: Peter Sundman, Matthias Schwab, Ferdinand Wolf, John Wheeler, Marie-Christine Cabie, Svea van der Ho
: Theory of Solution-Focused Practice Version 2020
: Books on Demand
: 9783752614947
: 1
: CHF 3.60
:
: Psychologie
: English
: 124
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
This book is the result of a collaboration between a number of authors working as a European Brief Therapy Association (EBTA) task-group. This is the 2020 state of the art version of understanding and learning Solution-Focused Practice. It is applicable to various fields of practice, such as therapy, coaching, supervision, social change, educational work, leadership, and other contexts where a detailed understanding of how to manage and promote change in social systems and communities is intended. The book presents a coherent theory of solution-focused practice for those who want to understand the rationale, together with a comprehensive description of solution-focused practice that can be used in daily practice or training and for developmental purposes. Theory here is defined as a process theory describing how the solution-focused practice is done, together with explanations of how and why the change process is initiated. This book is also a statement of what solution-focused practice is and what are the sound reasons to use it.

Peter Sundman, BA, social worker, clinical supervisor, coach, licensed Solution Focused psychotherapy trainer, consultant, coordinator of the TaitoBa House Solution Focused net-work.

II. Explanation: Why be solution-
focused?


Some say that descriptions of solution-focused practice, continuous inductive development together with the growing empirical evidence that solution-focused treatments are efficient and effective25, are enough of a reason to use solution-focused practice.26 Solution-focused practice is however not grounded on descriptions alone, clinical results, social acceptance or personal style, but on rigorous reasoning and certain assumptions and values. Choosing the solution-focused practice therefore is based on both theoretical reasons and certain ethical choices.

This section will explore the reasoning in respect of three aspects of solution-focused practice as an activity of helping clients to change: a) the meaning of their situation, b) their self-perception and direction and c) everyday actions accordingly. The chapter ends with a summary of the main assumptions, values and beliefs of solution-focused practice.

Changing meaning

Solution-focused practice is partly a philosophical endeavour of talking about in what way it makes sense for the clients to conceptualize their experiences and how this may help to promote experiences of “feeling better” or “understanding better” – common requests that clients bring as their desired outcome when they start work with a practitioner. The solution-focused stance argues that language philosophy27 makes a strong case for the practice of being helpful to other people, because the use of language is a fundamental element of conversation. Understanding and explaining the meaning of meaning, therefore, is of major importance. This includes making sense of perceptions, feelings, thoughts and intentions.

Meaningful sentences make a conceptual map of the world


Ludwig Wittgenstein and social constructionist philosophy is an important source of inspiration in conceptualizing the relation of language and what we call “reality”28. Wittgenstein claimed that the limits of our language determine the limits of our world, and that world and life are one.29 Language is thus not just a collection of words. It is the expression of a form of life.30 What commonly are called facts are not things, but they are verbal expressions of meaningful sentences. These facts show a picture of reality and together are a model of the world. Words and sentences do not however have a fixed sense or meaning. They get their meaning from the context of life events and they are used in relation to other persons. So, what one says makes sense because of one’s daily acting.31 Thus – as Wittgenstein put it – the world of the happy is quite another than that of the unhappy.32

Human experience is not simply given, but more like a conceptual map or network where sense and meaning varies according to when, where, and how one relates to others.33 Words, sentences, thoughts, and actions have varying references, denotations, connotations, implications, ambiguities, and contradictions.34

In this sense, the partly philosophi