Basic Self-Paced Solution-Focused Skills and Practice for Agencies

This self-paced course is only available after your organization has completed the live-BASIC  – Skills and Practice course. It is not available as a stand-alone course, as it is customized for your organization. This self-paced course offers a sustainable, flexible, and customizable solution to provide organizations with training and continuing education even if participants cannot attend the 12 hours of live-interactive BASIC – Solution-focused Skills and Practice for Agencies course. This course is structured as an online self-paced customized video lecture with an exam, including case-based demonstrations, recorded discussions, and recommended clinical practice exercises. This course is designed to provide practical skills and opportunities to practice the core BASIC solution-focused skills under the guidance of a master solution-focused practitioner and trainer.

The most effective way for behavioral health organization staff to learn solution-focused professional skills is to have intensive guided practice. This course is designed to provide practical skills and opportunities to practice the core solution-focused skills under the guidance of a master solution-focused practitioner and trainer. It also provides practical skills and opportunities to practice core solution-focused skills. The course includes 12 hours of video lectures, clinical demonstrations, personal and professional training practice exercises, case presentations, and role-plays.

This self-paced customized recorded course based on the live BASIC – Solution-Focused Skills and Practice for Agencies is ideal for organizations to sustain evidence-based practices while managing complex workforce and staffing challenges. To meet the challenges of training mental health 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 session, the BASIC self-paced solution-focused skills and practice for agencies offers a customized solution to meet your needs.

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: February 2025

Target Audience: Social workers, psychologists, mental health counselors, educators, and medical professionals;  appropriate for all levels of knowledge.

1. Identify at least three solution-focused skills that enhance engagement and strengthen the therapeutic alliance with clients, colleagues, and other agency staff, based on video case studies.
2. Recognize at least two core solution-focused questions and their appropriate use in agency settings through multiple-choice scenario-based assessments.
3. Select appropriate evidence-based complimenting techniques and identify their effectiveness in various agency contexts.
4. Determine strategies for discovering and amplifying positive differences or exceptions in clients or agency personnel by analyzing case-based multiple-choice questions.
5. Identify the key components of building an emotional “yes-set” and understand its impact in agency-based interactions.
6. Distinguish how client language and solution-focused terminology can be integrated to create a shared dialect in supervision and agency contexts.
7. Analyze the application of a systems perspective in agencies by assessing the role of the VIPS framework in case-based learning modules.
8. Differentiate skills that facilitate goal negotiation and maintain a solution-focused conversation in agency settings by selecting the most effective strategies in case-based scenarios.
9. Evaluate the qualities of well-formed goals in agency contexts by identifying characteristics in multiple-choice case studies.
10. Apply scaling questions to enhance goal negotiation, including the integration of VIPS, by selecting appropriate responses in given scenarios.
11. Recognize techniques for amplifying scaling questions in agency-based settings through case-based applications.
12. Identify appropriate solution-focused safety questions that promote client and staff well-being by evaluating their use in agency-based case scenarios.

This course consists of the following components. The program must be completed in order, and your certificate of completion will only be given once all components are complete.

1. Course Introduction
2. Video Lecture
3. Exam Instructions and Exam Preview
4. Course Exam
5. Course Evaluation
6. Certificate of Completion

There will be a 65-item exam designed to assess your understanding and ability to apply the course material. You may take the exam multiple times until you pass the exam.

After you have completed all of the sections, passed each of the section exams, and completed the course evaluation, you will receive your certificate of completion for the course. You will be able to save and print the certificate.

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.

Students should check with their professional licensing boards to ensure that a specific course will be accepted for their continuing education requirements.

To receive continuing education hours, the student must:

• Enroll in the course
• Watch the entire online lecture
• Complete the course exam, and receive a passing grade of 80%
• Complete the course evaluation

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

Once enrolled, you may begin your course at any time.

Our complete list of policies can be viewed here.