Solutioning: Solution-focused Interventions for Counselors

This book is designed for established counselors, pastors, social workers, nurses, psychologists, and mental health professionals; it can also be used as a text for counselor training programs or as a reference tool for beginning counselors. It offers a new strategy for helping professionals who are not comfortable fitting their philosophy of counseling to managed care organizations; who want to be able to save time while creating a hopeful atmosphere for their clients; and who are looking for more effective ways to encourage responsibility, raise self-esteem, and develop life-long abilities in their clients. Based on solution-focused brief therapy, the 4-P Solutioning process provides therapists with methods to end blaming, encourage responsibility, and empower clients to find and use solutions. Solutioning is not an all-encompassing theory that requires a radical change in philosophy, but a language that promotes growth, change, and flexibility. It encourages the practitioner to blend tried-and-true techniques with the solutioning attitude and supplementary interventions, allowing the efficiency necessary for managed care survival. The book provides therapists with the following: the language of the 4-Ps, taught by using easily accessible practice sheets; skill highlights which focus on preexisting skills that can be given a solutioning slant; solutioning applications that illustrate how particular interventions apply to common mental health issues; case studies that demonstrate actual uses of solutioning; intakes, treatment plans, progress notes and other tools along with specific adaptations for family, couple, and play therapy; and a complete solutioning group program including the curriculum for teaching the 4-P process with lessons and handouts. (Contains 82 references and an index.) (Author/MKA)