Working with Violence and Confrontation Using Solution Focused Approaches

Some problems can seem more intractable and impervious to change efforts than others, and violence is certainly one of these, so it is refreshing to find a book that offers such a positive and hopeful approach to work in this field. Judith Milner and Steve Myers are to be commended for their boldness in showing how solution focused approaches can help people move from problems of violence towards preferred lives, and how such approaches can be used creatively, even at times playfully. Their book provides a cornucopia of useful questions directed at change, while keeping safety in mind, drawing from an interconnecting range of solution focused, brief therapy, narrative and Signs of Safety approaches. The plentiful practice examples and practice activities enhance the book's practical nature, which make it likely that anyone charged with finding solutions in violent situations will find something useful inside these pages. -- Guy Shennan, Independent Consultant in Solution Focused Practice and Chair of the British Association of Social Workers Milner and Myers have drawn on extensive experience of practice and training to offer what for many could be a radically different and more effective way of opening up discussions about actions which are usually too difficult to talk about, let alone change. -- John Wheeler, UKCP Registered Systemic Psychotherapist and President of the International Alliance of Solution Focused Training Institutes