Applications and Adaptations

Solution-focused practice can be used by just about anyone in a helping role, though not every activity that a helping professional engages in can be done by using solution-focused practice. For example, I first started to use the approach when I was a social worker, part of whose role concerned safeguarding children, and I regularly asked my solution-focused teachers ‘How do I use it in child protection?’ I now see this in some respects as a misguided question, as the activity at the heart of child protection work is risk assessment, and the solution-focused process does not include an assessment component. It is a process of helping someone move towards a desired outcome either of their own choosing, or which they have agreed to work towards, and it is in this respect that it might help anyone, and to use it you need to be in a context where you can legitimately follow this process. So far, I have mainly explained and illustrated the process in the context of one-to-one help being provided to adults in planned sessions. In this chapter, I will give more of a flavour of the variety of the approach, and so provide and provoke some ideas about how it can be applied in other contexts.