This introductory course provides training in the application of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) skills practiced with cultural humility to support meaningful engagement with youth and families in supportive housing, case management, and behavioral health settings. The course emphasizes practical, strengths-based communication practices that support collaboration, clarity, and client participation in service planning.

Using a shared case vignette (Same Mission, Different Seats), participants explore how to engage with multiple systems—such as housing, mental health, child welfare, probation, and schools—and how professional roles and service contexts shape communication and partnership. The course highlights everyday moments where

assumptions arise and demonstrates how thoughtful attention to language, tone, and stance can strengthen understanding, trust, and shared decision-making.

Instruction is experiential and skills-based, incorporating demonstrations, video vignettes, dyadic practice, role-plays, and facilitated group discussion. Participants observe and practice Solution-Focused questions that help people describe goals in their own words, recognize strengths, and identify next steps aligned with their values. The course is trauma-informed and includes attention to emotional regulation and pacing, drawing on Solution-Focused practices such as noticing positive differences and supportive “amygdala-whispering” strategies to foster psychological safety and engagement.

The training is designed for licensed and credentialed professionals and direct-service staff involved in service planning, engagement, system coordination, and collaborative conversations across supportive housing, case management, substance use, and behavioral health settings, including:

• Social Workers (BSW, MSW, LCSW, LICSW)
• Psychologists and psychology trainees involved in applied clinical or community-based work
• Mental Health Counselors and Professional Counselors (including LPC, LMHC, LCPC)
• Licensed Clinical Addiction Counselors and other state-recognized substance use treatment professionals
• Recovery Coaches and Peer Support Specialists working in substance use, housing, or community-based programs
• Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and Nurses providing care in behavioral health, substance use, or integrated care settings

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Identify moments in routine interactions when professional assumptions about role, culture, or system involvement influence engagement.
2. Demonstrate Solution-Focused questions that elicit client-defined goals and priorities and increase client voice, choice, and participation in service planning.
3. Apply culturally humble communication practices that center clients’ lived experiences and support collaborative decision-making.
4. Explain how professional role, language, tone, and stance influence power dynamics, emotional safety, and engagement across service systems.
5. Implement brief, client-centered conversational strategies that support progress through small, client-chosen steps aligned with client values and goals.

Last Updated: February 2026

9:30 – 10:30 | Welcome, Overview & Case Introduction

Focus: Setting the foundation

• Overview of Solution-Focused practice and cultural humility
• How roles, language, and assumptions shape everyday work
• Case vignette practice: Same Mission, Different Seats — noticing first impressions and early assumptions

10:30 – 11:30 | Practicing an Attitude of Gratitude

Focus: Strengths, effort, and agency

• Practice exercise: Noticing an attitude of gratitude
• Case vignette practice: Appreciating strengths, intentions, and effort shown by each personExploring how noticing with appreciation shifts perspective, reduces judgment, and supports engagement

11:30 – 12:00 | Languaging Happiness

Focus: How language shapes experience

• Practice exercise: Languaging happiness
• Case vignette practice: Re-languaging statements using neutral, respectful, and positive language
• This exercise focuses on how curiosity, clarifying meaning, and translating language into client-stated positive verbs can shift assumptions, meaning, and interaction.

12:00 – 12:30 | Amygdala Whispering & Trauma-Informed Communication

Focus: Emotional regulation and choice

• Practice exercise: Amygdala whispering
• Case vignette practice: Identifying emotional activation and practicing language that supports safety, regulation, and reflective thinking

12:30 – 1:00 | Lunch Break

1:00 – 2:00 | VIP Mapping

Focus: Context, relationships, and systems

• Practice exercise: Mapping Very Important Presences (people, roles, systems) in participants’ own work
• Case vignette practice: Mapping VIPs for each role
• Exploring how context, accountability, and responsibility shape assumptions and decisions

2:00 – 2:40 | Best Hopes Mapping

Focus: Clarifying direction before action

• Practice exercise: Identifying and mapping Best Hopes
• Case vignette practice:
  • What are each person’s best hopes for this conversation or situation?
  • What do they want or need instead? (if negatively worded)
  • Suppose the conversation were helpful and worth their time, what would they and others be doing?
  • What else would they be doing when those best hopes are being met?
  • Who would notice, and what would they notice people doing?
• Emphasis: Verbs, actions, and observable differences

2:40 – 3:20 | Scaling from Best Hopes (Whole Group)

Focus: Turning best hopes into small, doable verbs (actions)

• Practice exercise: Scaling grounded in best hopes – client stated verbs
• Case vignette practice:
  • Suppose 10 means best hopes are being achieved, and 1 is the opposite — where are they now?
  • What keeps the number from being lower?
  • What is already working at that number?
  • What is a “good enough” number?
  • What would they be doing if the number increased by 1?
  • How confident (1–10) are they that they could take one small step?

3:20 – 4:00 | Integration & Carry-Forward

Focus: Bringing it into everyday work

• Practice exercise: Reflecting on Unexamined Assumptions in Practice
  This program includes the following required components. Participants must complete all components in sequence to receive a certificate of completion:

• Live, in-person, interactive training
• Course evaluation
• Certificate of completion

Participants will be assessed in the following manner:

• Class Participation: Participants are invited to clarify things they do not understand, pose questions, offer ideas, and broaden perspectives.
• Actively participate in activities and discussions
• Complete the post-session evaluation
• Receive their Certificate of Completion upon meeting all requirements

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

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

The Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy offers continuing education credit for this live, interactive 2-hour course. Participants must attend the full session with their cameras on, actively engage in course activities, and complete a post-course evaluation to receive a certificate of completion.

Psychologists

The Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy, LLC, is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy, LLC, maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Psychologists completing this course receive 2 continuing education hours.

The Institute is also recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists (#PSY-0127).

Social Workers

The Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy, provider number 1831, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 9/22/2023 – 9/22/2026. Social workers completing this course receive 2 Clinical continuing education credits.

The Institute is also approved by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work (#SW-0656), and by the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling.

Counselors

The Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy, LLC has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7049. The Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy, LLC, is solely responsible for all aspects of the program. Counselors completing this course receive 2 clock hours.

The Institute is also approved by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors (#MHC-0233), and by the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board.

Participants 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 participant must attend the entire online presentation with their camera on, engage in all activities, and complete the course evaluation.

Upon successfully completing the course, participants 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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