Description:
In part 1 of this three-part series on Solution Focused Counseling, the presenter, Mary Bunn (LCSW), defines solution focused counseling and reviews its key features and applications.
Mary Bunn defines solution-focused (or task-focused) counseling as a short-term, practical, strengths-based approach that focuses on identifying client concerns. She goes on to address the key features of this approach:
- It is resilience- and strengths-focused
- It’s action-oriented, not insight-focused
- It is present-focused rather than examining the client’s past
- It uses a collaborative relationship
- It breaks problems into manageable pieces and focuses on only one problem at a time
Bunn notes that this approach is especially helpful in the initial stage of treatment.
This presentation was recorded at the Meeting Social Services Needs in the Current Climate training institute held in Evanston, IL in August 2012.
Make sure you watch the other two videos in this series:
- Part 2 – Solution Focused Counseling and Torture Survivors
- Part 3 – The Steps of Solution Focused Counseling
Presenter:
Mary Bunn PhD, LCSW
Clinical Instructor and Research Scientist, Psychiatry College of Medicine
Mary Bunn has expertise in international mental health, trauma and resilience in immigrant and refugee communities and trauma-informed, cross-cultural programming for communities impacted by chronic violence, trauma, and stress. Previously Associate Director of Heartland Alliance Marjorie Kovler Center, Ms. Bunn now works as a consultant to national and international organizations addressing the mental health and psychosocial needs of displaced and violence-affected communities. She also serves as adjunct faculty member at the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration(link is external) where she teaches a course on global mental health. Ms. Bunn has worked in the field of torture treatment, gender based violence, sex trafficking of minors, disaster relief, and survivors of war trauma. She has trained and presented her work nationally and outside the U.S, her work has taken her to Iraq, Cambodia, and Thailand.