The Therapist's Notebook on Strengths and Solution-Based Therapies Homework, Handouts, and Activities

Part I: Becoming Strengths and Solution-Based (SSB): Creating a Context for Change. The Philosophical Inventory: Expanding Awareness and Impact of Beliefs. Dismantling Your Status Quo: Challenging Assumptions and Gaining Insight. Creating New Meaning: All Our Actions are Meaningful. Taking the "ic" Out of the Person: Seeing the Core Within. Composing Your Theoretical Worldview: What I Believe. Me, Myself, and I: Understanding Personal Strengths. How I Describe What I Do: Examining Personal Theory and Principles of Change. The Key is Collaboration: Working "with" Clients. Expectations and Next-pectations: Learning Clients’ Preferences for Therapy. The Body Knows: The Influence of Words. What are Words for? Terminology as a Pathway of Connection. Individuality, Uniqueness, and Strength: Working with People Who Have a Long List of Labels. Becoming the Hero of Your Own Story: Changing Narratives and Lives through a Creative Process. Part II: Getting Focused: Exploring Strengths and Solutions in Information-gathering. It’s Your Life: Creating Space for the Client’s Story. Hello, My Name is: Meeting Yourself Again. Lowering Walls and Building Bridges: Initial Steps in Creating Collaborative Relationships. Stone Soup: Acknowledging Strengths, Potential, and Contributions to Change. Stenographer: I Said What?. What’s the Effect? Exploring the Influences of Problems. What Does That Look Like? Translating Ambiguity Through Action-Talk. G-O! Focusing on Goals and Outcomes. Goals for Goal Setting: Charting a Clear Course. From Problem-Talk to Solution-Talk: Creating Possibilities Through Language. Future Screening: Creating a Vision for the Future. Destination Imagination: Envisioning the Future Through Miracles, Dreams, and the Extraterrestrial. I Can See Clearly Now: Developing a Future Focus. From Here to Where? Service Planning for Change. In Many Ways: Mapping Paths of Change. The Spokes of Life: Cultivating Resources. What Tips the Scale? Weighing the Benefits of Change. Embracing Your State: A Race with Yourself. Matching Up: Creating a Fit Between Therapist and Client. The Filing Cabinet: Categorizing My Favorite Methods. Song for Myself: Celebrating Strength, Capacity, and Individuality. Part III: Reconnection to Self: Experience, Affect, and Emotion. Getting in Touch with Emotion: Hearing What Feelings Have to Say. The Culture of Emotion: Aligning Emotion and Change. Flipping the Switch: Tuning into Self. "And" Now for Something Completely Different: The Use of Words to Build New Connections. It’s All Me: Embracing Internal Experience. In a Moment’s Notice: Internalizing the Experience of Now. The 360° Self: Integrating Internal Experience and Aspects of Self. Body Over Mind: Settling Down Through Abilities. Let it Be: Accepting What Is. Let the Music Do the Talking: Sometimes Words Are Not Enough. Using Positive Relationships to Enhance Positive Change: What Makes You Feel Good? Finding Meaning with Therapeutic Tattoos: Looking For Strengths In Unusual Places. The Oasis of the Mind: The Return Of Memories Past. Part IV: Exploring New Worlds of Possibility: Changing Perspectives and Perceptions. Life Pursuits and the Meaning of it All: Why Am I Here? The Inner Limits: Interviewing Self for Solutions. What in the World? Noticing Between Session Change. Pollyanna Grows Up: From Positives to Strengths. The Art of the Frame: Using Reality-Defining Language. Completing the Puzzle of Your Life: Putting the Pieces Together. My Biography: In Your Own Words. 