The Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy
Conversations that shape what happens next
Guide conversations from what people say toward what matters most to them.
When your work involves conversations across healthcare, education, crisis response, violence prevention, or community settings, what you ask and how you respond shape what happens next.
The Institute for Solution Focused Therapy provides training in Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), an evidence-based approach centered on conversations that build from what is already working.
Questions are drawn from the person’s own language and shaped through curiosity about what helps, what matters to them, and what people hope for moving forward.
About the Institute
The Institute is led by Anne Bodmer Lutz, B.S.N., M.D., a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist, former nurse, educator, and author with decades of clinical and training experience. Trained directly by the founders of Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer, Dr. Lutz helps professionals develop practical conversational skills they can apply across settings.
Dr. Lutz is the author of Learning Solution-Focused Therapy: An Illustrated Guide and The Solution-Focused Mindset for Anxiety and Depression. She also contributed the chapter on Solution-Focused Brief Therapy to the 11th edition of Kaplan and Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, the first inclusion of this approach in a major psychiatric textbook.
The Institute also includes specialized expertise from Penelope Griffith, MSW, LICSW, LCSW C, a nationally recognized leader in violence prevention, restorative justice, and community-based intervention. Her work includes gang intervention, retaliatory violence prevention, and strengthening families and communities through solution-focused and restorative approaches in environments where conversations directly impact safety, relationships, and outcomes.
Training Designed for Practice
We provide self-paced online courses, live interactive trainings, customized workforce development programs, and continuing education opportunities designed to support immediate application across settings.
Trainings include video demonstrations, guided practice, and resources that help professionals apply solution-focused conversations in their everyday work.
Our programs support professionals across healthcare, schools, behavioral health, crisis response, violence prevention, child welfare, and community systems.
Leadership and Advisory Board
Anne Bodmer Lutz, B.S.N., M.D. Executive Director
Penelope Griffith, MSW, LICSW, LCSW C Faculty and Consultant
John Lutz, Psy.D. Senior Consultant
Barbara Mauger Director of Operations
Explore our Online Self-Paced Training opportunities and Customized Staff Training options. If you have any questions about the Institute or want more information about training, please get in touch with us or email us at info@solutionfocused.net.
Institute Staff
INSTITUTE FOR SOLUTION-FOCUSED THERAPY COURSE ADVISORY BOARD
The Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy has brought together a course advisory board to ensure we continue publishing courses of the highest quality, research-informed, and clinically focused. We have assembled a racially diverse, transdisciplinary board comprising physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and licensed mental health professionals from diverse cultures, genders, and ethnic backgrounds. Our clinicians work with diverse populations and have expertise in research, training, education, and clinical practice. Psychologists, physicians, social workers, and licensed mental health professionals will have input into all decision-making and program-planning phases. The advisory board will provide feedback on program planning, potential conflicts of interest, and guidance on resolving participant complaints.
Course Advisors: Melanie Amir, MS, OTR/L, LADC I • Auralyd Padilla Candelario, MD • Betsy Cheyne, Psy.D. • Cynthia Gayle Southern Franklin, PhD, LCSW, LMFT • Penny Griffith, MSW • Johnny Kim, Ph.D. • Stephen Langer, Ph.D. • Terri Philbrick, MSW • Christiaan VanWoerden, MD
Institute for Solution Focused Therapy, LLC
Westminster MA 01473
508-202-1564
info@solutionfocused.net