The practice was founded in 1989 by Evan George, Chris Iveson and Harvey Ratner.
At the time they were working together in an NHS mental health service for children
and adults. They were working as family therapists and contributing to many of
the family therapy training programmes in Britain.
They came across the beginnings of solution focused brief therapy in one of
the family therapy journals and decided to try it out. It worked as well
as or better than anything they had previously done and they began to
include it in their teaching. Within two years they were being invited
all over the country to run courses in solution focused brief therapy
and in 1995 established their own clinic and training centre. While still
within the NHS the team was joined by Jane Lethem, a clinical psychologist,
and Yasmin Ajmal, an educational psychologist. Jane Lethem still works
mainly for the NHS but continues to make a contribution to the Practice
as a therapist and trainer. Yasmin Ajmal now works exclusively with the
Practice. Diana Iveson is a therapist with the Practice but works mainly
as a family therapist within the NHS.
Guy Shennan has worked within Social Services departments, the NHS and
the voluntary sector. He has many years experience working with children
& families, and has also worked in the field of adult mental health.
He has been instrumental in the introduction of the Signs of Safety model
to the UK, a solution oriented approach to child protection practice .
All Practice members are accredited either through the British Psychological Society
or the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy. Solution focused brief
therapy itself is not yet officially accredited largely because it has not
been in existence long enough for the process to have been undertaken. Its
credibility therefore rests on the substantial research evidence that backs
it up.
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