Getting Briefer - Celebrating 20 years of BRIEF by Dr Harriet Conniff

We had conversations about how we use the approach when our jobs require us to do things seemingly in contrast to a Solution Focus (e.g. information giving, child protection, taking a medical history and working with families when their child is dying). We discussed how we might do this by having an overriding solution focus which might involve signposting to clients (and to ourselves) these things as something we have to do to do our job well and as separate to the SFBT.

Watching the team in action in ‘Live Supervision’ sessions with clients is one of the most useful parts of the trainings I have done with BRIEF. We saw how easy the team can make an interview look in the apparent simplicity of the questions. However having spent some time before the live sessions trying to pre-empt questions in recorded interviews ourselves we appreciated the considerable thought and skill required by Chris and Harvey.

Unlike other courses where I usually start to drift off around elevenses, I felt inspired and reinvigorated especially by the clever and highly practical exercises. One exercise began a bit like musical chairs with interviewers moving around asking each new ‘client’ a question then moving to hear the next person’s answer to a question you as the interviewer had not asked (I hope you get this). This meant we had to really focus on the clients answer in order to formulate and ask a question that would be useful to the client before moving on again. In discussion afterwards we talked about how a “psychological” understanding is therefore not necessary. Our job is to ask questions that fit with client’s accounts and adjust our questions in conversation in order to be useful to the client.

We ended the two days with a discussion of the next 20 years of Solution Focus. Evan talked about all the incredible possibilities that continue to evolve in using a solution focus in Education. Harvey raised the issue of how SFBT can continue to demonstrate its effectiveness in the face of the need for an “evidence base”. Chris was determined to pare down the approach and get even briefer. I wonder if he is working towards the ultimate in pre-session change?…

I guess we do not know what the next 20 years of Solution Focused working will bring; all I do know is that it will continue to make a difference.

Dr Harriet Conniff