Counseling Toward Solutions: A Practical Solution-Focused Program for Working with Students, Teachers, and Parents [Paperback]

Linda Metcalf (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1995 | ISBN-10: 0787966290 | ISBN-13: 978-0787966294 | Edition: 1

Step by step, Counseling Toward Solutions shows how to help individual students begin their own change process by noticing when a problem does not occur rather than focusing on the problem or what caused it. This approach— called Solution-Focused Brief Therapy— is often used by private counselors and therapists and is now being applied in the schools with great success.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

For counselors and teachers at all levels, here is a new, positive program for changing individual behavior that helps empower students of all ages to deal with their own problems and gain self-esteem in the process.

Step by step, Counseling Toward Solutions shows how to help individual students begin their own change process by noticing when a problem does not occur rather than focusing on the problem or what caused it. This approach— called Solution-Focused Brief Therapy— is often used by private counselors and therapists and is now being applied in the schools with great success.

You'll find guidelines for dealing with specific problems ranging from incomplete homework to abuse and depression...techniques to develop small group dynamics...and ways to help staff other than counselors use the approach...plus over 80 reproducible student handout pages and dozens of delightful illustrations throughout.

For easy use, this resource is organized into nine chapters, from "Changing Our Thinking to a Solution Focus" to "A Solution Focused School Staff," and printed in a big spiral-bound format that folds flat for photocopying of full-page forms and handouts.

Here are just a few of the outstanding features you'll find in this practical new resource:

• A process for identifying exceptions to a student's negative behavior
• Actual case examples representing a wide range of behavior problems in school settings
• Dialog of what to say and questions to ask
• Guidelines for using the power of language to describe problems in a normal context to make them more solvable
• Specific strategies for parent conferences and student-teacher problem resolution

Also included are directions for adapting solution-focused brief therapy to group settings and a handy appendix packed with additional cartoons, quotations and ideas suitable for classroom bulletin boards, certificates of success, and note-writing examples for teachers, students and parents.

In short, Counseling Toward Solutions gives you virtually everything you need to start using this innovative approach today to help your students begin taking control of— and responsibility for— their own behavior and their lives.

About the Author

Linda Metcalf, Ph.D., is a licensed marriage and family therapist, a former teacher and school counselor, and currently a lecturer at the University of Texas at Arlington. She is also the author of Teaching Toward Solutions (1998) and Parenting Toward Solutions (1996), published by The Center for Applied Research in Education. Dr. Metcalf is in private practice in Arlington, where she lives with her husband and three teenage children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787966290
• ISBN-13: 978-0787966294
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,017,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Linda Metcalf, Ph.D., is a former Classroom Teacher, Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She is the author of ten books on solution focused therapy. Her research interests include relationship building between teacher and student, the use of solution focused therapy in regard to special education referrals, sexual abuse and addictions. Dr. Metcalf has presented her work extensively throughout the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Norway, Germany, and UK. She is a Professor in the Department of Education at Texas Wesleyan University, and Coordinator of the School Counseling Program. She is also the President of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful strategies for counseling in the school environment, April 25, 2000

By 

Ann Terrill-Torrez - See all my reviews

This review is from: Counseling Toward Solutions: A Practical Solution-Focused Program for Working with Students, Teachers, and Parents (Spiral-bound)

Ms. Metcalf's strategies for applying solution-focused approaches with students, faculty,parents and administrators create a powerful vision for changing the fabric of school culture through utilizing the strengths and successes already present and happening every day in every school. I found this book a refreshing and thought provoking alternative to hiring expensive consultants to fix our schools. Second - order change at its best!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A helpful resource for school counselors, April 4, 2009

By 

Liana Lowenstein "Liana Lowenstein, author of... (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Counseling Toward Solutions: A Practical Solution-Focused Program for Working with Students, Teachers, and Parents (Jossey-Bass Teacher) (Paperback)

This book is an invaluable resource for school counselors seeking creative techniques to use with children. Practical and useable. Readers may also be interested in the following books:


Innovative Strategies for Unlocking Difficult Children: Attention Seekers, Manipulative Students, Apathetic Students, Hostile Students


Assessment and Treatment Activities for Children, Adolescents, and Families: Practitioners Share Their Most Effective Techniques


Assessment and Treatment Activities for Children, Adolescents, and Families VOLUME TWO: Practitioners Share Their Most Effective Techniques


Creative Interventions for Troubled Children & Youth


More Creative Interventions for Troubled Children and Youth


School-Based Play Therapy

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy Customer!, February 5, 2008

By 

A. Schwaab - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Counseling Toward Solutions: A Practical Solution-Focused Program for Working with Students, Teachers, and Parents (Paperback)

Fast shipping...excellent condition! If you are a counselor or educator this book is wonderful. I love it!