I'm working in one of the many IAPT sites with a fairly generic job title 'Primary Care Mental Health Practitoner' in a PCT not a county council. I can already hear the tutting and sighing from here! Anyway I have been using Solution Focused Brief Therapy as a good solid Social Work values based interventon. Fortunatley unlike other IAPT sites we offer this to the people referred to our service. Now the reason I'm getting on this soapbox is because I feel strongly that Social Work in mental health needs to raise its profile and take ownership of approaches to therapy that we have historically practiced. That we have been really poor at explaining what we do & creating dialogues in mental health about how Social Work theory & psychosocial interventions.
SFBT is a systemic approach to therapy that relates to Social Work values, theory and ideas about promoting recovery and building on strengths.
I wondered how many of the readers used SFBT as a Social Work intervention.
I am a keen advocate for solution focused work but I work in children and families rather than mental health. I find the Signs of Safety model of intervention is a particularly productive adaptation of sfbt.
There's some nice common ground accross social work using SFBT. I had heard it refered to in some of the training I had recently at Brief. I'll have a look at it is this the right link?
http://www.signsofsafety.net/
I have recently started to use the SF approach, and it has completely rejuvenated my practice. It has provided me with clarity and has benefitted me tremendously.
There's a lot to be said for the role of Social Work Therapist, I think that we could learn a lot more from Canada and the USA where Social Workers have more of a therapeutic remit as well as a practical one. I think the main reflection I have had since using SFBT is that Social Workers can be theory bound and use therapy in to promote change, recovery and challenge discrimination.
I hope that as part of the governments review of Social Work they focus on the therapeutic basis of Social Work as well as the sociolegal aspects of our work. I think that it is too easy to allow the government and the general public to view our profession as purely one of social control. (a very old debate!!)
I just thought a collection of my favourite links was in order!
http://www.sfbta.org/index.html SFBTA - USA based SFBT association
http://www.brief.org.uk/ Brief - excellent uk based training provider
http://www.brief.org.uk/view.php?item_id=109 Brief article and links to evidence base
http://www.brieftherapysydney.com.au/btis/ Brief therapy institute of Sydney
http://www.ebta.nu/ European Brief Therapy Assc
http://www.ukasfp.co.uk/ uk association of Solution Focused practitoners
http://www.changingmindscentre.co.uk/ Where I work
Just a quick update we are setting up a Network for SFBT practitoners in Northamptonshire & hope to use this to promote SFBT & supervise and learn as a peer group. We hope to have an interagency and interdisciplinary group with SFBT practitioners, coaches, therapists sharing and developing the use of SFBT in Northamptonshire.
Anyone in Northamptonshire you don't have to be a Social Worker and you just need to be interested please get on linkedin and come and visit us.
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3682528&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
I will keep this post going with articles of interest as time goes on! Such as the Brief Recovery Conference: 3rd Dec still time to book!!
http://www.brief.org.uk/training-details.php?item_id=149&CourseCode=37
Please come I'm running a really interesting workshop on a Guided Self Help booklet for use in primary care (could be used anywhere) for people using the Solution Focused approach.
Thanks
Hi,
Sorry I have neglected this forum!!
Here's a link for an interview with Alisdair McDonald he is one of the leading figures in Solution Focused therapy he describes his progress from psychodymamic therapy and family therapy into SF. He is a has a mass of publications and leads the research and evidence base for SF.
http://globalmultiversity.com/interviews/dr-alasdair-macdonald/
Also just to ask a favour do you have any really nice articles on Solution Focused Social Work?
please post here or on
SFBTFAN:Here's a link for an interview with Alisdair McDonald he is one of the leading figures in Solution Focused therapy
well Dr MacDonald used to work at my cmht, i knew people held him in high regard and i knew he dabbled in SFT however from your post it has made me realise he does more than dabble. ;)
thanks for the links
How good is that! Do you dabble with SFT too?
My model AERO [ Aspirations, Encourage,ment, Realism and openness] goes beyond therapy to exploration. I worked in a school for nearly five years and the trouble with using the word therapy makes people think that they have something wrong with them rather than there are blips in their life or see things slightly differently. I found children who had had years of treatment from CAMHS who still didn't know why they felt the way that they did or why people behaved towards them the way that they did and also used their therapy as an excuse to retreat from the real world. Solution focussed therapy can help but quite often there is no solution and acceptance and managing that acceptance and disappointments is all that can be achieved.
For example I am the mother of three children my eldest died after 6 days as a sudden infant death with no medical reason for this perfectly healthy child dying. I have to accept this even though nearly 22 years on at times it is hard to do
It's hard I know ...but you have to try.....go on
You are so right 'justme' - my son was tragically killed in a road accident some 14 years ago and I go to his grave regularly.
Certainly social work is about Attachment, Separation and Loss but there are sometimes no 'solutions' or even acceptable explanations as you poignantly refer to in your own case - just the sometimes harsh and cruel realities of life. It is how we cope with them that matters and how we assist others to cope with them.