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SFBTA
SFBTA

SFBTA Research Awards

The SFBTA Research Awards are aimed at fostering the growth of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy by encouraging original research in solution-focused practices, and to support students, faculty, researchers, and clinicians who wish to study solution-focused practices. The inclusion of clinicians is an effort to bridge the gap between research and practice in advancing knowledge of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.

See 2026 Submission Guidelines

SFBTA Research Awards

The SFBTA Research Awards are aimed at fostering the growth of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy by encouraging original research in solution-focused practices, and to support students, faculty, researchers, and clinicians who wish to study solution-focused practices. The inclusion of clinicians is an effort to bridge the gap between research and practice in advancing knowledge of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.

See 2026 Submission Guidelines

2025 SFBTA Research Award Winners

Winning proposal: “Psychometric Validation of the Solution-Focused Alliance Dynamic Scale (SFADS): Capturing the Core Dynamics of Solution-Focused Collaboration: A Cross-Cultural Study”



Dr. Arnoud Huibers accepting SFBTA Research Award 2025 on behalf of his team from Research Committee Chairperson Dr. Mo Yee Lee at the Awards Banquet of the SFBTA Annual Conference, Toronto, Ontario, on November 8, 2025. Co-researchers Dr. Vasundharaa Santhosh Nair and Dr. Jeff Chang were unable to attend.

Recipients:

Dr. Jeff Chang

Is a psychologist, professor emeritus of psychology, clinical supervisor, speaker/workshop leader, consultant, and author, living and working in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He has a master’s degree in counselling psychology from Simon Fraser University and a PhD in counselling psychology from the University of Calgary. Dr. Chang is a Registered Psychologist in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, a Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), and a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist Supervisor Mentor with the Canadian Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (CAMFT). As a Registered Psychologist for over thirty-five years, he’s worked in child and adolescent mental health programs as a front-line therapist, clinical supervisor, and program director; employee assistance programs; private practice; and instructor or professor in eight post-secondary institutions. He is currently at Athabasca University in the Master of Counselling Program at the Calgary Family Therapy Centre where he conducts international training and research. 

Dr. Arnoud Huibers

Dr. Arnoud Huibers is a licensed consultant psychologist, psychotherapist, and family and couples therapist. He was educated at the University of Utrecht and the Academic Medical Centre of Utrecht. He specialised in solution-focused therapy under the direct mentorship of Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, founders of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). Renowned for his impactful training programs, Arnoud has taught across Europe, India, China, Mexico, Peru, the Caribbean, and South Africa. He is a founding member of the Academy of Solution-Focused Approaches and Research (ASFAR), Director of the Solutions Centre in Soesterberg, Netherlands, and an active member of several professional organizations, including NIP, NVRG (where he also serves as a supervisor), VKJP, VEN, and LVVP.

Dr. Vasundharaa S Nair

Dr. Vasundharaa S Nair is an Assistant Professor, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and Deputy Director for the Centre for Community Mental Health (CCMH) at Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences JIBS – OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India. She completed her MPhil and PhD from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in 2023. Her doctoral research focused on developing a checklist of the various social determinants of health associated with brain infections, along with guidelines for care. She is a trained psychotherapist providing care for psychiatric and neurological conditions at individual and family levels. She is currently engaged in research focused on child development, building mental health support groups for students, exploring social determinants of health, and addressing climate change, among other topics. She has received grants from the NIHR, APYE, UGC, and other organisations, among others. She has been awarded at various national and international platforms for her papers and contributions and has published papers in PubMed/Scopus-indexed national and international journals of repute. 

2024 SFBTA Research Award Winners

Dr. Kim Wale

Dr. Kim Wale, in Post-Conflict Development Studies, serves as a lecturer at the Varsity College, a research fellow at the University of Stellenbosch in the Republic of South Africa and works there as a counsellor for Lifeline and in private practice. She has authored and co-authored a number of scholarly articles, book chapter and books on various topics. She is a PhD (SOAS - University of London), Mphil (Diversity Studies - UCT), BSoc Sci Hons (Psychological Counselling - Unisa), BSocSci Hons (Development Studies - UCT),  a Registered Specialist Wellness Counsellor ASCHP (Association for Supportive Counsellors and Holistic Practitioners). Dr. Wale is a Research Fellow Centre for the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest (AVReQ), Stellenbosch University.

