TCU’s School of Education featured counseling expert Insoo Kim Berg as its Green Honors Chair lecturer last week. Berg spoke to a sold-out crowd on “Working on What Works,” a counseling approach now used in education.

Berg began her lecture by discussing Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) with a suicidal adolescent, an approach she developed with her partner, the late Steven de Shazer. The SBFT approach is now becoming one of the most commonly used and effective theories in school counseling. The approach began as a solution-building process in the middle school environment.

Out of the SBFT process came the “Working on What Works” (WOWW) approach, which was created as a way to intervene in behavioral problems in a middle school classroom environment. The WOWW approach was first put into practice in a large Florida middle school, but is now being used for different grade levels in schools all over the United States and in other countries such as Sweden, Germany, Norway, Finland and Great Britain.

Berg said the WOWW program allows the counselor or coach to focus on what the students are doing right by encouraging them to note positive behaviors of students and teachers and then go over the behaviors with the students and teachers individually. A unique aspect of the WOWW approach is that it is individualized for each classroom and teacher, rather than being followed blindly with the same criteria for all.

The approach targets different populations, such as children in schools, schizophrenic clients, violent parents and spouses and those people with substance abuse and depression problems. Berg said the approach has been effective 100 percent of the time.

Berg is the co-founder and executive director of Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee, Wis. and has published eight highly acclaimed books in 10 years. She also mixes her Korean heritage with her western scientific training in her clinical practice and teaching.

Dr. Becky Taylor, an associate professor of education at TCU who specializes in counseling, and Dr. Frank Thomas, also an associate professor of education at TCU specializing in counseling, arranged for Berg to be the Green Honors Chair lecturer.

“The conference was more successful that we (Taylor and Thomas) even imagined, Taylor said. “At the end of the conference, we received several e-mails thanking us for bringing her to TCU. The support from the TCU and Fort Worth community, particularly school and community counselors, as well as attendance by students and faculty from local and regional universities was phenomenal.”

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