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I am motivated by my desire to help professionals like you become the best helping professionals they can be.
Driven by Resilience
A complicated and less than ideal upbringing like the one I had can often break a spirit. So, what then, is the reason that some of us gain strength from our shortcomings and trauma? It was this question that initiated my journey into the world of psychotherapy.
The spark that my question created within me led me to get a Bachelors in Psychology and a Master of Science in Professional Counseling. Over time, my personal and professional experiences taught me that resilience is what makes or breaks a human spirit. My belief in human resilience is what caused me to fall in love with Solution Focused Brief Therapy and learn the ins and outs of this approach.
I’ve worked alongside some of the most prominent figures in the SFBT field, have lectured all over the US as well as internationally, in places like the United Kingdom, Russia, India, and Australia, and I’ve written four books on the Solution Focused method.
I aim to inspire you and light the fire and passion that Solution Focused Brief Therapy lit in me, so that you, too, can help transform the lives of others.
An Approach as Lasting as a Diamond
Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is an evidence-based approach and is supported by significant outcome and process research. This language-based approach is built on a co-construction between the client and the therapist. Each SFBT conversation begins with coming to a clear understanding of what the client’s desired outcome from the work is. Often this desired outcome is called their “best hopes” for this work. By beginning each session with a focus on hope, the trajectory of the work shifts from a problem-focus to what the client is hoping for the most. This shift facilitates change without requiring the client to process past failures or re-experience problems and challenges. This approach honors the clients agency and autonomy.
Through the Connie-Froerer Diamond Approach of SFBT, hope is built on by engaging in a detailed-description about the presence of the client’s best hopes.
The Diamond Approach outlines four possible description options.
1) A Resource description highlights the strengths, abilities, and the legacy clients carry with them through life. 2) A Scaled description facilitates a detailed accounting of what small changes have taken place and what additional small changes might look like. This focus on small changes helps clients envision what additional changes will make in their life. 3) A Preferred Future description focuses in great detail on what changes would be noticed and embodied by the client when the desired-outcome is present in their lives. Finally, 4) A History of the Outcome description focuses on times in the client’s life when pieces of the desired outcome were present. In this description the client can take credit for the moments of success and can remember what it took to bring about these successes. Each type of description enlarges the clients hope and makes the desired outcome more and more a reality.
The Connie-Froerer Diamond Approach was developed through considerable research and investigation of what SFBT clinicians and clients do to bring about lasting change.
