When I was first introduced to the Solution Focused Approach one of the things I instantly began to notice and ultimately love, the fact that it literally changed the way I looked at everything in my world. I became curious about things in a way I had never been before, I started to see exceptions absolutely everywhere and most of all, I began to see the true power of hope and dreams.
I remember applying these ideas to my own life and looking at life events in ways that I had not done before. For example, when I was young, I was an avid baseball player and early on I showed a high skill level and went on to play in high school and college. My high school baseball coach was one of the best coaches I ever played for and in hindsight, looking through this new solution focused lens, it seemed as though he was using solution focused ideas to get the best out of his players. He had a habit of video recording our swings during batting practice and playing back our best swings during a team meeting. This was quite a feat back then as it was before cameras were on every phone and video-editing capabilities came with every computer. One day, I asked him why he showed us only our best swings, instead of showing us the whole batting session, and he said, “Because I only want you to repeat the good ones”. As a consequence of this, we as players enjoyed these sessions and our hitting abilities improved.
Of course, I was not thinking about Solution Focused ideas at the time, but as I look back, I see the use of exceptions in his way of teaching baseball skills. My life is literally littered with examples like this. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this. When you review your life, do you see instances when the ideas that would become a part of your professional life show up during your youth?
This was the idea that led to my first book “The Art of Solution Focused Therapy”. How does learning this approach impact the lives of the learner? What does the learner see when they look through this lens at their earlier years and their current lives?
Warmly,
Elliott Connie
