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Michael a keynote speaker at European conference
Michael Durrant was a keynote speaker at the recent European Brief Therapy Association Conference held in Lyon, France.
(An aside: on the way to Lyon, we spent some time in the UK, including a visit to Oxford. There we saw a blackboard that had been used by Albert Einstein ... it has been preserved and the equations on the blackboard are in his handwriting. I was reminded again of Einstein's brilliance and incisiveness. Quite apart from whatever the equation on the blackboard signified, I am still left with his quote:
"You cannot solve a problem using the same kind of thinking that created the problem".
However, I digress from talking about the conference!)
The European Brief Therapy Association (EBTA) Conference has, over a number of years, been THE major international meeting of Solution-focused Brief therapists, researchers, innovators and thinkers.
Held in a different European city each September, this year was in Lyon.
Lyon is the third largest city in France and is at the junction of the Rhone and Saône rivers, hence is close to the Rhone Valley wine region and is described as the "gastronomic capital" of France. Literally thousands of restaurants, excellent local wine, an historic district with 14th and 15th century architecture — a perfect place for a brief therapy conference! (Interestingly, cinema was invented in Lyon in the late 1800s). The conference was held in École normale supérieure de Lyon, a grande ecole that trains scientific researchers. The conference welcome was on a boat on the Rhone.
On the Saturday morning of the conference, Michael gave an invited keynote presentation about the use of Solution-focused Brief ideas in school contexts. This presentation centred on the work Michael and Brief Solutions colleagues have been doing in training teachers, Year Co-ordinators, Deputy Principals, and other "mainstream" school personnel in using Solution-focused questions in day-to-day classroom management and discipline situations.
Participants were particularly interested in the application of Solution-focused ideas ion "normal" school settings, rather than in specifically therapeutic contexts.
Other keynote speakers included Yvonne Dolan and Dr Mark McKergow.
On the Sunday morning, Michael was part of a plenary panel discussion which included Dr Alasdair Macdonald, Dr Mark McKergow, Dr Marie Christine Cabie and Professor Matthias Varga Von Kibed. The panel's topic was "The limitations of SFBT" and there was much lively debate.
The next EBTA conference will be in Helsinki in September 2009.
Teaching/workshops in England and Belgium
In the week before the Lyon conference, Michael presented a two-day workshop in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (in northeast England) entitled Simply Solutions: Staying true to Solution-focused thinking (in a variety of contexts).
This workshop, organised by the Brief Therapy North East group, was held in the library of The Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (known by taxi drivers as "the Lit and Phil" and where, incidentally, the electric light globe was first publicly demonstrated in 1897).
John Wheeler, from the BTNE committee, commented, "Thanks again for an inspiring workshop. Everyone I've spoken to since then has said how much they got out of it. Experienced people have spoken of the benefits of being deeply immersed in the simplicity of the approach. Having noticed you over the years, this was precisely what I hoped you'd bring and people would get."
Following the EBTA Conference in Lyon, Michael presented a three-day workshop in Bruges, Belgium. This was for the Korzybski Institute, a training institute which trains therapists in Belgium, France and Holland. The Institute was named in honour of Alfred Korzybski, scientist and philosopher, who developed the Theory of General Semantics. His contention that our experience of reality is mediated by the language we have to describe it led to his famous saying — "the map is not the territory".
Bruges is a beautiful city with medieval architecture, a network of canals and narrow, cobblestoned streets — oh, and bars and restaurants! It was also a city that was favourite of Steve de Shazer.
This course, entitled Solution-Focused Brief Therapy with Children and Adolescents ... and their families, schools, etc. was for students in their third year of the four-year diploma in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (and some previous graduates of the diploma course attended as well.
Solution-focused Brief Therapy training in November
The two-day training course Solution-focused Brief Therapy: A Comprehensive Introduction has been conducted by Brief Solutions four times this year - and has been sold-out each time. (Michael has also conducted this same training ten or more times for the Centre for Community Welfare Training and many times for individual teams or organizations).
This training course will be presented for the last time for 2008 in Parramatta on 20 & 21 November.
There are still some places available. Please go to the training page on our web site to register for this course. www.brieftherapysydney.com.au/courses/intro.html
Australian Guidance and Counselling Association presentation
Michael recently did a one-day presentation on Solution-focused Brief Therapy for School Psychologists for the Australian Guidance and Counselling Association, Melbourne Branch.
This workshop, which preceded the AGCA Annual General Meeting, presented an overview of Solution-focused Therapy with the kinds of clients and situations typically encountered by counsellors working in schools.
Resources sneak preview — Therapy DVD
We are in the process of producing a DVD of Solution-focused Brief Therapy which will be available for purchase and will be an invaluable training tool for groups or individuals.
The DVD, which shows Michael in conversation with a young woman in a longstanding struggle with depression and who has had a number of suicide attempts, is a reconstruction of an actual case. The original sessions were videotaped and transcribed, identifying information altered and we are in the process of recreating these sessions using an actor. In this way, we will be able to offer a DVD which shows a "real" case but which avoids potential difficulties with identification and confidentiality.
The DVD will show the complete first session and edited segments of the second and third sessions, showing both significant change and a significant set-back.
The DVD will be available early next year. Details will be on our web site and in our next newsletter.
Resources sneak preview — New book
Also due early in 2009 is Michael's new book Strengths and Solutions: Explorations of strengths, resilience and Solution-focused Brief Therapy.
This book will provide a detailed review of the research on resilience and on the strengths-perspective and the way in which that provides a "background" against which we may understand the Solution-focused Brief approach (while being clear that SFBT is NOT "just" a strengths-based approach). The book then explores the various aspects of Solution-focused Brief Therapy in a comprehensive and systematic way.
Details of the book's publication will be on our web site and in our next newsletter.
Our training calendar for 2009 is being finalised. Details will be on our web site SOON and in our next newsletter.
Go to main Brief Therapy Institute of Sydney web site.
Details of other training are available on our web site at http://www.brieftherapysydney.com.au/training.html
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