SIMPLY FOCUS Podcast: The Good Life Approach - Your weekly podcast with the little extra Solution Focus for your daily life!

Will Reed on Youth Leadership and Solution Focus. In today’s episode we talk with Will Reed, an 18-years old youth advisor at Boys in Mind - Girls Mind too, former member of the mental health team at Beechen Cliff School Bath, and solution-focused practitioner about the power of Youth Leadership and the difference Solution Focus has been making for him. Learn more about Will’s fascination for SF and what grabbed his interest to know more about it. Get insights into the mental health work at Beechen Cliff School Bath, in how they adopted Solution Focus, and find out more about the differences SF has made in the mental health team and in the school. Will also talks about how SF helped him and others to come out and highlights how Youth Leadership at Beechen Cliff School Bath and at Boys in Mind - Girls mind too works. He shares a bit about his work as youth advisor at Boys in Mind - Girls mind too and how talking to young people creates ripple effects. Enjoy listening to what Will is up to in his gap year. And check out the challenge of the week, were Will invites to genuinely listen to a young person, treat them as an expert, give them a leading role, and take on what they have to say. The post SFP 109 – Coming Out: Youth Leadership & Solution Focus with Will Reed appeared first on SF on tour.

Sharon Casey on SF in schools. In today’s episode, we talk with Sharon Casey, Solution-Focused Practitioner, Teacher, Consultant & Trainer, and Co-Organizer of the SFBTA conference in Montreal, about using Solution Focus in schools. She shares what fascinates her about Solution Focus, how it is to have access to another way of looking at the world, and what attracted her towards this approach. Find out how she started applying SF with teenagers with drug addictions and in the field of suicide prevention, what fascinates her about bringing Solution Focus to schools, what helped her in bringing SF to schools, and what changed for the teachers. Check out a solution-focused way to start the school year, how to develop the rules together with the children, and different ways to explore what adolescents want. Hear how SF fosters sincere and genuine connections with teenagers, how you don’t have to get to the 10 on the scale, and how you can also value the lower numbers. Join us in the Challenge of the Week: Look for your sixes, fives or fours: Allow yourself to celebrate your fours, fives and sixes and recognize the effort it takes to get there. The post SFP 99 – Introducing Solution Focus in Schools: The kind of teachers we want to be with Sharon Casey appeared first on SF on tour.

Rob Black on doing SF. In today’s episode, we talk with Rob Black, accredited solution-focused practitioner by the UKASFP, qualified social-worker, clinical team leader at Bath Spa University, about how Solution Focus can (also) look like in practice. Check out what fascinates him with Solution Focus, in what settings he is adapting Solution Focus, and the differences in language when working with different client groups. Rob talks about the value of problem-free talk and connecting with our clients. Find out what supported him in connecting with young people, how he first came across Solution Focus and how watching people do the work helped him develop his practice, how he let Insoo Kim Berg guess football results, and what Guy Shennan would love to hear Rob talk on this podcast. Rob shares detailed stories of how he applies Solution Focus with young people where silence, giving people space, trusting the process, and adapting the next question to fit (even) better were key elements. We also talk about pace, enthusiasm, staying with the client’s perception, and the art of Solution Focused practice and keeping on learning. Find out what Rob discovered about himself since working virtually with clients and how he established an evidence-base for his own work. At the end he also shares two funny stories with Chris Iveson. The challenge of the week: Notice the times when you used silence effectively and the differences that made in terms of the interaction in the conversation. The post SFP 98 – Solution Focus in Practice: Connecting with Rob Black appeared first on SF on tour.

The post SFP 97 – Solution Focus in Schools Works: From Garza Highschool to the Worldwide Evidence with Cynthia Franklin appeared first on SF on tour.

Joe Chan about working with young people. In today’s episode, we talk with Joe Chan, Solution-Focused Practitioner and Head of Youth Services at Reach Community Services in Singapore, about their work with young people. Check out what fascinates Joe with Solution Focus, where they are with their research project right now, how Solution Focus influenced the practice of the Youth Center staff members, and what he aims at with Solution Focus at the REACH Youth Center in Singapore. Learn more about the concept of ownership and how they support the young people to become owners of what they want, how they provide a spectrum of activities to fit the idea that every person is unique, how they integrate Social Media and internet activities in their programs, and how his practice evolved over the years with Solution Focus. Joe talks about being solution-focused as a leader, the Youth Resource Pack that they developed, and how they will notice that they are the place to go for youth work with Solution Focus. And he emphasizes the importance of embracing the stance of not knowing with young people. The Challenge of the Week: Put yourself out there on Social Media and share something about yourself and your SF practice. The post SFP 96 – Reaching out to Young People: Solution-Focused Community Work with Joe Chan appeared first on SF on tour.

