Introducing
Brief Therapy Solutions

Brief Therapy Solutions provides a range of professional counselling and social and behavioural skill development interventions with a focus on working collaboratively with clients. BTS aims to reduce the impact of challenging and dangerous behaviours on families in both the home and community settings. Parent groups are available on a regular basis and specifically focus on parenting children with challenging behaviours. BTS will take referrals from individuals and professionals living or located in South West Sydney, Southern Highlands and Illawarra regions on a fee for service basis.

Brief Therapy Solutions also provides professional supervision and training in the areas of family work, solution oriented interventions and working with challenging children.

Dr. Steven Walker is the  founder and Director of Brief Therapy Solutions. Dr. Walker is a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers and an Accredited Social Worker. He has completed his undergraduate studies in Youth Work and graduated from the University of New South Wales with a Bachelor of Social Work. Steve completed his Master of Social Work and PhD. at Monash University, Melbourne.

Dr. Walker's Doctoral Research at Monash University was a qualitative study focusing on how clients' made use of their experience of therapy in conjunction with events and others outside therapy. The emphasis of the study was on how clients' achieve therapy goals and how others help.

Steve's professional practice has included the NSW Public Health System as a generalist hospital and community health Social Worker in both rural New South Wales and Metropolitan Sydney. Steve has also worked in remote area Mental Health. Steve has experience in community and residential youth settings, juvenile justice, intensive family therapy and child protection as well as disabilities. Following completion of his Master of Social Work he has increased his lecturing and training load with an emphasis on Solution Focussed Therapy, Strengths Based approaches, Intensive Family Work and Collaborative Problem Solving approaches.

Our Mission

To provide a high quality evidence based assessment and therapeutic social work service to families and individuals experiencing challenging and  seriously disruptive behaviours.

We achieve this by:

• Working with our client's natural environment, including home, school and community,

• Using current practice research and innovative practice strategies,

• Working in partnership with our clients and other service providers.

Services in Summary

Individual, Family and Group Work

• Crisis Assessment and Referral Clinic - for Families

• The Single Session.

• Individual Therapy Sessions.

• The In-Home Family Intervention. Our specialty supporting positive change to serious and dangerous behaviours.

• Mentoring, Modelling and Social Support Programme (MMSSP).

Professional Supervision and Training

BTS offers a range of supervision and workshop opportunities to professional counsellors and therapists.

Brief Therapy Solutions offers professional supervision and training for Social Workers, Welfare Workers, Youth Workers and other helping professionals, who as part of their practice work with individuals and families, and are interested in developing their Solution Focused and General counselling expertise.

The Theory Behind
the Practice

As you investigate this site you will have the opportunity to consider the elements of Brief Solution Focussed Therapy (BSFT) within the context of 'what works' in psychotherapy (counselling) generally. There has been considerable research over 40 years or so that, in total suggests 4 areas of 'what works' related to positive outcomes (Bergin and Garfield, 1994; Miller, Hubble and Duncan, 1995, 1999;). Positive outcomes are related to around 15% Technique, 15% Placebo or expectance, 30% Client/ therapist relationship and 40% Everything else outside therapy (extra-therapeutic events). I have outlined these four areas in Article 2.

Brief Solution Focussed Therapy (BSFT) has continued to develop from the mid eighties and has been influenced and in turn influenced the thinking around how to work with people in a different way. BSFT along with other approaches including, Narrative Therapy and Appreciative Inquiry to name a few, has its fundamental philosophy represented in Strength Based practice. The Strength Based view of the world is the foundation of Solution Focussed work providing a description of the underpinning philosophical view that is essential to good solution focussed practice.

Saleebey (1992) argues that using Strength Based approaches require the practitioner to have “ a deep belief in the necessity of democracy and the contingent capacity of people to participate in the decisions and actions that define their world. (P8)”

Saleebey(1992) identifies several assumptions that underpin strengths based work, these include:

• Respecting client’s strengths: All people have strengths that they can mobilise to make their lives better;

• Motivation to change is enhanced by building on and acknowledging strengths;

• Cooperation is essential and is a process of exploring strengths;

• Focussing on strengths focuses the work on survival and how this has been achieved;

• The client in their environment is the key to change as the environment contains resources (Saleebey:1992).

Hence, Strengths Based ideology is the cornerstone to good solution focussed practice.

Collaborative Problem Solving Strategies are also pivotal in the work of BTS. Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) strategies used by BTS draw upon the work of Dr Ross Greene and associates and consider challenging behaviours as emerging from learning deficit and not as deliberate, planned and purposeful acts. Support goes to the parents and carers to teach their children better strategies to manage behaviour over time.

Bergin, A. and Garfield, S. (Eds) (1994) Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behaviour Change, John Wiley and Sons, NY.  
Greene, Ross. (2005) The Explosive Child, Harper Collins Publishing NY.
Hubble, M. Duncan, B. and Miller, S. (1999) The Heart and Soul of Change, American Psychological Association, Washington DC
Miller, S. Hubble, B and Duncan, M (1995) No More Bells and Whistles, Family Therapy Networker, March/ April. pp53-63.
Saleebey, D. (ED)(1992) The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice. NY: Longman. p8.

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