Dave Hawkes and David Hingley, Senior Lecturers from the Faculty of Health & Social Care, recently visited Malmo, Sweden to present at the first Joint International Conference of the European Brief Therapy Association (EBTA) and its sister organisation in the USA, The Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association.

Both Dave and David have used Solution Focused Brief Therapy in their work as Mental Health Nurses and Senior Lecturers for many years. Anglia Ruskin is one of only a few Universities world wide to run accredited degree level training in Solution Focused Brief Therapy. Dave was instrumental in introducing the approach into UK mainstream psychiatry in the early 1990's and he attended the very first EBTA conference in Bruges in 1994. On that occasion 30 Solution Focused Practitioners from across Europe met to discuss developments in the approach. Now the conference hosts 300 attendees from all over the world.

Their presentation focused on the ''Miracle Question'' - an important technique in Solution Focused Brief Therapy which helps clients to picture and create a preferred future - and explored how practitioners work with the responses they hear. The ''Miracle Question'' has been used in business settings, managing organisational change, in conflict resolution, staff supervision, and workforce negotiations as well as in social work and mental health contexts. It is the central theme of Dave Hawkes' PhD study, which aims to explore the impact and meaning of the miracle concept in clinical work.

Their presentation was well received and confirmed Anglia Ruskin University's place at the cutting edge of developments in therapeutic approaches to mental health care. Both Dave and David have been asked to contribute to next year's EBTA conference in Dresden, Germany. Dave Hawkes will present the initial findings from his PhD work, while David will present on the compatibility between Solution Focused Brief Therapy and what Mental Health Service Users from the Recovery Movement have described as helpful.