Netherlands

SF supporting a systems change in local government

Paut-Kromkamp & els-de-beurden Introduced by Géry Derbier Once upon a time in the Netherlands, the Dutch government promulgated a new welfare and social services law… This law begins the fascinating story of a huge paradigm shift at the scale of an organisation caring for a population of 60000+ people.

Transforming a mental health care organisation with SF

Sieds Rienks, Bjorn-Ceresa Introduced by John Brooker Trust goes a long way. In this interview Bjorn describes how practicing the SF belief that professionals have all the skills they need to do their job, improved care and treatment at GGZ Oost Brabant despite severe budget-cuts, a shortage in health-care professionals and large reforms in the Dutch social health care system. The Conversation Please Bjorn, tell me a little bit about your new job Starting this January, I will be member of the board of Proteion, an organisation that provides homecare for people living in the most southern part of the Netherlands. Proteion offers a wide range of care, ranging from specialised medical care to basic home care for people, so that they are able to stay in their own homes. Proteion also provides residential care, again ranging from basis care to specialised high-intensive medical care.

SF Practice in Workforce Development

Inge-Nijkamp, John Brooker A Fresh Eye – Introduction Most of us want to learn from the masters, the long experienced, to help us refine our work. Yet, for people new to SF, it is perhaps encouraging and useful to learn how other inexperienced people have approached their work using SF. For more experienced practitioners, beginners can bring a fresh eye and perhaps introduce novel ways of using SF. As such, we aim to highlight this work whenever we can.

The Mindsetter

Gesa Döringer Come and play! The Mindsetter Game© is an innovative solution-focused intervention Gesa Doringer has developed to apply the SF approach in therapy or coaching and teach it in workshops and training. Due to its size of 2x2m and being played on the floor, The Mindsetter literally holds space for clients and their desired future. It has also proven effective in setting the stage for new ideas and first steps towards the client’s desired outcome. There are two versions of The Mindsetter available. The FIRST version is for teaching SF. This version facilitates an active knowledge acquisition of students or practitioners learning SF or in team supervision. Practitioners invite participants to reflect on four of the basic tenets of this approach and discuss the implications of these tenets in the context of their professional environment. They do this in an SF manner:

SF Conflict Management in Teams and in Organisations

An Introduction to Fredrike Bannink Introduced by Carey Glass This choice of Treasured Article goes right back to the first publication of InterAction in May 2009; Solution Focused Conflict Management in Teams and in Organisations by Frederike Bannink. Chosen for its elegance of description, it illuminates the Solution Focused approach to conflict resolution simply and clearly, provides a pure table of differences between Solution Focus and a problem-focused approach and is accompanied by a brief, easily followed case study.

"Simplifying working routines"

In the period of April and May 2020 we did a wonderful project at MentalHelpers Ons Dorp. They asked us if the working routines in the psychiatric clinic (mainly ambulatory, not clinical) could be simplified, more fluent and easier to change by workers and patients. Getting that the chance for better results and outcome could be much bigger than before the project.

Post Conference Retreat

We will host a post-conference from the evening of May 17th to 19th, 2025, for three nights in Land aan Zee, Netherlands.The intent of the retreat is to unwind together after the Conference in a different setting, allowing people to connect more deeply. This calm setting provides an opportunity to discuss topics of interest from the Conference in more depth as well as a chance to connect with members of the community for those who travel a long way to the conference.