Brigitte Lavoie on becoming cancer free with SF. In today’s episode, we talk with Brigitte Lavoie, M.P.s, Solution Focused therapist, trainer, supervisor and receiver of the SFBTA Insoo Kim Berg Memorial Award, about what we can learn from going through cancer for this situation now. Listen to what fascinates her with Solution Focus right now after her cancer episode in the last 1 1/2 years, how she applied Solution Focus practices to her life with cancer, how she knows that she had more good days than bad days, and how she used exceptions from the past to deal with the situation. Learn more about how to talk about the preferred future in a way that effectively supports you, Ellen Quick’s appropriate caution questions that helped Brigitte in her situation, and the miracle question with bad days. She highlights how everybody has good reasons for doing things and differences the letter she wrote to her daughter about all the things she admires about her made. Check out what she kept doing that helps her now with COVID19, the ten positive emotions by Barbara Fredrickson and the connections to Solution Focus, and the fact that we often underestimate our capacity to get through rough times. And have fun with the Challenge of the Week: Ask yourself: What kind of animal would I like to be? And when in your past were you already more like this animal? The post SFP 95 – Writing the Headlines of our Life Today: What we can learn from going through cancer for the situation we are in right now with Brigitte Lavoie appeared first on SF on tour.

John Henden on what it takes to thrive. In today’s episode, we talk with John Henden, Solution-Focused Trainer, Author, Therapist and Performance Coach about Solution Focused Suicide Prevention and severe trauma and stress recovery. Learn more about the Bristol Solutions Group that led to SOLWorld, what fascinates John with Solution Focus, and the triple twins of solution-focused success. John emphasizes the importance of being solution-focused and not solution-forced. He tells us about Solution-Focused suicide prevention with a zero suicide rate, working on the phone with people with suicidal thoughts, and even “smaller“ SF interventions. Check out what it takes to thrive after trauma, his work in severe trauma and stress recovery, what helped John to thrive after trauma, and vicarious resilience. John invites us to continually remind ourselves that all our clients can find a way and to the challenge of the week: Remind yourself that adopting a solution-focused stance will bring us all forward. The post SFP 94 – Zero Suicide: What it takes to thrive after trauma and the triple twins of SF success with John Henden appeared first on SF on tour.

Petra Müller-Demary on abundance. In today’s episode, we talk with Petra Müller-Demary, Solution-Focused Executive Coach, Team Coach, Business Consultant, and Founder of SolutionSurfers Romania, about the importance of the Solution Focused (SF) community for her, bringing SF to Romania in a Solution Focused way, sharing and spreading this mindset of abundance, and looking for the jewels in the dust. Get to know their format ‘solution café’ that is spreading worldwide, the language of space or how she combines Solution Focus with Systemic Constellation work, and micro-constellations or how she teaches this combination. Listen to some great examples of team coaching or the differences her Solution Focused work with teams can make and her frame for human connection. And enjoy the Challenge of the Week: Petra’s Good Morning Coaching – find out how it works at minute 33:17. The post SFP 93 – A Community of Abundance: Getting Connected to this World of Possibilities with Petra Mueller-Demary appeared first on SF on tour.

Kenneth Kwan with stories of hope. In today’s episode, we talk with Kenneth Kwan, Solution-Focused Conference Speaker, Author, and High Performance Strategist, about Covid-19 and the differences Solution Focus can make and has made in Singapore. Check out how Solution Focus was useful when people started being affected by Covid-19 at the “Grace Assembly of God” church in Singapore, how they dealt with the sorrows and fears of people, how they started a dialogue of hope and optimism with their church members, and how they talked about their best hopes at the board level. Find out what we can learn from the experience they made in Singapore. Listen to the importance of sharing stories of hope, love and elements that work, asking and co-creating with people, and how people step up to help and support. Hear the good news and how life is slowly coming back on the streets after 5 weeks of staying at home. Kenneth also shares what small and medium sized enterprises could do during these difficult times and proposes a small next step that leaders could do, a small next step that facilitators and coaches could do, and a small step that everyone could do. And we focus on the silver lining - the good things that are happening during this crisis. The post SFP 92 – Covid-19: Stories of Hope with Kenneth Kwan, Elfie Czerny and Dominik Godat appeared first on SF on tour.

