The Solution-Focused Mindset for Anxiety and Depression

This book-based, self-paced continuing education course is based on The Solution-Focused Mindset for Anxiety and Depression: A Workbook to Manage Emotions, Harness Your Strengths, and Feel Better Now by Dr. Anne Bodmer Lutz.
Grounded in the evidence-informed principles of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), a client-centered, strengths-based, and goal-oriented approach, this course guides behavioral health professionals through seven practical chapters, each offering hopeful, actionable tools for addressing anxiety, depression, and related challenges.
The course materials can also be applied in group settings across education, mental health, healthcare, and community programs to spark connection, amplify agency, and cultivate vicarious resilience as participants witness and build on one another’s strengths and progress. Whether you’re new to learning solution-focused language or seeking to deepen your skills, this book-based course provides a structured path to support your work with clients through Chapter-by-Chapter Learning.

Note: The required workbook must be purchased separately. Discount instructions are provided below.
Visit newharbinger.com and use code FOCUS25 at checkout for a discounted price.

Bonus: The course also includes free downloadable tools to support implementation and reflection.

• Chapter 1: An Introduction to the Solution-Focused Mindset
  Explore how cultivating hope, agency, and small steps toward change can promote healing, even in the midst of emotional pain.
• Chapter 2: Empower Your Story with Positive Language
  Learn how to use positive solution-building language that reshapes narrative, activates agency, and builds resilience.
• Chapter 3: Become an Amygdala Whisperer
  Understand brain-based responses to emotional overwhelm and apply SFBT strategies to calm and regulate intense emotions.
• Chapter 4: Recognizing Valuable Relationships
  Use VIP Mapping to help clients identify and strengthen their support networks.
• Chapter 5: Manifesting Your Best Hopes
  Guide clients to articulate goals and create a preferred future using the SFBT practice of best hopes questions.
• Chapter 6: Scaling for Success
  Apply solution-focused scaling questions to activate agency, assess progress, increase awareness, and develop small, meaningful steps.
• Chapter 7: Building and Sustaining Your Path to Success
  Integrate core principles using a structured four-quadrant framework to support long-term growth and success.

Required Workbook for This Course

To participate, you must purchase the workbook separately:
Title: The Solution-Focused Mindset for Anxiety and Depression: A Workbook to Manage Emotions, Harness Your Strengths, and Feel Better Now

Author: Dr. Anne Bodmer Lutz
Foreword: Dr. Cynthia Franklin
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Print ISBN: 9781648484742 | eBook ISBN: 9781648484766
Print Price: $25.95 | eBook Price: $20.75 → $14.99 with discount
Length: 200 pages (8” x 10”)
Publication Date: June 1, 2025

Discount Instructions:
Visit newharbinger.com and use code FOCUS25 at checkout for a discounted price.

Course Format

• Self-paced and asynchronous
• Book-based only; No video content
• Suitable for professionals in mental health, education, coaching, and healthcare

Last Updated: August 2025

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

By course end, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the foundational principles of the Solution-Focused Mindset and explain how cultivating agency and small steps can support hope and forward movement.
2. Identify how language shapes meaning and recognize the use of positive, strengths-based phrasing to support behavioral change.
3. Explain the concept of “amygdala whispering” and apply simple Solution-Focused strategies to manage intense emotions such as fear, anger, and anxiety.
4. Identify key sources of personal and social support and categorize them using the VIP Mapping technique to address loneliness, clarify goals, and strengthen resilience.
5. Demonstrate how to use “best hopes” questions to help clarify personal goals, values, and visions of a preferred future.
6. Recognize how scaling questions can be used to activate agency, monitor progress, and determine next steps for a practical, individualized plan moving forward.
7. Summarize the four-quadrant solution-focused framework for sustaining change and organize the core solution-focused tools into practical self-care plans for ongoing sustainable use.

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. Read the written book
3. Exam Instructions and Exam Preview
4. Course Exam
5. Course Evaluation
6. Certificate of Completion

Course Outline

1. Welcome and Orientation
2. Read The Solution-Focused Mindset for Anxiety and Depression
3. Course exam and evaluation

There will be a 35-item multiple-choice test, which is designed to assess your understanding and ability to apply the course material. You may take the exam multiple times until you pass.

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. You will be able to save and print the certificate.

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

Continuing Education

6 CE Credit/Clock Hours are available for this book-based self-paced asynchronous course.

To receive continuing education hours, the participant must:

• Enroll in the course
• Read the learning content
• Complete the course exam and receive a passing grade of 80%.
• Complete the course evaluation

Upon successful completion of the course, the student may download and print his or her Certificate of Completion.

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.

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

Our complete list of policies can be viewed here.