Building practice-based
solution-focused
research down under
Judi H. Miller
SFBTA Conference, research day, Santa Fe, New Mexico
6 – 8 November, 2014
Hopes for this session
• Provide an overview of
– the context (down under)
– student evaluation of our SF program
– the Master of Counselling
• Share SF practice-based research (from
down under)
• Consider and discuss research challenges,
responses and where to from here.
Context- New Zealand, pop 4.5 Million
NZ Counselling
• Psychotherapy training provided mainly
by private providers
• Counselling and psychology taught in
university-based programmes
• Graduate programmes in counselling
taught in only 4 universities –
• SF taught only at University of Canterbury.
UC counsellor training
1974
A two year graduate programme
started - microskills, problemsolving
12 students per year
1988
I started teaching in the degree
1992
SF introduced as foundational
model
2010
A series of earthquakes
2012
New Masters degree introduced
Christchurch, seconds after 6.3 earthquake,
Feb 22, 2011
Checking if SF teaching
works down under
• 2007 – survey of graduates (Miller, 2009)
• All valued practice experience and clinical
supervision for developing their sense of
competence and identification as
professional counsellors.
• 79% constructed themselves as life-long
learners who use a SF framework to shape
their work.
Developing a programme to
increase student research
• New Master of Counselling
– Two year full-time programme based on social
constructionist principles and solution-focused
practice.
– Guided by Skovholt and Starkey (2010)
metaphor:Three-legged epistemological stool
– Research component added.
Master of Counselling
Year one – solution-focused coursework
Year two – 400 hour practicum + professional
practice research portfolio.
Key aspects:
✓qualitative methods
✓group supervision
✓collaborative discoveries
✓research relevant/meaningful
to each student
✓publishable
Extending practice-based
evidence
• Complements data from controlled settings
• Evidence resonates with practitioners
• Practice is able to be responsive to the data
• Values client descriptions of change
(Shennan and Iveson, 2013)
Examples of completed
student research
•Pragmatic case – Empowering adolescents through solutionfocused counselling : the experiences of New Zealand adolescent girls
and self esteem, can sf help? (Tina Duff)
SFBT and self esteem
• Foeschle et al (2007) found that SFBT did not
improve self-esteem but this may not be very
relevant to student success.
• Peterson (2009) notes that the taking of
action demonstrates a belief that one can do
something about a problem (self-efficacy) and
this may be used as a measure of adolescent
empowerment.
SFBT and self esteem
• Our student encouraged four females (in a
high school) to be co-participators in SF
counselling. She then analysed five SF
counselling sessions with each client and
found that SF counselling helped clients:
– discover their personal strengths and resources
– feel empowered to act using these resources
– experience enhanced self efficacy
– take action to bring about positive change
Examples of completed
student research
•Narrative case –Shift happens? : exploring the exception question
in solution-focused therapy ways the exception question brings
about a shift in perceptions for client and counsellor’s learning. (Kay
Henson)
Exceptions
• Shennan and Iveson (2012) have shifted their
focus from exceptions to instances of part of
the miracle.
• Our student found that her research on
exception questions brought together
students’ personal stories of their counselling
experience and stories of her own learning as
a student counsellor.
Research process
• Client rating scale
• Narrative analysis exposed shifts and change
for clients and the counsellor.
• Supervision (using exception questions) and
reflective journal helped the counsellor
develop a sense of self.
• Client engagement, use of drawings, full
transcriptions, counsellors’ story
Research questions addressed
• How can the exception question in solutionfocused therapy bring about change for
students?
• How do students in a high school experience
creative uses of solution focused exception
questions?
• How does its use influence my counselling and
my ongoing learning as a counsellor?
Examples of student
research ‘in progress’
Microanalysis of dialogue: Clients’ and practitioner’s
experiences of the “What’s better?” question in Solution
Focused Brief Therapy
Feedback
What’s better
Not useful discussing
Useful discussing
Overall
Do something different
Do the same
Examples of student
research ‘in progress’
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Clients’
experiences of the summation message.
Meeting these challenges
• Practice-based evidence – requires research
experience
• Subjectivity and bias
• Effect of researcher allegiance to SF
• Researcher or therapist - can the two mix?
• Phenomenology and social constructionism
• Does being reflexive and being a participant really
improve practice?
Where to from here?
• I would welcome any comments and suggestions on
what we are doing and how we might improve what we
are doing.
• Our next challenge is to find appropriate examiners –
both practitioners and academics - any volunteers?
• Please contact me judi.miller@canterbury.ac.nz
Resources
• Crocket, K., Agee M. & Cornforth, S (Ed.), Ethics in Practice: A Guide for
Counsellors: 53-57. Wellington: Dunmore Publishing.
• Gingerich, W.J. & Peterson, L.T. (2013). Effectiveness of Solution-focused brief
therapy: A systematic qualitative review of controlled outcome studies.
Research on Social Work Practice. http://rsw.sagepub.com/
• Froeshle, J.G., Smith, R.L., & Ricard, R. (2007). The efficacy of a systematic
substance abuse program for adolescent females. Professional School
Counseling, 10, 498 - 505
• McLeod, J. (2010). Case Study Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy.
London: Sage.
• Miller, J.H. (2009) Does teaching a solution-focused model of counselling work?
A follow-up of graduates. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research 10(3): 173182.
Resources
• Peterson, Z.D (2009). What is sexual empowerment? A multidimensional and
process-oriented approach to adolescent girls’ sexual empowerment. Sex Roles,
62, 307-313.doi: 10.1080/09614520802030383
• Sangganianavanich, V.F and Black, L.L. (2011) The Multicultural Supervision
Scale. Journal of Professional Counseling, Practice, Theory, & Research,. 38 (2)
:18
• Shennan G. and Iveson, C. From solution to discription: Practice and research in
tandem. In C Franklin, T Trepper, W. Gingerich & E. McCollum (Eds), (2012).
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: A Handbook of Evidence-Based Practice. NY:
Oxford University Press
• Skovholt, T.M. & Starkey, M.T. (2010). The three legs of the practitioner’s
learning stool: Practice, research/theory and personal life. Journal of
Contemporary Psychotherapy, 40 (3):125-130.
Resources
Empowering adolescents through solution-focused counselling : the
experiences of New Zealand adolescents : research project submitted
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Counselling at the University of Canterbury
•by Duff, Tina L.,
Shift happens? : exploring the exception question in solution-focused
therapy : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of Masters of Counselling, School of Health Sciences
•by Henson, Kay J.,