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Cover

Solution-Oriented Social Work Practice

An Integrative Approach to Working with Client Strengths

Gilbert J. Greene and Mo Yee Lee

Publication Date - January 2011

ISBN: 9780195162622

352 pages
Hardcover
6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches

In Stock

This groundbreaking practice handbook combines the strengths-based approaches into an overarching model of solution-oriented social work for greater impact. For any student or practitioner interested in working with clients towards collaborative and empowering change, this is the essential text.

Description

Too often in practice, there is a tendency to pathologize clients, requiring a diagnosis as part of the helping relationship. Suppose, however, that most of the client problems that social workers encounter have more to do with the vagaries of life and not with what clients are doing wrong. This powerful idea is the philosophy behind the strengths-based approaches to social work. This groundbreaking practice handbook takes this concept one step further, combining the different strengths-based approaches into an overarching model of solution-oriented social work for greater impact. The strengths perspective emphasizes client strengths, goal-setting, and a shared definition of positive outcome. Solution-focused therapy approaches ongoing problems when they have temporarily abated, amplifying exceptions as solutions. This natural but rarely explored pairing is one component in the challenging and effective practice framework presented here by the authors, two seasoned practitioners with over 50 years of combined experience. By integrating the most useful aspects of the major approaches, a step-by-step plan for action emerges. With this text in hand, you will:

- Integrate elements from the strengths perspective, solution-focused therapy, narrative therapy, and the strategic therapy of the Mental Research Institute (the MRI approach) into an effective and eclectic framework
- Build and practice your skills using case examples, transcripts, and practical advice
- Equip yourself with the tools you need to emphasize clients' strengths
- Challenge the diagnosis-first medical model of behavioral health care
- Collaborate with clients to get past thinking (first-order change), and more to acting "outside the box" (second-order change)
- Learn to work with a wide variety of clients, including individuals, groups, and families; involuntary clients; clients with severe mental illness; and clients in crisis

For any student or practitioner interested in working with clients towards collaborative and empowering change, this is the essential text.

Features

  • Integrates all the major strengths-based approaches into a practical framework
  • Cases and transcripts provide real-world examples of actual practice
  • Shifts emphasis from diagnosing a problem to forming collaborative relationships with clients
  • Explains how to work with a wide variety of clients, including individuals, groups, and families; involuntary clients; clients with severe mental illness; and clients in crisis

About the Author(s)

Gilbert J. Greene, PhD, is Professor and Chair of the Clinical Concentration at the College of Social Work, Ohio State University.

Mo Yee Lee, PhD, is Professor at the College of Social Work, Ohio State University.

Reviews

"With a solid theoretical grounding, this comprehensive text weds solution-focused therapy to social work, a marriage built on compatibility of values and principles." --Jacqueline Corcoran, PhD, Professor of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University

"Greene and Lee have created a masterpiece. Few texts provide such a detailed look into the change processes of solution-focused practice that this book provides. It is filled with case examples and detailed micro steps that practitioners can use to help people change. The authors review all the major developments in strengths-based practice, grounding solution-oriented practice in both theory and practice methods. This is an excellent text for teaching students a solution-building process that moves beyond the traditional problem-solving methods, and towards the discovery of a different way to approach and solve problems." --Cynthia Franklin, PhD, Stiernberg/Spencer Family Professor in Mental Health, University of Texas at Austin

"Social work has long espoused a strengths-based perspective, but practice has lagged far behind-knowing doesn't translate easily to doing. This text fills that gap by showing clearly, in step-by-step fashion, not only how to think about your work but, more importantly, what you can do to become solution-oriented in your practice. Greene and Lee's approach is grounded solidly in the latest theoretical and empirical literature." --Wallace J. Gingerich, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Social Work, Case Western Reserve University

"Gil Greene and Mo Yee Lee have crafted a text that will carry on the importance of solution-focused brief therapy for the next generation. The authors have managed to integrate all the assumptions and evidence of SFBT into a practice context that is easy to follow and use. At the same time, readers will marvel at the rigor, precision, and detail that has been devoted to painstakingly pulling the best SFBT has to offer into theory, working with clients, and special applications. This book is very practical and a must-have for practitioners and instructors. I highly recommend it." --Peter Lehmann, PhD, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Texas at Arlington

"Greene and Lee have successfully filled the gap in the clinical social work literature by producing the first practice-friendly and well written solution-oriented text in the field. The authors have transcended earlier books on the solution-focused brief therapy model by integrating ideas from compatible therapeutic approaches and important findings from psychotherapy outcome research to create an expanded and advanced version of the model to make it much more effective with a wide range of client difficulties. This book is a gem and both novice and seasoned social workers will find a rich treasure trove of therapeutic tools and strategies awaiting them." --Matthew D. Selekman, MSW, Co-Director, Partners for Collaborative Solutions

Table of Contents

    PART I: STRENGTHS, SOLUTIONS, AND CHANGE: A THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION

    Introduction
    1. Focusing on Client Strengths: Theoretical, Empirical, and Practical Considerations
    2. A Framework for a Solution-Oriented Approach to Working with Client Strengths

    PART II: THE ELEMENTS OF SOLUTION-ORIENTED SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

    3. Co-Constructing Collaborative Relationships with Clients
    4. Listen to the Client's Story and in the Process Define and Deconstruct the Primary Presenting Problem(s) from the Client's Perspective: First Steps in a Solution-Oriented Assessment
    5. Define the Outcome Goal(s) from the Client's Perspective: Further Steps in Solution-Oriented Assessment
    6. Identify and Amplify Client Strengths: Using the Languages of Strengths and Solutions to Achieve Pattern Change
    7. Intervene to Disrupt the Problem-Maintaining Patterns of First-Order Change to Achieve Second-Order Change: Further Steps to Pattern Change
    8. Working with Client Strengths in a Deficit-Oriented Environment
    9. Continuing the Conversation, Evaluating Practice, and Terminating with Clients
    10. Cultural Diversity and Cultural Strengths: Assets for Solution-Building in Social Work Practice

    PART III: TREATMENT ISSUES AND APPLICATONS

    11. A Solution-Oriented Approach to Group Work
    Gil Greene, Amy Carek, and Mo Yee Lee
    12. Families and Couples: A Practical Guide for Facilitating Change
    John Sebold
    13. A Solution-Oriented Approach to Crisis Intervention
    14. A Solution-Oriented Approach to Working with Persons with a Severe Mental Disability
    Gil Greene, David Kondrat, and Mo Yee Lee

    15. Concluding Comments: The Strengths and Common Factors Revolutions

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