Naomi Whitehead on Solution Focus as a celebration of who people are. In today’s episode, we talk with Naomi Whitehead, IASTI accredited Solution-Focused Practitioner, Coach, Therapist & Trainer as well as EBTA Board Member, about bringing Solution Focus to Communities. Learn what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how John Wheeler, Mathias Schwab, and Tara Gretton influenced her work, and how she sees Solution Focus as a celebration of who people are. Find out more about Curve Chats and how she brings Solution Focus to communities, e.g. to a barber shop in Sheffield. Check out how she supports equality in her work and fundamentally trusts her clients. Naomi tells us about her events that she is organizing in Sheffield and her workshop that she will do with Tara Gretton in Switzerland (stay tuned!). She elaborates how the lived experience of people can inform the service design, e.g. in her work with Ben’s Center and their vulnerable people project as well as her work with soul food. Listen to what kept her passionate about Solution Focus in the last 17 years and how that connects to her lived experience in Bolivia and her use of Solution Focus in her volunteer work in a prison in Bolivia. And do the Challenge of the Week: When at some point over the next week a person annoys you, acknowledge that and think about all the qualities that the other person has shown when doing this act and what else you appreciate about that person. The post SFP 91 – Fundamentally Trusting Your Clients: Bringing Solution Focus to Communities with Naomi Whitehead appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Peter Röhrig on SF in Leadership and Conflict Management. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Peter Röhrig, Solution-Focused Practitioner, Trainer, and Author, about what fascinates him about Solution Focus, signs that showed him that Solution Focus could work in business settings, what he did differently in his trainings after being introduced to SF, and the differences this made for his participants. Check out what makes SF the perfect approach for leaders, how Peter trains leaders in Solution Focus, and how he spreads confidence in trainings. Learn how to prepare challenging conversations and hear more about Solution Focus in conflict management and the new book he edited with Martina Scheinecker. Check out the "User's Guide for the Future" and the country of the ants. Learn how to be a progress detective and get an idea of how to give advice in Solution Focus. And check out the Challenge of the Week: In your next team meeting, look back at last year. Check minute 27:05 for the full description of the Challenge of the week. The post SFP 90 – Being a Progress Detective: Solution Focus in Business Settings and Conflict Management with Dr. Peter Roehrig appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Peter Szabó on re-tuning to a totally different mode. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Peter Szabó, co-founder of SolutionSurfers, Coach, Trainer, and Author, about walking alongside clients. Find out what fascinates Peter about Solution Focus, the quality of listening and the story of Momo by Michael Ende, the first experience of this completely different mode of interaction or walking alongside, and what becomes possible when not wanting to be helpful and useful. Check out how to know when to ask questions and when it’s time to listen. Peter elicits how his work has changed and the reinforcement through the developments at BRIEF. Learn more about the history of re-tuning and how it changed everything for him, his gratitude for being exposed to and supported by Insoo and Steve, and Insoo’s way of re-tuning and his public confession of deleting the most important chapter in his German book with Insoo. And the Challenge of the Week is the classical prediction task: „1.) Predict: Will you catch yourself in the coming days being present like Momo. 2.) Check if you were right. You get points for correct predictions (The full challenge at 35:19). The post SFP 89 – Being present like Momo: A totally different mode of interaction and re-tuning with Dr. Peter Szabó appeared first on SF on tour.

Dr. Ursula Bühlmann on doing SF beyond language. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Ursula Bühlmann, specialist in child and youth psychiatry and psychotherapy, supervisor, coach, trainer, and EBTA board member, with qualifications in solution-focused brief therapy, creative children’s therapy, hypnotherapy and Traditional Chinese Medicine, about using different forms of expression in Solution Focused therapy and coaching. Find out what fascinates her about Solution Focus, how she found out in her first job as medical doctor that she won’t be happy to be the expert and came to Solution Focus in child psychiatry. Listen to a story with Steve de Shazer and what differences it has made not be the expert. Hear how to do Solution Focus in other ways than with language and how to let your clients lead you to what you do with them. Check out what fascinates her with working with athletes and what she does with them, how she combines SF with other elements, and her experiences in training Solution Focus in China. She tells us stories of adapting Solution Focus to different contexts, how an experience with Steve de Shazer helped her to trust the process even more, and emphasizes the importance of joy when working with the Solution Focused approach. Listen to her thoughts about how much space there is for the problem or for difficulties in the Solution Focused approach. And do the Challenge of the Week: Once a day, find little things that work, give yourself a tap on the shoulder and observe what’s happening in your body and what differences that makes for you. The post SFP 88 – Beyond Language: Adapting Solution Focus to Other Forms of Expression with Ursula Bühlmann appeared first on SF on tour.

