Toward Solutions Podcast

In this episode of Toward Solutions 2.0, we catch up with Ayse Adil, who first joined us back in Episode 7, and meet her co-founder Joe Lettieri. Together they run Family Based Solutions, a charity that grew out of a single case when they discovered child-to-parent abuse and realised there was almost nothing out there to support the families living with it.

Ayse and Joe share how their new book on child-to-parent abuse and a solution-focused approach, published by Routledge, came about and what they hope it offers families who feel too ashamed to come forward, and the professionals trying to support them. Built around real case studies, each chapter draws out a different solution-focused assumption, from problem free talk to best hopes, brought to life through the families they have worked with. Along the way they talk honestly about the reality of family work, knowing when not to be solution focused, and why they no longer see themselves as Solution Focused purists.

Whether you work with families, support young people, or simply care about having good conversations, this one is for you.

Get the book

Understanding Child to Parent Abuse: Recovery through Solution-Focused Brief Therapy by Ayse Adil and Joseph Lettieri (Routledge, 2026)

Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Understanding-Child-to-Parent-Abuse-Recovery-through-Solution-Focused-Brief-Therapy/Adil-Lettieri/p/book/9781041224082

Also on Amazon and through all major booksellers.

Find out more about Ayse and Joe

Family Based Solutions: https://familybasedsolutions.org.uk

Email: [email protected]

Ayse Adil: https://linkedin.com/in/ayse-adil-9b3438153

Joe Lettieri: https://linkedin.com/in/joe-lettieri-bem-694876316

Facebook: https://facebook.com/familybasedsolutions

Instagram: @fbsolutions_

If you got value from this podcast, please leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform.

If you got value from this podcast, please leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform.   

In this rich and thought-provoking episode, we sit down with Elvira Kalmar, founder of the Go Beyond Project and a solution-focused organisation development and design consultant, to explore what happens when a solution-focused mindset meets the messy, complex work of transforming organisations.

Elvira has spent over 20 years working in and with organisations, and around 15 years ago discovered Solution Focus through a team coaching course with the Hungarian Solution Surfers. From that first moment, she started experimenting with taking the approach beyond individual and team coaching and into whole-company change, eventually leaving the corporate world to become an external consultant. She is now the author of the two-book Go Beyond: Solution-Focused Pocket Mentor for Work Evolutionists series, and runs the internationally accredited Native in Change course through the Go Beyond Project, teaching solution-focused organisation development and design in English, German and Hungarian.

In this conversation we explore:

• Why the solution-focused approach is "mind-blowingly different" for organisational change, and why so many transformations fail because they spend all their time diagnosing the problem instead of co-creating the preferred future
• The five parallel realities at play in every organisation - formal, informal, value-creating, legal and digital - and why so many change efforts fail because they try to solve every problem in the wrong one
• Why Elvira prefers the word "evolution" to "transformation," and how small, confidence-building steps compound into much bigger change than one big forced leap
• The four-part "calibration meeting" Elvira uses with teams: acknowledging what's been achieved, acknowledging individual contribution, a solution-focused stop/start/continue, and agreeing the next deliverables
• Why AI can only ever be as good as the notes and data you feed it, and what gets lost when you skip the human noticing

A simple tool you can try tomorrow: asking what your customers or clients would notice before asking what needs to change

This is a conversation about trust, permission, and the small experiments that add up to real evolution, whether you're leading a team of five or trying to shift an entire organisation.

🎧 If you enjoy this episode, please leave us a review on your favourite platform. It really helps more people find these great conversations.

