1st Edition

Creating Sustainable Results with Solution-Focused Applied Psychology A Practical Guide for Coaches and Change Facilitators

By Louis Cauffman Copyright 2023
    220 Pages 17 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This practical, evidence-based guide details how professional practitioners and change facilitators can integrate a solution-focused approach into their daily work and practice.

    While conventional therapeutic methods centre on the assumption that problems arise due to deficiencies, and therefore focus on diagnosis and subsequent treatment, the solution-focused approach is resource-based and operates on the assumption that human beings always have resources at their disposal to move forward. Free from the burden of detailed problem analysis, the solution-focused approach prioritizes clients’ hope for change in their lives and taps into the opportunities and resources available to bring about such transformation. The solution-focused practitioner is able to design incisive interventions that are flexible enough to adapt to any situation clients might find themselves in, and this book provides a practical formulation that is immediately applicable to all professional fields of applied psychology.

    Creating Sustainable Results with Solution-Focused Applied Psychology is important reading for therapists and coaches of all schools of thought, as well as anyone who practices as a professional change facilitator, including social workers, mediators, business leaders, and educators.

    Introduction  The SoFAP Essentials  1. The Basic Axioms  2. What Always Works in Good Facilitation?  3. The Power of Common Sense  4. The Three Mandates  5. The Seven-Step Tango  6. The Flow Chart  7. The Icons

    Biography

    Louis Cauffman is a clinical psychologist and business economist with a wide range of therapeutic training, ranging from Systemic Family Therapy to Ericksonian Hypnotherapy through all possible directions within the solution-focused approach. One of the first to introduce the solution-focused approach in Europe, Louis remains passionate in his further development of the solution-focused approach as an epistemological tool. Louis is a highly praised international consultant, coach, and trainer. More information can be found at www.louiscauffman.com

    ‘Cauffman explores how solution-focused thought and practice may be applied to create diverse social contexts of change. He teases out the synergistic processes through which change emerges in solution focused client-practitioner interactions. Cauffman’s discussion of professional mandates is particularly intriguing. It has important implications for understanding how professional authority is exercised in client-practitioner interactions. This is a coherent narrative linking early influences on solution focused pioneers with current themes in the field. Cauffman’s accessible writing style makes the book appropriate as an introduction to the solution focused approach, and as an organizing framework for seminars involving experienced practitioners.’

    Gale Miller, emeritus professor, Department of Social and Cultural Sciences Marquette University, Wisconsin, USA

    ‘The solution-focused orientation is applicable in many human relation fields including coaching, psychotherapy, and team building in the business world. The approach has considerable depth although to those who only examine the surface it may seem pedestrian. We are blessed to have Louis Cauffman as a guide into the nuances of the method. Cauffman helps us bring out the best in our clients and helps us to bring out the best in our selves. Creating Sustainable Results with Solution Focused Applied Psychology is an essential text for change agents of all types. Principles are clearly covered, and case studies provide background for those who will apply the methods. This book should be required reading for all those in human relations fields.’

    Jeffrey K. Zeig, The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Phoenix, USA