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moocowinthecity Season 2 Episode 1: A Solution Focused Brief Therapy New Year to You!
Season 2 Episode 1: A Solution Focused Brief Therapy New Year to You!
Happy New Year everyone! 2020 was – without question – largely a dumpster fire. That said, we can take a Solution Focused perspective as we embrace whatever 2021 has to throw at us!
As I reflect on the past year, I find I’m asking myself the same few questions I ask patients when they come into my office (as virtual as it is these days). I figured I would reflect and record a Self-Solution Focused Therapy Session to open 2021!
“How are you feeling, how’s your mood?”
I’m feeling okay. I’ve worked to reduce my stress, anxiety, and depression. I am feeling confident, hopeful, and excited for the year ahead.
“What are your best hopes for this year? What will let you know this year was helpful, productive, and satisfying?”
My best hopes for this year are to continue forward with my doctoral program, and to continue to embrace my hobbies and interests passionately and with unbridled enthusiasm! I’ll know that this year is helpful, productive, and satisfying if I feel that I am progressing forward.
“What will let you know that you’re progressing forward?”
I’ll see my home office and home confirming to me and my style. I’ll have a clean house, bedroom, and home office. My laundry will be done, and I’ll have read and written about the subjects I’m passionate about. I’ll continue to expand my programs at work.
“Excellent. So on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is you’re nowhere near where you want to be by the end of 2021, and a 10 is you’re exactly where you want to be at the end of 2021, where would you put yourself on the scale?”
I think I’d put myself at a 6.7
“What let’s you know that you’re at a 6.7?”
My house is getting there. I’m feeling confident I’ll have it clean by this weekend. I’m feeling good about where my education is heading, and I’m feeling ready for school to start picking up again.
“What would let you know you were 10% better? What would other people notice about you?”
If I were 10% better huh? Hmmm. I think I would notice I’m sticking to my writing and cleaning schedule more often. I think other people – if they could see me, since I haven’t really seen people in person since COVID started – I think they’d see me doing more of my hobbies, and they’d see me less time stressed because things were organized. They’ll see me super excited to talk about school.
“So what’s your next, small step to move up on the scale?”
Me I’m going to start the laundry.
“And on a confidence scale, where 1 is not at all confident, and a 10 is as confident as a human can be, how confident are you that you’ll get started?”
Which means it’s time to sign off and get that laundry started!
Please let me know what would a Solution Focused Brief Therapy New Year would look like for you! Send me an email or tweet 🙂 And, before I go to start the washer and dryer, I’m excited to announce that in 2021 my hope is to interview SFBT practitioners from around the world! Stay tuned!
Thank you for listening. Please tune in again two Sunday’s from now (and every time in-between), as we continue forward together down our solutions focused path. Comments, constructive criticism, feedback, and questions can be sent to [email protected]. Yes I’m on Social Media at @TheMattSchwartz on all of the platforms you’d think to look at. I’m Matt Schwartz, and it’s a pleasure to be your host.
The music you’re listening to in the background today is Boston Landing on “Blue Dot Sessions” generously shared through a creative commons license. Please find more of their music at www.sessions.blue, that’s w-w-w- dot s-e-s-s-i-o-n-s- dot b-l-u-e.
I’ll see you in two weeks with more; until then, make good choices.
Episode 9: Solution Focused Brief Therapy Everything & Everywhere
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1339411/6610129-episode-9-solution-focused-brief-therapy-everything-everywhere.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-6610129&player=smallEpisode 9: Solution Focused Brief Therapy Everything & Everywhere
Welcome everyone! I hope that everyone’s had a restful week wherever you’re listening from. Two weekends ago the Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association, of which I am a member (and sit on their Diversity and Programming Committees) pulled off an amazing feat: the SFBTA managed to put together an online Solution Focused Conference with 240 participants, from 22 countries, over 5 continents. Wow!
There was an incredible amount of diversity in the programming – which follows, since this year’s theme was “putting differences to work!”
It got me thinking, especially as my favorite Kiwi called me from New Zealand this morning to talk rugby (I’ve been an All Blacks fan since I had hair, so it was nice to talk to someone who had a similar love of my favorite team). During our conversation he asked me if I’d be interested in talking to some of his fellow coaches in his municipality, and he asked if SFBT had anything to offer Rugby. I said of course it did! When we’re not using Solution Focused Brief Therapy we’re using it for coaching (and as Insoo Kim Berg once said, the difference between SFBT and SFBC is that you’ll get paid more if you call it coaching)!
SFBT, when you become a practitioner, it becomes a part of you – and all that you do. You can be a Solution Focused doctor, lawyer, teacher, nurse, parent, nutritionist, artist, dancer, circus entertainer, and yes, a Solution Focused rugby player, coach, or referee. What was so nice is that our latest conference exhibited so much of that. Yes, we use it as a therapy, but as much as it is a therapy…it is a philosophy, and a way of living our live that can bring balance, and contentment, and empowerment, and answers – SOLUTIONS – to our hardest decisions.
When I was first studying SFBT work, I was studying under my professor, Denise Krause, at the University at Buffalo, in my interventions course. I was also studying under two social workers and one psychologist in my initial field placement. Bob, the psychologist always gave a baseball example if he could (he didn’t watch rugby, no one’s perfect).
