Dr. John Murphy Professor, University of Central Arkansas

Home About John Special Topics Current Projects Video and Bookstore Just for Teachers Just for Parents Upcoming Workshops Workshop Offerings

 

 

 

 

 

 

Workshop 2

Brief Solution-Focused Counseling in Schools

This workshop describes the principles and strategies of Brief Solution-Focused Counseling (BSFC), a time-effective, research-supported, culturally sensitive approach that is designed with attention to the practical realities of schools and school problems. Based on a large body of research on “what works” in helping people change, BSFC conforms the counseling process to the student (and others involved in building solutions) by honoring and accommodating their unique frame of  reference, strengths, resources, and feedback. Common strategies include: (1) helping people develop clear and personally meaningful goals; (2) developing collaborative relationships that promote cooperation and ownership in the change process; (3) using “solution talk;” (4) viewing every contact as an opportunity for positive change; (5) constructing creative, individualized interventions based directly on the material supplied by students and others; (6) building on “exceptions to the problem;” (7) noticing and empowering small changes throughout the counseling process; (8) working effectively with students and others viewed as uncooperative or “resistant”; (9) using quick and reliable strategies for obtaining feedback on the usefulness of counseling; and (10) addressing other school-based applications of BSFC including group counseling, parent/teacher consultation, and school problem-solving teams. The workshop includes numerous videotaped and “live” demonstrations, experiential exercises, and practice/application activities designed to increase the practical relevance and applicability of training content.

Workshop Agenda

 

 

Opening Exercise

What is Brief Solution-Focused Counseling (BSFC)?

Empirical and Conceptual Foundations

Building Cooperative Relationships with Students and Others

BSFC Strategies/Interventions: Building on What Works

  • Utilizing Exceptions and Other Client Resources

BSFI Strategies/Interventions: Changing the Viewing and Doing of Problems

  •  Reframing, Externalizing, Interviewing the Internalized Other

  • "Do Something Different" Interventions

      Evaluating and Maintaining Improvements

Troubleshooting When Things Don’t Go as Planned 

Other Applications of Solution-Focused Ideas and Methods

  • Group Counseling, Parent/School Meetings, Supervision, School-Wide Support Programs

 

 

CEU/Learning Objectives

 

Participants will learn how to:

·         Establish cooperative counseling relationships with students and others

·         Develop clear and meaningful goals

·         Use change-focused questions and other forms of “solution talk” to ignite hope and solutions from the opening moments of contact with the student and others

·         Build individualized counseling interventions based on the unique strengths and resources of students

·         Apply strategies that empower and maintain improvements once they occur

·         Use quick methods to obtain feedback and adjust the counseling process accordingly