Research Award Topic: Exploring the process of “imaginative work” in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Applying the Miracle Question to new mothers navigating the journey of matrescence

This research aims to explore and evaluate the role of “imaginative work” in the application of the miracle question during Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) with new mothers navigating maternal identity transition (matrescence). Maternal psychology literature emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the challenges, tensions and losses involved in maternal identity transition. However, from a solution-focused perspective it is also important that new mothers are allowed a space to imagine and construct their ideal future motherhood selves that they are in the process of becoming. This project aims to explore how this process of imaginative work (imagining and co-constructing a shared new reality through language) is facilitated through the therapeutic dialogue that unfolds after the miracle question is asked. Methodologically it will apply a combined qualitative micro-analysis of SFBT sessions with retrospective post-therapy qualitative interviews with 6-8 new mothers navigating the challenges of matrescence. Ultimately the hope is that findings will contribute to the SFBT literature by illuminating the process of “imaginative work” and that these insights may be usefully applied to therapeutic interventions in maternal health and wellbeing.

2023 SFBTA Research Award Winners

Dr. Jacqueline Corcoran

Jacqueline Corcoran has been a clinical social worker for over 30 years. Her academic journey began at the University of Texas at Arlington (4 years), then Virginia Commonwealth University (17 years), and now the University of Pennsylvania (8 years). In that time, Dr. Corcoran has written 20 books that are used in schools of social work in the U.S. and internationally. She has also published over 100 journal articles and book chapters. She was the first person in social work to publish a book on evidence-based practice, Evidence-Based Social Work Practice with Families, which she wrote in 2000 as an assistant professor. Dr. Corcoran’s career has been devoted to the synthesis of clinical social work knowledge through systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and qualitative research synthesis. With Littell and Pillai, she published the first book in social work on systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Another area of clinical scholarship is strengths-based models, including solution-focused therapy, motivational interviewing, strengths-based assessment, and ways to make existing models more strengths-based. Dr. Corcoran is committed to continuing the compilation of knowledge to further the evidence base of social work with the mission of bringing relevant services to oppressed and vulnerable people. She was named in the Stanford University-Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientists for 2021 - 2023 on the basis of career-long data.


Dr. Corcoran currently serves as the Faculty Director of the Doctorate in Clinical Social Work Program. In addition to being a clinical social worker and academic, she is an author of novels.

2022 SFBTA Research Award Winners

Xiao Ding, MSSA, LMSW, PhD Candidate

University of Texas at Austin, Steve Hicks School of Social Work
1925 San Jacinto Blvd, Austin, TX 78712-0358
(216)-502-9410
xiaoding@utexas.edu

“Stretch the World” to Thrive amid COVID-19: The Next Generation of Solution-Focused Practice with Alternative High School Youth


The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the demand for school-based crisis prevention and early intervention, especially for students exposed to multiple life adversities and schools that lack resources to prevent more severe and acute problems. Therefore, to help students get timely support, the school-based interdisciplinary team, including teachers, social workers, school psychologists, counselors, and administrators, can benefit from having more brief, adaptive, and efficient approaches to addressing students’ crises. SFBT is a culturally sensitive, evidence-based practice that has been applied in trauma work and crisis intervention in the past. SFBT showed specific advantages in working with students in groups in school settings. This grant will be used to fund a pilot study testing the effectiveness of a 4-week structured, manualized solution-focused crisis group in reducing perceived stress, increasing hope, and promoting solution-focused coping and problem-solving skills in a high school setting working with high-needs youth and adolescents. The findings of this study can add to the evidence base of solution-focused crisis group intervention and help schools confronting similar challenges improve their students’ mental health and academic outcomes.

Zach Cooper, LCSW, CADC-II, PhD Student

University of Georgia School of Social Work
279 Williams Street, Athens, GA 30602
706-414-6278
zach.cooper@uga.edu

Addressing Depression through Solution Focused Brief Therapy in Integrated Care Settings


Integrated behavioral healthcare (IBH) emerged to address the high prevalence of psychosocial issues endemic to primary care settings by expanding the traditional healthcare team through the inclusion of a behavioral health provider (clinical social worker, licensed psychologist, etc.). Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) provides a promising treatment approach within IBH settings due to the high productivity standards within primary care and the efficient style foundational to SFBT. Despite the natural fit, there is a paucity of research regarding SFBT within integrated care settings in general, and for specific disease states. The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy of SFBT within an IBH setting in the treatment of depression while assessing for commensurate improvement with traditional healthcare markers such as A1C, blood pressure, pulse, and weight. In addition, scaling questions will be utilized to assess for increase in core SFBT constructs to include self-awareness of strengths, future hope, and increased ability to problem solve. A pre-posttest experimental design will assess the differences between those receiving SFBT and treatment as usual across symptoms of depression, SFBT core attributes, and health outcomes.