Talk: Doing what works — so how do we know what works?

 

Guy Shennan and Kirsten Dierolf

2 years ago both Guy Shennan and Kirsten Dierolf were thinking about the SF foundation story: Insoo and Steve and the other people at BFTC were lounging about behind a mirror, observing what worked in therapy sessions and continued to do more of that. Our question was: “But how did they recognize when something was working?” So we started reading everything that is available to read on the history, tried to find out when the “shift” from problem to solution focus happened and who was there at the time. We managed to interview most of the remaining BFTC founders in a group interview and would like to share what we learned from our readings and this interview.

Guy Shennan is a registered social worker in the UK who works as an independent consultant, teaching, using and writing about solution-focused approaches. Guy’s philosophy masters dissertation considered implications of embodied and extended cognition for personal identity, and he is now connecting this with solution-focused brief therapy. Guy is currently the chair of the British Association of Social Workers.

Kirsten Dierolf met Insoo Kim Berg and Steve deShazer as their translator from 2001 until they passed away and has been hooked on Solution Focus ever since the first meeting. She was president of the SFCT (association for the quality development of solution focused consulting and training) between 2008-2016 and co-editor of the journal InterAction – journal of solution focus in organisations. She was awarded Master Certified Coach by the International Coach Federation in 2016 and is author of “Solution Focused Team Coaching”. Kirsten coaches executives and teams, and trains and mentors coaches.

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