The registration is now open for the 2012 California edition of Solutionsurfers‘ Brief Coach Training.

Here is the link with all the information about the program: http://www.briefcoachingsolutions.com/solsurfers2012/

To sign up, please send an email to: briefcoachingsolutions@gmail.com

If you want to find out more about the training program and how it can benefit you,

you are invited to attend one  of the following conference calls:

- Friday, January the 27th, at 12 noon PST (3 PM EST)

- Tuesday, February the 14th, at 9 AM PST (12 noon EST)

- Wednesday, March the 14th, 9 AM PST (12 noon EST) ***please note that the early bird rate is available only until March 1.

Please RSVP with Ms. Corey Godzwa at cgodzwa@gmail.com and you will be sent the information to access the conference call.

See you in Orange County, California! :)

I had a great time re-connecting with old friends and making new ones.

Some of the highlights of the program for me:

- the workshop A Micro-Analysis of Opportunities, led by Joel Simon, Lance Taylor & Janet Bavelas. A neat application of Micro-Analysis

- the workshop “Solution-Focused Dragon Boat” – Building a Community of Leaders, led by Brenda Zalter-Minden & Robin Hornstein. It was highly interactive and fun, fun, fun. Re-creating the challenges and team-building opportunities of working as a rowing team

- the workshop Diagramming Solution-Focused Practice: Tools for Teaching led by Robert Blundo. A very engaging presentation on how to introduce students to Solution-Focus practice and its unique mindset

- the workshop Can We Really See Co-construction Happening?, led by Janet Bavelas, Peter De Jong & Sara Smock. So interesting to see grounding sequences in conversations and how they put understanding in place. Wisdom nugget by Peter De Jong: “All therapists [from different schools of therapy] co-construct. But they do it in different directions”

- the workshop Value of Evaluation: Creating Powerful Performance led by Haesun Moon. Brilliantly led in a pure solution-focused way, we all learned from each other and ourselves how to do more of what works to make evaluation processes solution-focused

And there were many, many other interesting workshops going on, but unfortunately one has to choose…

thanks to everyone, staff, presenters and attendees, who made this event such a wonderful learning experience!

… and here (photo below) is what happens when you have a bunch of Solution-Focused therapists doing line dancing at the Association Banquet :)

Are you curious about Solution-Focused Brief Coaching?

Do you want to make progress on your projects? Do you need to make a decision? Do you want to get unstuck and move forward, whatever the issue is? Are you having problems with co-workers or people in your life and you would like to solve them?

Then a coaching session might be useful to you!

Here’s the deal.

I offer:

- one free solution-focused brief-coaching session (30 minutes)

- delivered via Skype

It is the real thing, so expect all the benefits of a regular coaching session.

And here is the catch:

- the audio of the session will be recorded

- the session will be made available to my trainees (and only them) for learning purposes (so I would need you to sign a paper authorizing that).

I need more demos so that my brief coach trainees can be exposed to a even  higher number of real life sessions,  in addition to the practice sessions that take place during the workshop, before they set out to coach themselves.

It is a win-win situation: I get more taped sessions to use in my trainings, you get free coaching!

If interested, please send me an email at: briefcoachingsolutions@gmail.com

Thanks!

I am so excited to be leading Solutionsurfers Brief Coach Training in Berkeley, next week, at the beautiful UC Clark Kerr Campus!

An Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP) with the International Coach Federation (ICF), the training is one of the best way to learn how to lead Solution-Focused conversations – a method featured in books like Switch, and an established protocol in therapy.

> Here < are some reasons of why learning Brief Coaching skills matters, if you are a Coach, a Consultant, a Manager, an Executive or anyone in a Leadership position. Whenever you need to facilitate change, Solution-Focus is the quickest evidence-based technology we have.

> Here < is what is different, and of value, about Solutionsurfers training program.

And > here < are the details – when, where and how much. At 2,980 US$ for 8 days of training and follow-up Skype sessions, with flexible payment options, the price is hard to beat, considering the quality of the training format refined over the years and delivered in such small groups.

There are still two spots left… send me an email now at briefcoachingsolutions@gmail.com if you are interested in attending next week!!

See you in Berkeley soon!

Exciting News!!

The New Edition of Solutionsurfers‘ PURE Brief Coach Training will be held in Berkeley, California with dates in June and October, at an unbeatable price. Click HERE for all the details

I hope to see you in Berkeley soon!

You can find all the details here.

I hope to see you in San Francisco in 2011!!

Come learn how to use the COAC_H Brief-Coaching Protocol!

Doing Something Different
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Practices
Edited by Thorana Nelson

First, big kudos to Thorana Nelson: she had the vision to put together this book and the stamina to make that happen. Contacting many different authors, making a case for sharing their expertise and collecting their contributions is no easy feat.

This book is not an introduction to Solution-Focused Practice but rather it is a collection of stories by solution-focused practitioners for anyone interested in Solution-Focus:  it could be titled “Solution-Focus meets real life”.
The book consists of 76 chapters with 76 stories of Solution-Focus as applied in consulting, therapy, training and coaching today. In the book the reader can find items as diverse as advanced techniques & protocols to be used in certain situations; case studies; training strategies and exercises; and outrageous moments in therapy.

The contributors include many well-known names in the Solution-Focused community.

I contributed 3 chapters to the book:

- Reducing Personnel Turnover Rate from 50% to 10%: a case study of a Solution-Focused intervention carried out by me and others in an Italian company to keep young talents from leaving

- Opening for Brief Coaching Session: a script I find very effective for opening Brief-Coaching sessions, where time is at a premium and all that is said (or unsaid) matters

- Change We Can Believe in: a snapshot of a coaching conversation I had with a client where the uniqueness of Solution-Focus practice is put to action

I hope you all enjoy the book!!

The November issue of InterAction Journal, the Journal of the Association for the Quality Development of Solution-Focused Consulting and Training, is finally out!

In it you can find my newest peer reviewed paper: Solution-Focused Interviewing Protocols as Evolutionary Algorithms.

Here is the abstract:

Darwin’s algorithm has been shown to be Nature’s way of exploring the “solution space” for problems related to survival and reproduction. This paper shows how  SF conversations (as used in therapy and brief coaching) can be framed as a Darwinian algorithm to explore the “solution space” for the problems clients bring to the session.

Here you can find some ideas from which the paper originated.

Hoping to put Solution-Focused practice on more solid epistemological grounding, within mainstream science!

I have led three such 2-day workshops in the past month alone. Sign of the times, I guess.

In leading this workshop I am using what I call a sample-and-build approach.
First, I establish a positive and resourceful setting, by:
a) having participants define what they want instead of feeling stressed
b) inviting them to look at exceptions
c) inviting them to share their stories in a structured format.
This is the build part. We are bulding effective stress management strategies based on the participants’ skills and experiences. Sharing is a big part of creating excitement about what the participants are building.

Then, we move on to the  sample part.
There are a few Stress Management techniques demonstrated to work. Some of them are derived from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, others from Relaxation and Mindfulness approaches.
I give participants the chance to try each technique: e.g. I lead them in a “reframing” exercise and I lead them in a Progressive Muscle Relaxation exercise, and so on.
At the end of the workshop they have had the experience of several different techniques. This is the sampling part.
They have then the elements to decide which technique works best for them and pursue that: in this age of youtube, shared knowledge and easy access to handbooks and manuals, the resources are all out there to make a meal out of the original sample.
This way the new technique is seamlessly integrated in each participant’s behavioral repertoire.
Back to the build phase again.

And the learning cycle goes on…

The feedback I received from participants so far has been extremely positive!