Solution-Focused Counseling for Eating Disorders Jeffrey T. Guterman Clayton V. Martin Copyright 2012 by Jeffrey T. Guterman and Clayton V. Martin

Objectives  Identify and review the main principles of solution-focused counseling

Objectives  Identify and review solution-focused conceptualizations for eating disorders

Objectives  Identify and review advanced counseling techniques for eating disorders

Objectives  Identify and review multicultural considerations when using solution-focused counseling for clients with eating disorders

Problem / Exception

Stages Coconstrcuting Problems and Goals

Stages Identifying and Amplifying Exceptions

Stages Assigning Tasks

Stages Identifying and Amplifying Exceptions Derived From Tasks

Stages Reevaluating Problems and Goals

Case Example 21-year-old single European American white female referred by physician. Recently hospitalized for severe weight loss, fatigue, and physical weakness. Current episode occasioned by breaking up with fiancé immediately after discovering he was cheating on her. After break-up, client could not make herself eat, even when she was hungry. She often experienced high levels of anxiety when eating or upon thinking about eating.

Exercise A solution-focused approach requires that the counselor begins working with the expectation that clients inherently possess the strengths and the skill sets necessary to identify exceptions to solve their problems, even if they don’t realize this fact at first. In keeping with this principle, we believe that each of you already has what it takes to apply this approach to your work with clients. So, think about a time in your work as a counselor when you were particularly effective at helping a client with an eating disorder to identify and build upon their own exceptions and thereby develop a solution. Feel free to share your answers to the questions below with the group. You can write you answer on the handout if you like. ● What did you do to help the client identify and build on exceptions? ● What skills did you use?  How did you act differently in this case as compared to other cases?  What was different in this counseling relationship?