20,000 to 1: It Only Takes One. Dear Diary: What Were My Strengths Today? Life Witnesses: Meaningful Connections and Enduring Relationships. Gratitudes: Appreciating Others. Vantage Point: Multiple Angles, Multiple Solutions. History is Now: The Wisdom of Others. The Road Less Traveled: Exploring the Hidden Possibilities During Life’s Most Challenging Times. Being the Author of Your Life: Say What You Need to Say. More on Meeting Yourself Again: Living with Yourself. Part V: Lives in Motion: Changing Patterns of Action and Interaction. Getting off the Hamster Wheel: Going Forward With Purpose. The Collaborative Counselor: Two Heads are Better Than One. Keeping the Momentum: Being Proactive and Enhancing Change. You Don’t Say: The "No-Talk" Client. Changing It Up: Altering Problem Patterns. Being a Creature of Habit: Identifying, Establishing, and Maintaining Rituals. The Economy of Movement: When Smaller Changes Lead to Bigger Ones. Decision-Making and a Healthy Amount of Worry: Making Stress Your Friend. From Mountains to Mole Hills: Taking Things One Step At a Time. Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens: What are My Favorite Things? Replacing Street Behavior: Walking the Fine Line. Taking Stock: Clients’ Increasing Their Control over Their Lives. Shuffling the Deck: Creating Cards to Create Change. Part VI: Narratives of Transformation? Change, Progress, Transitions, and Endings. Building Momentum: Extending Change in the Future. Developing Your Own Take Home Message: Tell Me What You Think. Filling the Void: It Can Be Better Than You Thought. Creating Your Own GPS: A New Map For A New Day. Building the Fire Inside: Sustaining Change in Your Life. Giving Credit to Yourself: A New Look In the Mirror. The Crossroads of Change: Maintaining New Patterns. In Honor of You: Incorporating Ritual Into the Transition Process. Sharing the Credit: Acknowledging the Contributions of Others. Maintaining the Course: Negotiating Future Hurdles. Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You: Preparing Clients for their Next Great Adventure. Spreading the News: Strengthening New Stories. Where Do We Go From Here? Using Original Goals as Benchmarks for Charting a Future Course. Part VII: Creating a Culture of Care and Respect: Consultation, Supervision, and Development. The Reflective Consultation: A Conversational Approach to Generating Change. You Say You Want a Revolution: Taking the Initiative to Cultivate Change. Bringing Out the Best: Assessing Organizational Strengths. Putting Out the Fire: How Supervisors can Help Stave off Burnout. Effectively Using an Airplane Oxygen Mask: Practicing Self-Care, First. The Windmill: Generating Energy Through Congruence. The Inner Mister Rogers: Cultivating Acceptance and Compassion During Supervision. The Benefits of Self-Reflection: Maximizing Counselor Effectiveness. Interviewing Your Supervisor: Is Your Supervisor as Strengths and Solution-Focused as You Are? Reinventing the Cookbook: Proactive And Reflective Ways to Use this Book. We are Only as Strong as Our Weakest Link: Strengthening the Use of this Book.

Biography

Bob Bertolino, PhD, is a licensed marital and family therapist and assistant professor of rehabiltation counseling at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Michael Kiener, PhD, is a certified rehabilitation counselor and action research associate in the Center for Teaching Excellence at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Ryan Patterson, MSW, is a licensed clinical social worker and director of clinical services at Youth in Need, Inc., in St. Louis, Missouri

"Bertolino, Kiener and Patterson, out of the depth of their considerable combined experience, have written a must have resource to help clinicians eager for success to find tools in this book to achieve that success in a very effective, positive, and encouraging process. They demonstrate that being a clinician can be creative fun as well as a challenge. Their succinct summary of theory buttressed by over 100 practical carefully described techniques is a new special asset for clinicians."

- Robert Sherman, EdD, professor emeritus, Queens College, New York

"This book is a wonderful accompaniment to Bertolino et al.'s Therapist Notebook for Families, which was a good selling volume. This one is the more general strengths and solutions focused Notebook that probably should have come first, but will be a good addition at this point."

- Terry S. Trepper, Ph.D.