Show Notes Resources

Elvira's Books

Go Beyond: Solution-Focused Pocket Mentor for Work Evolutionists, Book 1: Start Transformations Today by Elvira Kalmar (SolutionSurfers)

Go Beyond: Solution-Focused Pocket Mentor for Work Evolutionists, Book 2: Support the Evolution of Complex Systems by Elvira Kalmar (SolutionSurfers)

Both books, reviews, and ordering info: gobeyond-project.com/resources/book

The Go Beyond Project

Courses, consultancy and mentoring with Elvira and her trained team: gobeyond-project.com

Native in Change

Elvira's internationally accredited Solution-Focused Organisation Development and Design course, run in English, German and Hungarian: gobeyond-project.com/native-in-change

Go Beyond Consultancy

Book a free mentoring session with one of Elvira's trained consultants: gobeyond-project.com/consultancy

Connect with Elvira

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/elvira-kalmár-5b74661a

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In this wide-ranging and quietly moving episode, we sit down with Dr Gil Greene, Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University's College of Social Work, after a thirty-eight-and-a-half-year academic career, and one of the field's most dedicated (and best-read) students of Solution Focus.

Gil found his way to the approach the long way round: starting in psychiatric social work at a Veterans Administration hospital in Nashville, through transactional analysis and Gestalt therapy, into the work of Milton Erickson and the Mental Research Institute, and eventually to Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg's work in Milwaukee. Along the way he built one of the largest personal libraries of Solution Focused material anywhere, and has spent decades writing, teaching, and researching the approach from every angle.

In this conversation we explore:

• How Gil discovered Solution Focus through the Mental Research Institute lineage, and why the approach "sold itself" once he saw the results
• The neuroscience of change: Hebb's principle, neurons that fire together wire together, and why simply asking someone to imagine a different future is a genuinely creative act
• Why we can never unilaterally empower a client, and what a truly collaborative, co-created conversation looks like instead
• Gil's recent work connecting Solution Focus to patient activation and resource activation research in healthcare settings
• The simplest and most powerful lesson from nearly fifty years of practice: go slow

This is a conversation that moves from history to neuroscience to the kind of hard-won, practical wisdom that only comes from decades in the room with people. Whether you are brand new to Solution Focus or have been practicing for years, there is something here worth sitting with.

🎧 If you enjoy this episode, please leave us a review on your favourite platform. It really helps more people find these great conversations.

Show Notes Resources

Gil's Books

Coaching for Person-Centred Healthcare: A Solution-Focused Approach to Collaborative Care by Elaine Cook, Gilbert J. Greene, and Joanne Maxwell (Routledge, 2024)

Routledge: routledge.com/Coaching-for-Person-Centred-Healthcare-A-Solution-Focused-Approach-to-Collaborative-Care/Cook-Greene-Maxwell/p/book/9781032539560

Solution-Oriented Social Work Practice: An Integrative Approach to Working with Client Strengths by Gilbert J. Greene and Mo Yee Lee (Oxford University Press, 2011)

Oxford University Press: global.oup.com/ushe/product/solution-oriented-social-work-practice-9780195162622

Integrative Family and Systems Treatment: A Strengths-Based Common Factors Approach (Oxford University Press), co-developed by Gil Greene with Mo Yee Lee and colleagues

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In this warm, curious and quietly profound episode, we head off into the unknown with Dr Stephan Natynczuk, a self-employed academic, accredited counsellor, and Solution Focused practitioner who takes useful conversations outdoors. Stephan has spent decades co-adventuring for change with young people in forests, rivers, caves and on mountainsides.

Stephan started out as a scientist, studying social odours in mammals, before following his curiosity into experiential education, the care sector, and eventually training with BRIEF. What ties it all together is a simple mission he names without grandeur: to generate contributors to a better world. 

This is a conversation full of stories, gentle wisdom, and the kind of practical insight that only comes from doing the work for real.

In this conversation we explore:

• The low visibility navigation metaphor for change: knowing where you are, where you've been, and being able to picture exactly what it will look like when you arrive
• Why Stephan rarely explains Solution Focus and instead just gets on with it, asking the questions and seeing what happens
• Leave No Trace as an ethic borrowed from the outdoors, and what it means to do the work with people rather than to them
• Why his parting advice for a good conversation is simply to listen hard and be curious

Whether you work outdoors, sit in a therapy room, lead a team, or simply care about having better conversations, this one is for you.

