Linda Metcalf - Counseling Toward Solutions: A Practical, Solution-Focused Program for Working with Students, Teachers, and Parents

An indisputable classic in the fieldnewly updated and more relevant than ever! This book should be read by everyone who works in schools.

Anne Hearon Rambo, professor/director of M.S. Graduate Certificate and Undergraduate Programs, co-author of Doing Well while Doing Good

As Dr. Metcalf says in her introductory note, using the solution focused approach with students and young people isnt just the application of certain tools such as the Miracle Question but about honoring the goodness in people and this attitude informs everything she writes. On practically every page we are treated to fascinating examples of work in schools that clearly demonstrate how we can maintain our hope and respect for our students regardless of the extent of their problems. Dr. Metcalf also puts considerable emphasis on systemic thinking (always, always, always involve the system!), a valuable reminder as to the importance of connecting with teachers and parents. This excellent book will be of great value to everyone working in the field of education.

Harvey Ratner, BRIEF, London, co-author of Solution Focused Brief Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques and Solution Focused Practice in Schools: 80 Ideas and Strategies

Counseling Toward Solutions

This book provides a solution-focused approach to working alongside students, parents, and teachers that decreases misbehaviors, encourages mental health and growth mindset in students, and provides social emotional learning opportunities.

Grounded in the notion that focusing on problems often leads to frustration when tried and true remedies fail, the book provides an efficient and simple three-step approach to having solution-focused conversations with students, parents, and in response to intervention (RTI) and team meetings. This systemic approach enlists the client rather than the counselor to conjure a preferred plan for success, consequently reducing future counseling visits and promoting independent success in students. Each chapter includes a specific topic that was developed from the issues and situations faced by school counselors today, including consideration for working with all students, including LGBTQ students, and those with traumatic experiences or substance abuse.

Complete with specific dialogues for students of all ages, and case studies, this text provides school counselors with a road map to looking beyond problems and seeking solutions with students, creating grit and resilience.

Linda Metcalf, MEd, PhD, is the director of Graduate Counseling Programs at Texas Wesleyan University. She is the author of 11 books and an international presenter on using the solution-focused approach in schools. She is a former middle school teacher and school counselor.

Counseling Toward Solutions

A Practical, Solution-Focused Program for Working with Students, Teachers, and Parents

Linda Metcalf

Illustrations by Ryan Metcalf

First published 2021

by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2021 Linda Metcalf

The right of Linda Metcalf to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

First edition published by the Center for Applied Research in 1995

Second edition published by Wiley in 2008

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-0-367-64091-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-64090-3 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-12212-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by MPS Limited, Dehradun

To educators everywhere, remember that the words you say to students will stay with them for a lifetime say them with empathy and kindness.

To my husband, Roger and our grown children, Roger, Kelli and Ryan, you are still my inspiration.

PART I
Basics Behind the Approach

PART II
Applications of the Approach

As the world and schools have evolved, so has this book evolved. In this third, revised edition, readers will find the same practical and simple explanations about what it means to become a solution-focused school counselor, but with the addition of new material on important issues.

Since the publication of the second edition, there have been school tragedies that have robbed students, parents and teachers of feeling secure in the classroom. The emergence of school violence has caused everyone in our country to take pause and wonder desperately: why is this happening? Social media has become a hallmark in the lives of everyone on a school campus and while many of the opportunities associated with social media have been positive, there have also been challenges. For students dealing with mental health issues, previous, healthier coping mechanisms have morphed into isolative, dangerous ones, leaving school counselors overwhelmed with questions and few answers for teachers and parents.

Yet, in spite of these current challenges, I think it is vital to see the strengths of todays students, teachers and school counselors as they navigate todays schools. Students are still growing, developing into creative generations that will push progress toward incredible outcomes. Instead of spending lots of time pondering over why things have been happening it seems more important to identify the missing links that can connect us together in communities that relate, respect and engage with each other.

You may notice the term, school client is used interchangeably with the words student, teachers or parents. That is due to the similarities of using the model with everyone involved in the schools. Additionally, I have added narrative therapy into the book, a result of my integration of the two models, resulting in a new model, solution focused narrative therapy ().

No matter where you work in schools or who your students are, the ideas in this book will provide a launching pad for making things better for all of you. The approach is about honoring the goodness in people, the successes that occur spontaneously at times and being curious about how, systemically, those successes occur

With deep affection for you, your students, parents and school communities all over the world, I invite you to read this book and begin to feel that sigh of relief so that your day is filled with possibilities rather than distress.

• Metcalf, L. (2017). Solution Focused Narrative Therapy. New York: Springer Publishing.

Linda Metcalf, MEd, PhD, is a former middle school teacher, a certified school counselor, a licensed professional counselor supervisor, and a licensed marriage and family therapist supervisor in the State of Texas. She is the director of Graduate Counseling Programs at Texas Wesleyan University, where she developed a solution-focused school counseling program for graduate students. She is an international presenter who has taught the solution- focused approach to educators and clinicians across the United States, Canada, Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Norway, The Netherlands, Scotland, England, and Germany. She is the author of numerous professional articles and the following books which have been translated into many languages: