Solutions Focused Special Education

Drawing on the work of innovative educators, this edited volume shows how adopting a solutions focused approach can offer new constructive ways forward for special education. Diverse international contributors from both the world of special education and solutions focused thinking, offer ways to rethink special education and to focus on what can be done rather than what can't. Each chapter offers insights into how solutions focused thinking can reframe special education and the tangible results for children, families and schools. Chapters on teaching and learning, behaviour support, human resources, school leadership and family and community show how a solutions focused approach can be transformative for all aspects of special and inclusive education.

Since its creation in the 1980s, solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) has gradually become a common and accepted treatment option for many mental health professionals. With its emphasis on client strengths and short-term treatment, SFBT is well suited to school contexts, given the wide array of problems and the large caseloads of most school-based practitioners. This book, as part of the Oxford Workshop Series, will give school social workers the tools they need to understand and use SFBT with students, families, teachers, and administrators. In clear language, the authors briefly cover the history of the development of SFBT, highlighting the pioneering work of Insoo Kim Berg and others that led to the development of the Working on What Works (WOWW) program for middle schools, as well as several treatment manuals produced in collaboration with the European Brief Therapy Association and North American Brief Therapy Association. Careful not to overstate results from a recent meta-analysis, the authors show where SFBT has been shown to be effective, especially with families and for classroom behavior problems, and how school professionals can incorporate its principles into their daily practice. Case examples describe in detail how school professionals have used SFBT with a group of students with text anxiety; to create a family health and employment fair in an under resourced school; with grandparents raising their grandchildren; and by coaching teachers to identify and solve classroom behavior issues with their students. An entire chapter tells the story of the Garza Independence High School in Austin, a solution-focused school designed to engage urban high school dropouts or students at risk of dropping out to help them finish high school. With 52% of Garza graduates enrolled in a post-secondary education program, outcomes are promising and similar schools are being developed around the country. Though the authors take care not to overstate the relevance and utility of SFFBT in all situations, they make the techniques involved comprehensive in a way that practitioners at every skill level will find valuable.

Revised edition of: Solution-focused brief therapy in schools: a 360-degree view of research and practice / Michael S. Kelly, Johnny S. Kim, Cynthia Franklin.

What is Solution-Focused Therapy? Solution Focused Therapy (SFT) is a unique, goal-directed therapy aimed at helping clients regain autonomy by determining and achieving their own goals. Solution focused therapists encourage clients to focus on solutions, not problems, and help clients effectively plan how to reach their goals. Unlike other therapies, SFT holds an abiding belief in clients' abilities to know what is best for them, rather than have a therapist tell them. Why this book? This book not only provides an overview of the Solution Focused therapy model, its basic tenets, and theories; it also presents intimate interviews with expert practitioners-all of whom use SFT in their own practice. To this end, the book offers a wealth of insight into the theory and practice of SFT, to help practitioners decide whether SFT is right for them and their clients. These experts offer details of their apprehensions, goals, breakthroughs, and overall experiences with the therapy. The team of expert contributors includes Eve Lipchik, Yvonne Dolan, Alasdair Macdonald, Thorana Nelson, and many more. Questions the experts address include: How did you discover that SFT was the model that fit your clients' needs? What characteristics of this model drew you towards it? How has SFT impacted your personal life? What is it about SFT that makes it so effective? What are your favorite cases and how did they affect your work as a therapist?

The Field Guide toCounseling Toward Solutions When it was first published in 1995, Linda Metcalf's bookCounseling Toward Solutions became an instant bestseller. The bookoffered a new and positive program for changing individual behaviorthat helped K-12 students with their own problems and gave themself-esteem in the process. Now, The Field Guide to CounselingToward Solutions offers school counselors, teachers, andadministrators a complete program for changing the way that schoolsdeal with a variety of issues.?From an alternative school programthat enlists the power of teacher mentors to the elementary programthat involves the teacher, parent, and student in the counselingprocess, this book shows how to make change happen and how to makeit last. The solution-focused approach helps everyone involved to begintheir own change process by noticing when a problem does not occur,rather than focusing on the problem or what caused it. It includesinformation targeted to specific age groups—elementary schoolstudents, middle schoolers, and adolescents—because eachdevelopmental stage requires a certain perspective and focus inorder to collaborate and reach solutions. The Field Guide to Counseling Toward Solutions offers guidelinesfor developing a school-wide program that encompasses virtually allof the day-to-day programming that schools must provide forstudents. The book includes techniques and suggestions for: Training staff to become more solution-focused andstudent-centered Working together with teams, teachers, and parents so that the"system" creates and maintains change Creating support groups for parents and students Reducing special education referrals through solution-focusedconversations In this book, bestselling author and veteran school counselorLinda Metcalf offers more than a simple positive strategy ortechnique—she provides a way to think about school "clients"that can change interactions and guarantee success.

The one-of-a-kind book that provides training exercises illustrating solution-focused brief therapy! As we recognize our own problem behavior in our lives, most of us struggle for ways to change it. Solution-focused brief therapy is the highly effective practice that works by changing concentration from ’problem’ behavior to ’solution’ behavior in just a few sessions. Education and Training in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy presents articles, essays, and a multitude of exercises that explain this unique type of therapy with an eye toward helping readers to use the ideas for use in their own training and practice. Detailed descriptions of training workshops and exercises spotlight the experiences of SFBT therapists to illuminate in-depth basic concepts and strategies. Education and Training in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy relies on two fundamental ideas, that of a therapist discovering and reinforcing a clients’ existing solutions and exceptions to the problem. Expert trainers discuss strategies that work for training and practicing Solution-focused brief therapy. Several exercises for clients are examined, as well as exercises for the training and supervision of other practitioners learning the process. Exercises include The Name Game, the Complaining Exercise, Inside and Outside, the ’Deck of Trumps,’ and the Solution-Focused Scavenger Hunt. Each chapter explains the circumstances in which to use each exercise, the best ways to enhance effectiveness, and how to stay on track in the teaching or training. This one-of-a-kind book includes helpful tables, thorough questionnaires, penetrating case studies, and each chapter is extensively referenced. Education and Training in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy discusses brief therapy principles such as: negotiating goals engagement through complimenting future orientation language should be imaginative and positive explanations and actions taken to solve problems are interconnected challenging the perceived causes of problems reframing the problem so that it becomes a friend acknowledgement and acceptance of client Education and Training in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy brings together essential ideas, suggestions, strategies, and exercises for solution-focused brief therapy training, making this an invaluable resource for solution-focused brief therapists and therapists who teach and train this form of therapy.

Step by step strategies for handling academic, behavior and family issues in the classroom.