Solution Talk: Hosting Therapeutic Conversations

by Ben Furman and Tapani Ahola

Book Overview

This book represents an addition to the literature on brief therapy. Solution Talk is a term Furman and Ahola use to refer to a constructive and agreeable manner of talking with people about problems. A conversation dominated by solution talk rather than problem talk is characterized by an atmosphere of mutual respect and is likely to focus on the future rather than the past, on resources rather than shortcomings, on success and progress rather than...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393701352
• ISBN13: 9780393701357
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Problem? What Problem?

Keep looking - you MUST have a problem!As you can read in many books (including mine), people tend to get what they want. Unfortunately, most therapists want causes for problems, so ... the patient will get problems. Yet, using jobEQ.com's iWAM test, we consistently see that people prefer to achieve things, to be successful. As Ben Furman will ask you "can you imagine going home to your partner this evening and have a nice chap about your problems?""Solution Talk" is written as provocatively and with more humor than the paragraph above. It presents an alternative way to talk about "problems" and draws on the traditions of family and brief therapy. The book is very compatible with NLP, given the authors refer to many specialists well known to the NLP world, such as Gregory Bateson, Milton Erickson, Frank Farrelly, Jay Haley, ... Everyone who is thinking about visiting a therapist or coach in order to "analyze" what goes wrong should be obliged to read it and so should every therapist. I met Ben Furman at a conference in May 2001 and was pleasantly surprised by his message. It motivated me to buy his book, and I'm glad to recommend it to you.Patrick E.C. Merlevede, MSc - co-author of "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"