Johnny S. Kim, Ph.D., LCSW, is a professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. Dr. Kim received his master’s degree in social work from Boston College, Ph.D. in social work from the University of Texas at Austin and was a Council on Social Work Education Minority Clinical Fellow. His teaching areas include clinical social work theory and practice, solution-focused brief therapy, and school social work. Dr. Kim’s research focuses on evaluating solution-focused brief therapy, school-based interventions, meta-analysis and evidence-based practice. He has published over 50 articles in peer reviewed journals, book chapters and books. Dr. Kim is a member of the Research Committee for the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Association and serves on the editorial board for several journals. Prior to his doctoral studies, Dr. Kim worked as a school social worker and case manager for community-based mental health agencies in Seattle.

Becky Taylor has been teaching and practicing solution-focused brief therapy for the past 28 years, teaching at the master’s and doctoral levels, supervising students in their practicum and internships, writing about solution focused therapy with children and adolescents, and applying solution-focused therapy primarily with youth, She is a certified teacher, marriage and family therapist, licensed professional counselor, a certified school counselor, and a registered play therapist. She has presented at the SFBT conferences, at the European Brief Therapy Association Conference, and the Solution-Focused World Conference, as well as other local, national, and international forums. Her passion lies in finding strengths and building solutions with children, adolescents, and their families. She wrote a group curriculum 15 years ago for adolescents based on solution-focused brief therapy that has now been used with over 11,000 youth in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.  At the age of 66, she published her first book (demonstrating it is never too late!) entitled Solution-Focused Therapy with Children and Adolescents: Creative and Play-Based Approaches. Then, two years later, she, along with a colleague, were among the first to introduce the seminal approach of solution-focused play therapy in which children use toys and other expressive modalities to communicate their challenges, hopes, and solutions.