Journal of Family Psychotherapy
ISSN: 0897-5353 (Print) 1540-4080 (Online) Journal homepage: [Link]
Introduction
The Birth of the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Association
To cite this article: (2005) Introduction, Journal of Family Psychotherapy, 16:1-2, 1-2, DOI:
10.1300/J085v16n01_01
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Published online: 05 Oct 2008.
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Introduction:
The Birth of the Solution-Focused
Brief Therapy Association
The culmination of this project is truly exciting for me. In March of 2002,
about 30 or 35 people interested in sharing ideas about teaching and training
solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) met together in Hammond, Indiana.
We had been invited by Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg, Yvonne Dolan, and
Terry Trepper, who had discussed together their desire for such a meeting–a
meeting that would not be about doing SFBT, but about how we teach others
about the philosophy and the approach.
We started in true SFBT workshop fashion: solution-focused warm-ups.
Several people shared their favorite warm-ups (e.g., see the Name Game in
this volume) and we had an hilarious time trying to come up with more than
five positive “J” adjectives. We talked about our favorite exercises and hand-
outs and moved into philosophy and ideas for future meetings.
The group met again in June and in October. We watched a student work
with a client who had been in therapy in the university clinic for a long time
with several rotating therapists and then we acted as several teams, sending in
compliments and comments and a suggestion: come back when you know
what you want. We found out later that the client decided quickly what he
wanted: to move on with his life and to get out of northern Indiana!
We wanted to talk about what is and what is not solution-focused in terms
of practices of therapy. From this we generated ideas about what is good ther-
apy but not unique to SFBT, what is unique to SFBT, and what is not good
therapy from a SFBT perspective.
[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Introduction: The Birth of the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Asso-
ciation.” Nelson, Thorana S. Co-published simultaneously in Journal of Family Psychotherapy (The
Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 16, No. 1/2, 2005, pp. 1-2; and: Education and Training in Solution-Focused Brief
Therapy (ed: Thorana S. Nelson) The Haworth Press, Inc., 2005, pp. 1-2. Single or multiple copies of this arti-
cle are available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH, 9:00 a.m. -
5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address: docdelivery@[Link]].
Available online at [Link]
2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1300/J085v16n01_01 1
2 EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN SOLUTION-FOCUSED BRIEF THERAPY
We decided to form an association and did so in October. We have a
Website ([Link]) and a listserv (see the Website for subscription in-
structions). The sole purpose of the association is to host an annual conference
dedicated to SFBT and we have had our first one: Solutions 2003 was held in
Loma Linda, California, in November and was a great success. A second con-
ference was held in November of 2004 in Park City, Utah, and more are
planned.
Finally, our “Founders’” group decided to put our teaching and training
ideas together, solicit others’ ideas, and publish them, resulting in this double
volume of the Journal of Family Psychotherapy as well as the simultaneously
published book. That book or double issue of the journal is what you are now
reading. It is full of great articles, snippets, and handouts on philosophy to-
ward teaching SFBT, descriptions of workshops both short and long, and exer-
cises from people who actually do this stuff. These people have been very
generous with us and I hope that you appreciate their efforts.
Some of the pieces have been around for a long time and the contributors
not only don’t claim to be the authors, but also may or may not even remember
from whom they were borrowed. These are attributed to “contributors” rather
than authors. The publication has been divided into sections so that readers
may more easily find what they are looking for: articles, essays, or exercises.
No attempt has been made to edit the pieces beyond basic forms of punctua-
tion, grammar, and clarity. We leave it to you, the readers, to make sense of the
pieces and to modify for them for your own particular use. If you have pieces
of your own that you think others might enjoy, please feel free to e-mail me
([Link]@[Link]) so that we might consider them for publication in
future issues of JFP.
Now, sit back, relax, and get ready to enjoy the submissions and to get ex-
cited about your next teaching workshop on SFBT!
Thorana S. Nelson