🎧 If you enjoy this episode, please leave us a review on your favourite platform. It really helps more people find these great conversations.

Show Notes Resources

Connect with Stephan

• Website: sparekrab.com
• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stephannatynczuk

Stephan's Book
Solution-Focused Practice in Outdoor Therapy: Co-Adventuring for Change by Will W. Dobud and Stephan Natynczuk (Routledge, 2023). Available to order online via Routledge, Amazon, and most major booksellers (print on demand). A free field manual is available with purchase of the book. 

• Routledge (publisher): https://www.routledge.com/Solution-Focused-Practice-in-Outdoor-Therapy-Co-Adventuring-for-Change/Dobud-Natynczuk/p/book/9781032108810
• Amazon (paperback): https://www.amazon.com/Solution-Focused-Practice-Outdoor-Therapy-Dobud/dp/1032108819

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Toward Solutions 2.0 is a second series running alongside our usual monthly show - same passion for Solution Focus, different format. Shorter conversations, a little less structured, and a lot more wide-ranging. We catch up with past guests to follow the ripples, and we bring in new voices too; coaches, therapists, leaders, educators, and practitioners applying Solution Focus across all kinds of different contexts.

Think of it as the conversations that happen after the main event. The ones over coffee, at the edge of a conference, or on a random Tuesday when someone has something worth saying.

If you're new here, the main Toward Solutions series is a great place to start. If you've been with us for a while - welcome to 2.0.

Andrew Gibson was our second ever guest, and that conversation quietly set something in motion.

Andrew is a coach, trainer, and Solution Focus practitioner based in Leeds, UK. He came back to tell us a story, about a stranger at a conference in Belgium, a talk with no slides, an afternoon in a garden in the Netherlands, and how all of it traces back to an episode of this podcast recorded a year earlier. The result is a brand new book: The Essence of Solution-Focused Practice 485 words that distil what Andrew believes Solution Focus actually is at its core. You can read it in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

Get the book 

Single copies: amazon.com/dp/191677668X 

Bulk orders: contact Andrew directly

Find out more about Andrew 

andrew-gibson.com linkedin.com/in/growthbusinesscoach 

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In this warm, rich and deeply practical episode, we sit down with Vicky Essebag — therapist, educator, coach, and founder of Relation Spaces — to explore what happens when Solution Focus moves into the heart of school communities. 

Vicky has spent decades working across the school system — as a teacher, counsellor, and administrator — and what she's seen is remarkable. Fewer suspensions. More engaged students. Teachers who stay past the bell. Parents who show up. Administrators who stop butting heads and start co-creating. 

In this conversation we explore: 

• Why Solution Focus is just as much a communicative model as a therapeutic one
• What it really looks like to bring SF into classrooms, staffrooms, and leadership teams
• Her six principles of Relational Spaces — and how they help parents, teachers and administrators get into a solution focused mindset fast
• The ripple effect of SF in schools: fewer suspensions, more engaged students, teachers who stay past the bell, and parents who show up
• Why asking a struggling young person "how come nobody ever told you how kind you are?" can change everything

Whether you work in schools, lead organisations, or simply care about how we talk to young people — this one is for you.
 
🎧 If you enjoy this episode, please leave us a review on your favourite platform. It really helps more people find these great conversations.
 
 
Connect with Vicky

• Website: relationspaces.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Podcast with Tara Gretton: School Solutions Talk 
• YouTube: youtube.com/@VickyEssebag

Vicky's Book Relationspaces: A Solution-Focused Handbook for Parents — available on Amazon
 

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In this practical and engaging episode, we connect with Annette Gray to explore what it really takes to create meaningful change in people, teams, and systems.

Annette is a leadership development consultant and leadership coach. 

In our conversation Annette reflects on how her thinking has evolved — from seeing Solution Focus as something that sits alongside coaching, to recognising it as the coaching approach. A way of working that centres on asking more and telling less.

