marianne Roessler and Wolfgang Gaiswinkler, solution-focused practitioners, organizational consultants, social researchers, supervisors, trainers, and founders of Netzwerk O’ST about how social workers and child protection services can support change in a hoped-for direction. Learn what differences solution focus makes for their work and what is special when using solution focus in Child Protection Services. Find out how to address your own necessities and worries as a solution-focused practitioner in the professional role and the different implications of the words „problem“ and „worries“ have. Be inspired on how to privilege the ideas of the family and learn more about the importance of making statements and of mapping out all the different points of view. Find out how to elicit exceptions and what the principle „If it ain't broken, don’t fix it“ can also mean. Enjoy listening to some lovely stories about Insoo Kim Berg & Steve de Shazer. And check out the challenge of the week, thinking about things that are not working well in a solution-focused way. The post SFP 108 – Adress Your Worries: A Table-Talk about Solution-Focus in Child Protection Services with Marianne Roessler & Wolfgang Gaiswinkler appeared first on SF on tour.

Will Reed on Youth Leadership and Solution Focus. In today’s episode we talk with Will Reed, an 18-years old youth advisor at Boys in Mind - Girls Mind too, former member of the mental health team at Beechen Cliff School Bath, and solution-focused practitioner about the power of Youth Leadership and the difference Solution Focus has been making for him. Learn more about Will’s fascination for SF and what grabbed his interest to know more about it. Get insights into the mental health work at Beechen Cliff School Bath, in how they adopted Solution Focus, and find out more about the differences SF has made in the mental health team and in the school. Will also talks about how SF helped him and others to come out and highlights how Youth Leadership at Beechen Cliff School Bath and at Boys in Mind - Girls mind too works. He shares a bit about his work as youth advisor at Boys in Mind - Girls mind too and how talking to young people creates ripple effects. Enjoy listening to what Will is up to in his gap year. And check out the challenge of the week, were Will invites to genuinely listen to a young person, treat them as an expert, give them a leading role, and take on what they have to say. The post SFP 109 – Coming Out: Youth Leadership & Solution Focus with Will Reed appeared first on SF on tour.

Sharon Casey on SF in schools. In today’s episode, we talk with Sharon Casey, Solution-Focused Practitioner, Teacher, Consultant & Trainer, and Co-Organizer of the SFBTA conference in Montreal, about using Solution Focus in schools. She shares what fascinates her about Solution Focus, how it is to have access to another way of looking at the world, and what attracted her towards this approach. Find out how she started applying SF with teenagers with drug addictions and in the field of suicide prevention, what fascinates her about bringing Solution Focus to schools, what helped her in bringing SF to schools, and what changed for the teachers. Check out a solution-focused way to start the school year, how to develop the rules together with the children, and different ways to explore what adolescents want. Hear how SF fosters sincere and genuine connections with teenagers, how you don’t have to get to the 10 on the scale, and how you can also value the lower numbers. Join us in the Challenge of the Week: Look for your sixes, fives or fours: Allow yourself to celebrate your fours, fives and sixes and recognize the effort it takes to get there. The post SFP 99 – Introducing Solution Focus in Schools: The kind of teachers we want to be with Sharon Casey appeared first on SF on tour.

Sara Jordan and David Hains about the JSFP. In today’s episode, we talk with Sara Jordan, Associate Professor of Couple and Family Therapy at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as Chief Editor of the Journal of Solution Focused Practices (JSFP) and David Hains, President of the Australasian Solution Focused Association (ASFA), about the Journal of Solution Focused Practices. Check out what fascinates David and Sara about Solution Focus, the start of the journal and the new developments to the Journal for Solution Focused Practices, and their best hopes for the journal. Find out more about how they support people to write for the journal, the sustainability of the journal and the financial support, as well as the different ways of how SF organizations and people (can) contribute to the journal. Hear more about their aim of showing that Solution Focus is an evidence-based practice, the scientific discourse and the advantages of the JSFP. The JSFP is truly a journal for practitioners who want to stay up to date. Support the JSFP and do the Challenge of the Week: Become familiar with JSFP, contribute to the journal, join the virtual launch, and check what you can do to promote the solution-focused approach. The post SFP 103 – Staying up to Date: The Journal of Solution Focused Practices with Prof. Sara Jordan and David Hains appeared first on SF on tour.