Basic – Solution-Focused Skills and Practice for Schools

The most effective way for educational organizations, and school staff to learn solution-focused brief therapy skills is to have intensive guided practice. This course is designed to provide opportunities to practice the core solution-focused skills under the guidance of a master solution-focused practitioner and trainer in the context of schools and educational organizations. Participants will learn to apply solution-focused questions, construct questions to enhance hope, describe how to build a “yes-set, illustrate goal negotiation, and give examples of solution-focused scaling questions. The course provides an additive live-interactive learning dimension to our self-paced behavioral health offerings. The course provides 12 hours total of live interactive teaching, personal and professional training practice exercises, case presentations, role-plays, and video observations demonstrating how participants have applied solution-focused skills in their unique area of practice. The 12-hours of training can be customized in a way that works best for your organization. This course is limited to 25 participants per cohort to maximize interactive learning.

We also offer this as a self-paced customized course developed from your organization’s live course: BASIC Self-Paced Solution-Focused Skills and Practice For Schools. By recording your organization’s live sessions, we can provide organizations with a customized course that offers a sustainable, flexible, and customizable solution to provide organizations with training and continuing education even if participants cannot be present for the entire 12 hours of live-interactive BASIC – Solution-focused skills and practice for schools course. The self-paced customized course also provides solutions to meet the challenges of schools and educational organizations with complex staffing needs, onboarding new staff, staff turnover, unanticipated crises that require immediate staff attention, or any of a variety of unpredictable events that make it difficult for staff to participate in all 12 hours of the live sessions. Continuing education mandates require participants to be present for the entire live synchronous courses. This self-paced course offers a creative solution. This course has a required exam to earn continuing education credits.

Last Updated: August 2024

Target Audience: Educators, school social workers, psychologists, mental health counselors, advisors, administrators, and medical practitioners in school settings; appropriate for all levels of knowledge. This course provides participants with the fundamentals of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, an evidence-based trauma-informed treatment approach that can be implemented within schools and educational organizations.

• Describe solution-focused skills that enhance engagement and the therapeutic alliance in schools
• Demonstrate fluency in core solution-focused questions as applied in educational settings
• Demonstrate the use of evidenced-based compliments
• Demonstrate how to discover and amplify positive differences/exceptions using solution-focused questions
• Illustrate fluency in building an emotional “yes-set”
• Illustrate building a shared dialect incorporating client and solution-focused language
• Illustrate the importance of a system’s perspective using VIPS by presenting oral examples
• Illustrate skills that facilitate the negotiation of goals and how to maintain a solution- focused conversation.
• Summarize qualities of well-formed goals
• Explain ways scaling questions can be used to enhance goal negotiation including how to incorporate VIPs within scaling questions
• Apply skills to amplify scaling questions
• Integrate solution-focused safety questions within case examples within a schools setting

Participants will be assessed in the following manner:

• Class Participation: Students are invited to clarify things they do not understand, pose questions, offer ideas, and broaden perspectives. Participants are encouraged to participate in exercises and discussions.

12 CE Credit/Clock Hours are available for this live course.

Please see our Continuing Education Information page for information about CE credits and clock hours and our accreditations and approvals for psychologists, social workers, counselors, and marriage & family therapists.

Participants should check with their professional licensing boards to ensure that a specific course will be accepted toward their continuing education requirements.
To receive continuing education hours, the participant must attend the entire online presentation with their camera on, engage in all activities with their camera on, and complete the course evaluation.

Upon successfully completing the course, students will be given instructions on downloading and printing their Certificates of Completion.

No conflicts of interest or commercial support are present for the CE program, instructor, or presentation.

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