Launch of SFCT - the professional body for solution-focused coaches, consultants and managers

Here is the press release about the launch of SFCT: 15 July 2009

A new professional body for Solution Focused (SF) coaches, consultant and managers was launched in May 2009.

SFCT – the Association for the Quality Development of Solution Focused Consulting and Training – offers international professional recognition and standards to anyone using the Solution Focused in business and organisational settings.

SFCT also publishes the InterAction journal, and offers national chapters throughout the world including the UK, Germany and Japan. Full details are on the organisation’s website www.asfct.org.

The non-profit organisation has been founded by a dozen leading SF practitioners, authors and developers with the aim of extending the reach of the distinctive and powerful SF approach, developed by American therapists Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg and others since the 1980s. Over the past ten years it has become an increasingly widely used approach in the worlds of coaching, team development and OD.

Full membership of SFCT is gained by an international review of one of the applicant’s pieces of work. “It’s a little like a driving test”, said co-founder Dr Mark McKergow. “The point is not where you trained, or for how long – it’s whether you can use the approach sensibly in your own situation.” The new standard will also help clients wishing to ensure quality and professionalism.

SFCT’s code of ethics, signed by all members, includes keeping SF practice in the public domain and protecting against any claims of ‘ownership’ of the field.

Membership costs € 50 per year for those signing up in 2009, including two issues of InterAction.

For more details go to the website at www.asfct.org.

Ends

Note to Editors

SFCT is registered in Germany as a non-profit association. The association’s formal address is SFCT, Stefanstrasse 36, 86573 Obergriesbach, Germany. Founder members include

• Kirsten Dierolf, Germany
• Peter Röhrig, Germany
• Horst Reisch, Germany
• Mark McKergow, UK
• Alan Kay, Canada
• Ingrid Reisch, Germany
• Jenny Clarke, UK
• Shaun Lincoln, UK
• Björn Johansson, Sweden
• Danius Baltrusaitis, Lithuania
• Louis Cauffman, Belgium
• Yasuteru Aoki, Japan
• Günter Lueger, Austria

For more details in the UK, contact Mark McKergow (mark@sfwork.com) or Jenny Clarke (jenny@sfwork.com) at the Centre for Solutions Focus at Work, 26 Chrischurch Road, Cheltenham GL50 2PL, 01242 511441.