Many solution focused practitioners report that they use solution focus in their everyday lives to help with getting unstuck, making plans for the future, parenting and the workplace. I even created a ‘solution focused divorce’ to ensure the best possible outcome for everyone in the family during a difficult time. I would love to explore how we use solution focus in our lives and whether there is the possibility to create an everyday version of solution focus which can be shared with wider society. Can we change the pathological and problem-focused discourses which lead people to think they need to ‘fix’ themselves and others?
Rayya Ghul is a solution focused practitioner and trainer from the United Kingdom. She originally trained as an occupational therapist and worked in a wide variety of mental health services. Since 2000 she has worked in academia, teaching occupational therapy (with a solution focused flavour) and, more recently, Higher Education learning and teaching. Rayya is the author of ‘The Power of the Next Small Step’, a solution focused self-help book and co-author of ‘Creating Positive Futures: solution focused recovery from mental distress’, a textbook for mental health practitioners. In 2008 she was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, UK. She is a self-described ‘solution focused iconoclast’ and has presented at SF conferences around the world since becoming infected with the SF bug in 1995.