I’m going to paraphrase because I have an inkling that maybe the insert ever changing sports team here didn’t really have this happen, but it’s a good metaphor: picture a clutch hitter, the baseball player who’s supposed to bring everyone in when all bases are loaded…the player who’s supposed to hit a home run, or just knock it out of the park. Suddenly, the clutch hitter isn’t doing well. So the clutch hitter starts watching tape after tape of all of his misses trying to spot the problem. Week after week. His batting isn’t getting any better. All he can think about and tall he can talk about is what’s not working, how he’s “messing up.” Now…they bring in a Solution Focused Coach…what do you think that coach does? That coach has him stop watching all of the videos of his errors and misses, and start watching videos of every time he was getting it right. When was it working out? When was the problem not a problem? How can we make that happen again? If you had to scale yourself right now, where would you be? And if you were 10% better, how would you know it? What would we need to do to get there?
Solution Focused Brief Therapy (and Self SFBT work) also got me through some of the most physically difficult moments of my life, when my body was failing all around me. It is powerful, and a gift, from Insoo Kim Berg and Steve DeShazer, and it is as applicable in a therapists office as it is on the rugby pitch.
Which is good news, because as my first semester of my doctoral in social work program winds down, I find myself preparing to move out of a direct mental health therapy role in the next year, into one as a Solution Focused Financial Social Worker, combining both my Master of Business Administration and my Social Work and Counseling Background to help folks understand their relationship to money, and their behavioral health…and if I can’t do it as a Solution Focused Brief Therapist, then I don’t want to do it all.
Fortunately for me, you can SFBT all the things!
Thank you for listening. Please tune in again next Sunday (and every time in-between), as we continue forward together down our solutions focused path. Comments, constructive criticism, feedback, and questions can be sent to [email protected]. Yes I’m on Social Media at @TheMattSchwartz on all of the platforms you’d think to look at. I’m Matt Schwartz, and it’s a pleasure to be your host.
The music you’re listening to in the background today is Boston Landing on “Blue Dot Sessions” generously shared through a creative commons license. Please find more of their music at www.sessions.blue, that’s w-w-w- dot s-e-s-s-i-o-n-s- dot b-l-u-e. I’ll see you next Sunday with more; until then, make good choices.
Episode 8: Welcome back to the show the re-re-reboot & a Lesson on Validation & Changing Language!
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1339411/5834743-episode-8-welcome-back-to-the-show-the-re-re-reboot-a-lesson-on-validation-changing-language.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-5834743&player=smallTranscript:
So it turns out that two things happened: FIRST, someone else was using my initials…two someone else’s…a television show (we can’t get mad at them for having that as a call sign)…but, sadly, also a hate group (BOO!). So the name got he show has been changed to The Solution Focused Podcast! I have upgraded my gear and equipment (also yay!) and I look forward to getting back to our regular production schedule!
What is also interesting is that I learned a very important lesson on validation that I think will be important to remember and process for this involved in clinical settings.
When I was at a Solution Center we utilized the Outcome Rating Scale created by Scott D. Miller and his team at the International Center for Clinical Excellence (ICCE). This always lead to us being able to ask our patients about their emotions, and validating them – naturally, and without thinking about it!
However, moving into a clinical setting, we don’t (yet) have time to do that we each patient (scheduled back to back, and eschewing paper) so in dropping that practice, I realized I was missing a key component of my Solution Focused Work: the emotional check in and validation. This was pointed out to me by a colleague when I was covering for her, and some of her patients commented on it (she is almost entirely a DBT practitioner, so very opposite in approach, and very noticeable by her patients).
The MOMENT I made a conscientious effort to bring validation as an immediate first step, before what was “What’s better this week?”, as part of my regular practice, there was a noticeable change with my patients: sessions became more fluid, patients felt better (their self-report), and items on treatment plans seemed to have gotten resolved quicker, or at least had more progress noted in them. Engagement seemed to be up. This shows us, I think (admittedly without quantitative detail) qualitatively the importance of validation.
Secondly is word choice: I found that “what’s better this week” no longer fit with my view on trauma informed practice I changed my question to now be “what’s happened since last session” and then, from there, I can guide to “have things gotten better, stayed the same, or gotten worse” through a variety of different ways.
In Solution Focused Work, we believe that words make all of the difference, and in fact, the therapy happens with the words that are used in session…which is why we have to choose them so precisely.
I’ll put out an updated conceptual template for case noting later in the week. For now, welcome back, it’s good to be back on the air!
Thank you for listening. Please tune in again next Sunday (and every time in-between), as we continue forward together down our solutions focused path. Comments, constructive criticism, feedback, and questions can be sent to [email protected]. Yes I’m on Social Media at @TheMattSchwartz on all of the platforms you’d think to look at. I’m Matt Schwartz, and it’s a pleasure to be your host.
The music you’re listening to in the background today is Boston Landing on “Blue Dot Sessions” generously shared through a creative commons license. Please find more of their music at www.sessions.blue, that’s w-w-w- dot s-e-s-s-i-o-n-s- dot b-l-u-e. I’ll see you next Sunday with more; unti