A solution focused group for parents

My article on the parenting groups that I ran at Kobi Nazrul School in Whitechapel with their learning mentor, Bettina Dobb, was published in Context, the magazine of the Association of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice, in December 2011.

We ran two groups during the 2010-11 school year and learned loads from doing them. And (more importantly) they turned out to be useful to the parents who attended, who I interviewed after the end of the second group, the results of these interviews being part of the content of the article.

One thing I really enjoyed was following Bettina’s lead in recruiting and preparing for the groups, which happened in a more relaxed, informal and word-of-mouth way than if I had been in charge of that bit. What we were doing in effect was drawing upon the solution-focused principle of doing what works. Bettina had set up numerous groups for parents at the school and she knew what worked at Kobi Nazrul. Thanks to Wendy Hick the headteacher as well as to Bettina for facilitating the solution focused work I’ve been doing at the school – Wendy’s coaching training and enthusiasm for solution focused practice and just about everything else has helped no end. I’m looking forward to working with the school further – next step, piloting the SF cartooning workshop there with Tim Sanders!

Thanks to Brian Cade and to AFT for permission to put the Context article onto the site.