Kate, Maggie and I have just had our paper published in the Journal of Solution Focused Practices (Vol 8, No. 2), and we are all very proud about it!
I've got to start by saying a big THANK YOU to both Maggie and Kate for agreeing to publish their story which includes being incredibly open AND revealing their identities. That's somewhat unusual for a case study, but this is not your usual case study.
Maggie has been a client of mine for nearly 2 years now, and we have had 20 sessions over Zoom. Her story is remarkable, but her progress over this time has been amazing. Maggie has always wanted to share her story in the hope that it will inspire others who have similar lifelong battles with multiple health issues. I was hoping that her story might inspire clinicians too.
This is a very unique case study, with something never before written about in the world of Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). Not only has it captured the client voice (all too often absent in SFBT literature), but it also provides a behind the scenes look at what was happening between sessions, in Maggie's private life, out of view of the therapist (me).
Kate Kowalski, my co-author, writes from 2 different perspectives. First and foremost she is Maggie's 'mom', primary carer, and referrer. Maggie wanted both of her parents to sit in on all of our sessions as observers and to offer general support, so Kate got to see both what happened in the session, and what happened between sessions. But her second perspective is quite unique. Kate was one of the early members of the Brief Family Therapy Centre in Milwaukee where Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg, Eve Lipchik and co. developed the Solution Focused Approach. So Kate has been around SFBT for nearly 40 years, which means there are only a couple of people in the world who have known SFBT for longer.
Our paper looks at what was happening within Solution Focused Therapy, and what made a difference to the client. There is a very big focus on the importance of the therapeutic relationship and also how to move at the client's pace. The title of the paper; "Beyond technique ..." pays homage to Eve Lipchik and was taken from her book "Beyond Technique in Solution-Focused Therapy: Working with emotions and the therapeutic relationship". Kate and I both think that Eve was one of the most important figures in the development of SFBT, but that her work is sometimes undervalued by some in the field. Eve and Kate have been close personal friends for 40 years, and Eve was even Maggie's first babysitter!
Kate, Maggie and I hope that you will enjoy our paper, contemplate it's content and message, and maybe even provide us with a bit of feedback.
We received some really positive feedback from friends and colleagues including:
Eve Lipchik: "I read your case study last night and it is just superb. I'm saying this without exaggerating. There is nothing I would change about it."
Michael Durrant: "I agree with Eve … don’t change a single word! It is a wonderful paper, incredibly useful and contributes things that are completely new."
Blind Reviewer No.1: "A key strength of this paper and a major reason for its acceptance, is the emphasis on the importance of the therapeutic relationship ... Another related strength is the difference between a client simply being listened to and their feeling heard and understood by the therapist."
Blind Reviewer No.2: "This article would be useful for any solution-focused or healthcare practitioner wishing to be inspired about ways to co-create progress towards desired change, with people dealing with lifelong chronic health and developmental issues. ... The newness and difference brought by the authors’ phenomenal honesty is profound because it gives permission to all of us to be unsure, make mistakes, commit to noticing and always be led by what the clients we interact with show and tell us."
To mark the launch of the paper, Kate will be joining me in a meeting of the South Australian SFBT Community of Practice, where we will have an online discussion about SFBT and what worked for Maggie. We hope you will join us on Saturday 19 October (9am SA time). Please register here, we would love for you to join us and share your thoughts on Maggie's story.
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