Kirsten Dierolf about the ICF Core Competencies and Solution Focus. In today’s episode, we talk with Kirsten Dierolf, M.A., MSFP, MCC, Solution-Focused Practitioner, Trainer, Coach, Author, and President Elect of ICF Germany about the ICF Core Competencies and Solution Focus. Find out what fascinates her with Solution Focus now, what attracted her in the beginning, and what kept fascinating her since. Hear how she got into working with organizations and leaders and what she likes about this work. Learn more about the core competencies of the International Coach Federation (ICF) and the compatibility with Solution Focus, how the ICF Core Competencies influenced her work, and what could be interesting to explore more as solution-focused practitioners. Check out how she partners with clients and elicits what clients really want, her take on narrative and solution-focus as combination to ICF mastery, the difficulty of assessing coaching quality or recognizing solution-focus, and the good reasons to go for ICF certification. And try out the challenges of the week: 1.) When you are coaching someone (or do therapy or other solution-focused practice), and you notice yourself judging someone, find a hook to suspend your judgement and see how that feels. 2.) Listen to some of your recordings of solution-focused practice and look at all the situations where you could give your client a little bit more say in how the session is run. So, am I leading the session? Is the client leading the session? Are we co-creating it together? And what tells me that we are doing one of those three? The post SFP 87 – Partnering with your Clients: Inspirations from the ICF Coaching Competencies for Solution Focused Practice with Kirsten Dierolf appeared first on SF on tour.

Wei-Su Shu on SF in China and Taiwan. In today’s episode, we talk with Wei-Su Hsu, Professor at the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, about the cultural adaptions of Solution Focus (SF) in Taiwan and mainland China. Check out what fascinates her with Solution Focus, how her SF journey started, how she worked with Insoo Kim Berg, and what she learned from her. Enjoy her craziness for Solution Focus and what she learned from translating SF books into Chinese. Find out more about cultural adaptions of Solution Focus in Taiwan and mainland China (e.g. with the miracle question, scaling or complimenting), what helps her to learn Solution Focus, and how she benefits from practitioners, students, and clients. Learn more about SF in schools and her research “The Effectiveness of Solution-Focused Group Therapy in Ethnic Chinese School Settings: A Meta-Analysis”. Hear her take on complimenting and reframing in the Chinese culture and persuading people to accept Solution Focused concepts. Wei-Su shares her teaching of Solution Focus in Taiwan and mainland China and her aim to be less the expert and to wonder more. She closes with two stories about Insoo Kim Berg or how she showed her not to be the expert and do her own things. The Challenge of the week: “I invite you all to practice to learn to believe in miracles.” The post SFP 86 – Crazy for Solution Focus: Spreading Solution Focus in Taiwan and mainland China with Prof. Wei-Su Hsu appeared first on SF on tour.

Harry Korman on interviewing for efforts. In today’s episode, we talk with Harry Korman, Solution-Focused Psychiatrist, Therapist, Trainer, Speaker, about effort focused interviewing and microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue. Find out what fascinates him with Solution Focus, the difficulty of doing Solution Focus, complimenting for efforts instead of traits, and how he got into effort focused interviewing. Check out more about how effort focused interviewing has influenced Harry’s practice, the difference between interviewing for efforts instead of success, and recognizing the efforts in Solution Focused practice. Harry mentions the different listening posture with effort focused interviewing and tells us more about his journey with microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue. Together we explore how microanalysis has influenced our practice and the value of having videos of your own work and watching them. Hear the story of how Steve de Shazer told Harry that he is working too much and the six second rule or how to wait for answers. And do the Challenge of the Week: "Look for, when you ask questions that have to do with effort, without something necessarily being successful. Look out for it.“ Send an email with stories or comment in the comment section below. The post SFP 85 – Interviewing for Efforts: Exploring Effort Focus and Microanalysis of Face-to-Face Dialogue with Harry Korman appeared first on SF on tour.

