This innovative and highly practical text provides an introduction to solution and narrative approaches to brief counselling and demonstrates how they may successfully be combined to create solution talk with clients. Solution talk is a highly flexible and effective way of empowering people to use their own potential for positive change, for coping with what they cannot change, and for re-creating their lives and even their identities. Judith Milner and Patrick O'Byrne compare and contrast solution talk with other more traditional or problem-oriented approaches to illustrate how a collaborative, co-constructive and empowering way of working may help clients to meet their goals quickly, painlessly and with long-lasting effects. They outline the philosophy, practice principles and specific techniques of solution talk and discuss what to do if no immediate progress is apparent. Through detailed case examples, they illustrate how the approach may be used in client work with a wide range of issues connected to family life, school and work, health, personal safety and leisure. Brief Counselling: Narratives and Solutions will be an essential text for all trainees and practitioners in counselling, psychotherapy and other health-related professions interested in brief therapeutic approaches and working creatively with clients.

This volume presents a unique and powerful approach developed by Joseph B. Eron and Thomas W. Lund that combines the best elements of the strategic and narrative traditions in family therapy. The brief therapy detailed in these pages is one with depth and purpose, designed to take advantage of the broad spectrum of life experience in building solutions. A hands-on guide, the book explains in close detail how problems develop from the mishandling of ordinary life events, and how to map problem cycles, reframe problems with respect, and find simple and elegant solutions. Beyond this, Eron and Lund describe how people in distress lose track of who they are and wish to be, and how alternative constructions of their problems, embedded in conversation, are linked to solutions.

This best-selling book is an easy-to-read introduction to the ideas and practices of narrative therapy. It uses accessible language, has a concise structure and includes a wide range of practical examples. What Is Narrative Practice? covers a broad spectrum of narrative practices including externalisation, re-membering, therapeutic letter writing, rituals, leagues, reflecting teams and much more. If you are a therapist, health worker or community worker who is interesting in applying narrative ideas in your own work context, this book was written with you in mind.

Narrative theory goes back to Plato. It is an approach that tries to understand the abstract mechanism behind the story. This theory has evolved throughout the years and has been adopted by numerous domains and disciplines. Narrative therapy is one of many fields of narrative that emerged in the 1990s and has turned into a rich research field that feeds many disciplines today. Further study on the benefits, opportunities, and challenges of narrative therapy is vital to understand how it can be utilized to support society. Narrative Theory and Therapy in the Post-Truth Era focuses on the structure of the narrative and the possibilities it offers for therapy as well as the post-modern sources of spiritual conflict and how to benefit from the possibilities of the narrative while healing them. Covering topics such as psychotherapy, cognitive narratology, art therapy, and narrative structures, this reference work is ideal for therapists, psychologists, communications specialists, academicians, researchers, practitioners, scholars, instructors, and students.

Learn the various counseling theories through authentic examples led by actual practitioners working with real clients This comprehensive two-DVD set promotes student learning by illustrating each of the counseling theories covered in the textbook Counseling and Psychotherapy Theories in Context and Practice, Second Edition by John and Rita Sommers-Flanagan. However, the DVDs can be used in conjunction with this text or as a stand-alone teaching tool in any course covering psychotherapy theories and techniques. Unique in its presentation of real clinicians from a variety of work settings—including school and college counselors—working with actual clients, the DVDs: Feature practitioners and clients who represent ethnic, gender, age, and religious diversity Model how to develop a positive therapeutic relationship from any theoretical perspective Help students not only understand the differences between theories, but also the difference between theory and technique Offer commentary by the authors on how the counselor in the session made decisions from a theoretical perspective as well as why a particular counseling theory was appropriate for the client’s situation Exploring Psychoanalytic, Adlerian, Existential, Person-Centered, Gestalt, Behavioral, Cognitive-Behavioral, Reality, Feminist, Solution-Focused, and Family Systems theories, these two DVDs shed light on these theories in real practice with clients.

As part of the bestselling SAGE Skills in Counseling & Psychotherapy series, this book is one of the first to focus specifically on Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) skills and practice. Aimed at those new to the approach and as a refresher to those that have started using SFBT, it covers the key techniques and interventions. Structured step-by-step along the lines of an actual therapy session, the book can be dipped into or read cover-to-cover. It covers assumptions, expectations and ways of working, the role of the Solution Focused Brief Therapist, The Miracle Question, scaling, tasks, ending sessions and closures. Supported by case studies, therapeutic dialogue, hints and tips, exercises and points for reflection, the book is an ideal companion for any counseling, health or social care trainee who plans to practice Solution Focused Brief Therapy in today's time-constrained settings. It will also be a valuable guide for those qualified in the caring professions and who wish to refresh the way that they work.

Changing the Focus of Staff -- From Admission to Discharge in One Conversation -- Group Therapy for Solution Building -- Steps to Take When Beginning a Group -- Summary -- Personal Exercise -- References -- Appendix: Guiding Constructs of Solution Focused Narrative Therapy -- Index