Linda Metcalf PhD LPC-S LMFT-S - Solution Focused Narrative Therapy

Solution Focused Narrative Therapy

Linda Metcalf, PhD, LPC-S, LMFT-S, is a professor and director, Graduate Counseling Program, Texas Wesleyan University. She is a licensed professional counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist in Texas and maintains a private practice in the Fort Worth, Texas, area. Dr. Metcalf is a leader in the development and application of solution focused approaches in a wide range of settings and audiences, as well as the practice of marriage and family therapy. She is the author of 10 books for professional and lay audiences, including the best-selling Counseling Toward Solutions: A Practical Solution-Focused Program for Working With Students, Teachers, and Parents, 2nd Edition (2008); Marriage and Family Therapy: A Practice-Oriented Approach (Springer Publishing, 2010), and Solution Focused Group Therapy (2007). Dr. Metcalf has served as president and board member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) as well as president of the Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Additionally, she is the current president of the Association of Solution Focused Practitioners and has presented and trained extensively throughout the United States and internationally, including Australia, Japan, Norway, Germany, United Kingdom, Thailand, Amsterdam, Singapore, and Canada.

Linda Metcalf, PhD, LPC-S, LMFT-S

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Metcalf, Linda, author.

Title: Solution focused narrative therapy / Linda Metcalf.

Description: New York, NY : Springer Publishing Company, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017000290| ISBN 9780826131768 | ISBN 9780826131775 (e-book) | ISBN 9780826132995 (downloadable worksheets)

Subjects: | MESH: Narrative Therapy | Psychotherapy, Brief

Classification: LCC RC489.S74 | NLM WM 420.5.N3 | DDC 616.89/165dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017000290

Printed in the United States of America by Gasch Printing.

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Contents

Contents

by Elliot Connie, LPC

Foreword

First, let me address the elephant in the room: How could I, one of the biggest advocates for practicing the solution focused approach without adding anything else to it, write a foreword for a book like this; one that has at its core the idea that the combination of Solution Focused Brief Therapy and Narrative Therapy would be beneficial. Well, there are two main reasons for my writing this foreword, one simple and one less so. Ill start by explaining the more complicated point, but in order to do so I have to start by explaining how I met Linda Metcalf and came to learn about her work with these two approaches.

It was during my second semester of graduate school. I enrolled in a class with a new professor without any idea of what to expect. By this time I had actually become pretty frustrated with the counseling profession and had all but decided to drop out of school and pursue other interests. My frustration stemmed from the work I was doing at a local agency where I was being mandated to use a very problem-saturated form of therapy in my work. It had the full backing of the powers that be at this agency, who believed this was the only way effective psychotherapy could be done. In fact, I was told that doing anything else would be unethical. These problem focused ways of working never fit with me, and consequently I found the work hard and felt beaten down and overwhelmed by my clients problems. I was beaten down by my own ineptitude.

I wished there was another way, but I was told there was no other way. Then I met Linda.

In that first class, she introduced me to Solution Focused Brief Therapy along with the developers of this approach, Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer. She explained that their work was about hope, change, and even miracles. I was immediately hooked as I finally realized that there was another waya more hopeful wayof working with clients; one that fit with the type of clinician (and person) that I wanted to be. It was as if someone had breathed life back into me, and I wanted to learn as much as I could about this stuff.

Perhaps the most remarkable moment for me was when Linda did a live demonstration in class with one of her actual clients. To say I was amazed would be an understatement. As I am writing this foreword, this event happened more than 11 years ago, but it feels like just yesterday. I can remember the family she saw, how they responded to the questions she asked in session, and the amazing change I saw take place right there in the session. I truly was blown away by what I sawLindas remarkable clinical skill.

I dedicated myself to not just learning the solution focused approach, but to mastering it. I read every book, watched every video, and attended every training opportunity I could find. In time I had two profound realizations. One was that as I studied and practiced this method, the pure and minimalistic way of working with Solution Focused Brief Therapy was how I wanted to practice going forward. I also realized that this was not what Linda was doing, because she was adding something that, at the time, was unknown to me. It was her own and effectively eloquent way of doing Solution Focused Brief Therapy. And as I talked to her about this, she revealed it was Narrative Therapy that she had been adding into her sessions.

That was her secret weapon.

If you look beyond the techniques and look beyond the theory, what lies at the heart of Lindas work is hope. The sort of hope that has impacted her clients and students throughout her career, and I know, as I was once one of them, and seeing that hope changed my life in the most profound ways.