Jocelyne Lopez-Korman about trusting the model. In today’s episode, we talk with Jocelyn Lopez-Korman, mental health nurse, social worker, family therapist and supervisor of family therapy, about what fascinates her about Solution Focus, how she maintained her curiosity for Solution Focus over the last (almost) 40 years, how it was in the beginning in the 80’s,and what fascinated her back then, and how she started SF and learned to be more present in the room and to trust the model. Hear what helped her to trust the model, how SF therapy, teaching and supervision mutually influence each other, and the differences taping a conversation and looking at it with a microanalysis lens make. Check out how they looked at their tapes 40 years ago and how they do it now. And learn more about what she does when doing supervision, how she involves the group in group supervision, what intrigued her with doing supervision in the first place. Listen to her when she talks about finding a balance with SF in a relationship and tells a story with Steve de Shazer that made a difference in her practice. And do the Challenge of the Week: „Setup something very small you want to continue doing that is useful for you and do it for a while. Then evaluate it with someone that knows that you are doing it (in an SF way).“ The post SFP 84 – Trust the Model: A Constant Immersion in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Teaching, and Supervision with Jocelyne Lopez-Korman appeared first on SF on tour.

Tara Gretton about empowering young people. In today’s episode, we talk with Tara Gretton, Solution-Focused Practitioner, Solution-Focused Trainer, and Social Worker, about giving young people a voice. Find out what fascinates her with Solution Focus, what her best hopes from working with young people are, and how she introduces the solution-focused language in schools with her group work, e.g. doing solution-focused DJ and drama workshops. Check out what they do in their SF DJ workshops and how she uses strengths cards to support young people to see what they have coped and managed before. Learn more about the importance of giving space and really listening to young people, how she brought in young people into the workshop at the UKASFP conference, the differences the DJ workshops make, and what the teachers notice. Find out how offering an SF conversation early with young people could make a huge difference to mental health issues. Tara tells us about her mission to see Solution Focus in every school in her local area and how she focuses on the SF assumptions in training SF. Get to know how drama and Solution Focus inspire each other and the privilege to invite children to see them in all their glory. And enjoy the challenge of the week: „Think about something in your life that has worked well, that has helped you. While doing that close your eyes, consciously breath and just think about that thing, whatever it is, that helped you in that moment." The post SFP 83 – A Passion for Empowerment: Giving Young People a Voice with Solution Focus with Tara Gretton appeared first on SF on tour.

Jesper H. Christiansen about Solution Focus everwhere. In today’s episode, we talk with Jesper H. Christiansen, Chaos-Pilot, Solution Surfer, Solution-Focused Facilitator, about what fascinates him with Solution Focus, where and how he uses Solution Focus in problem-oriented training settings, his program „Rethink your Business“ that he does with Edgeware, and the balance of non-profit and profit projects. Learn more about how he supports clients in their success and makes his contribution visible, SOS – the shiny object syndrome or how he applies Solution Focus everywhere, partnership for performance, making a different kind of conversation – his SF way of doing performance conversations, and the story of how he started doing SF writing master classes. Check out the SolutionSurfer’s class reunion and other ways of exploring the preferred future,examples of preferred future conversations under given circumstances, and how they apply SF in their family life and their marriage. And try out the challenge of the week: Challenge yourself to come up with ideas of how SF could be used and how it could look like in situations where SF doesn’t seem to fit.“ The post SFP 82 – SOS: Using Solution Focus Everywhere with Jesper H. Christiansen appeared first on SF on tour.

Julia Kalenberg on daily SF habits. In today’s episode, we talk with Julia Kalenberg, a Solution-Focused Practitioner and expert in applying Solution Focus to yourself, about useful habits and tools to refocus in everyday life. Check out what fascinates her with Solution Focus and how she constantly strives to focus in her life. Learn more about her solution-focused tools that she applies for herself on a daily base, e.g. her little preferred future or the I-O principle, and the differences that makes for her and people around her. Find out how she applies tools for herself very consequently to create useful habits, her fascination of working with leaders of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and how she invites other people to use SF ideas for themselves, e.g. with the personal flourishing instruction, the smiley stones, resource gossip, the diary of solutions, the bean experiment and more. Listen to the ripple effects leaders create with the tools she lets them experience, her „fulfilled life“-project and the story of Aschi, as well as how she uses SF in her community, e.g. at the 10 years anniversary of the local store in Zimmerwald. She shares what is important to her in her work and how showing vulnerability is important for her. And check out the challenge of the week: „Ask yourself everyday the I-O questions: "What have I done that I am really happy with? Tap on your own shoulder. "What has another person done that made a difference in your life? And have you also told them?" The post SFP 81 – Useful Solution-Focused Habits and Tools: Refocusing in Everyday Life with Julia Kalenberg appeared first on SF on tour.