Drawing on her experience across global organisations, leadership programs, and high-pressure environments, Annette shares how Solution Focus cuts through complexity, helping people quickly identify what’s wanted and take steps toward it. She highlights how leaders often grasp the approach immediately and are able to apply it in their everyday conversations.

Together, we explore how small shifts in language and attention can build ownership, strengthen relationships, and support more collaborative ways of working — not just in one-to-one conversations, but across whole systems.

Here’s what we explore:

•  Why Solution Focus works well in complex and fast-paced environments 
•  How leaders can apply the approach immediately in their day-to-day work
•  Moving from telling to asking in leadership conversations  
•  The role of co-creation and curiosity in creating sustainable change 
•  Working with people, rather than trying to fix them 

This episode offers a clear and practical look at Solution Focus as a way of working — with accessible and immediately usable insights are.

You can find out more and get in touch with Annette at https://www.annettegray.com.au/ 

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In this thought provoking, confronting and practical episode, we are privileged to speak with Victoria Spashchenko— intercultural coach, trainer, and author — about the power of small shifts, daily practices, and what it means to live a Solution Focused life.

Drawing on years of work with educators, businesses and public service, Victoria shares how the Solution Focused approach shapes her conversations, her mindset, and her way of being. From coaching and facilitation to national mental health programs, she reflects on how the language of strength, progress, and potential can quietly transform how we work and connect with others.

We explore:

• How Solution Focused principles can show up in journalism, education, and national wellbeing programs
• What it means to practise “glimmering” — and how to train your attention toward moments of hope and connection
• The difference between using Solution Focused tools and embodying a Solution Focused stance
• Why pausing to notice strengths can lead to better decisions and braver actions
• How everyday conversations can become spaces for presence, perspective, and possibility

This conversation is full of practical ideas and grounded wisdom — offering a clear example of how Solution Focused practice can be lived, shared, and sustained over time.

Find out more about Victoria here 

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In this playful and precise episode of the Towards Solutions podcast, we sit down with Paul Z. Jackson — author, improviser, and co-creator of The Solutions Focus — to explore what it means to build on what’s working and invite change through conversation.

From his roots in journalism and theatre to decades of coaching and consulting, Paul brings a rare blend of performance, clarity, and practical insight. Together, we dive into:

• The power of saying “yes, and…” — and why improvisation matters in leadership and coaching
• How lightness, precision, and curiosity can turn any moment into a chance for movement
• The discipline of noticing — and how to work with what’s already present
• What Solution Focused practice offers when we resist the urge to solve and instead choose to build

Paul reminds us that transformative conversations don’t need to be dramatic — they just need to start from where you are, with what you have.

Whether you’re coaching a team, leading through uncertainty, or simply wanting better conversations, this episode offers clarity, humour, and plenty of moments that will stay with you.

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In this vibrant and energising episode of Toward Solutions, we sit down with Ayse Adil — co-founder of Family Based Solutions — to explore what it means to stay truly client-led.

Ayse shares her journey from early scepticism (“I thought Solution Focus was wishy-washy!”) to becoming a passionate and creative advocates. Drawing on her experience with families, young people, survivors, and those who have used violence, she shows how Solution Focus can flex to meet the moment — even in silence.

Together, we explore how a light touch, a strong intuition, and deep respect can unlock new possibilities, even in complex or high-risk situations. Ayse introduces her metaphor of the “brain librarian,” the surprising power of silent sessions, and how humour, humility, and courage to improvise can shift everything.

We explore:

• Moving from scepticism to living Solution Focus as a way of being
• Preparing families to move from problem-focus to possibility-focus
• Adapting Solution Focus to work with survivors, perpetrators, and children
• Letting go of being “strictly Solution Focus” to stay truly client-led
• Why silence, humour, and mistakes can lead to real change

Ayse’s warmth, honesty, and creativity shine in this conversation.

Find out more about Ayse's work at https://familybasedsolutions.org.uk/ 

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