In explicating how language works in therapy, he ranges widely, citing and critiquing Lacan, Bateson, Ackerman, and Weakland, among others. But the heart of this book can be found in the detailed conversations between client and therapist that show solution-focused therapy in action.

Written by pioneering experts in the field, More Than Miracles remains the authoritative text on solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT). The final work of the world-renowned family therapists and original developers of SFBT, the late Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, this comprehensive resource informs practitioners and students in how to apply this practical, internationally acclaimed approach. With a new preface, this classic edition outlines the latest developments in the fields of family therapy, brief therapy, and psychotherapy training and practice. A succinct overview orients the reader to the current landscape of SFBT and provides three real-life case transcripts that illustrate the practical applications of SFBT techniques. The seminar format of the text allows readers to: sit in on surprising psychotherapy sessions eavesdrop on the authors' commentary about the sessions gain a comprehensive overview on the current state of SFBT review and understand the major tenets of SFBT learn specific interventions, including the miracle question and the reasons for asking it understand treatment applicability read actual session transcripts understand the "miracle scale" get insight into the unique relationship between Wittgenstein's philosophy and SFBT better understand SFBT and emotions examine misconceptions about SFBT and more Suitable for both advanced practitioners and ambitious beginners, this book is the ideal resource for anyone seeking an in-depth understanding of the SFBT approach, the concepts that inform it, and the specific techniques that characterize its implementation.

The objectives of this book might be summarized as (1) describing how brief, solution-focused therapy is different from other forms of therapy and their accompanying philosophical underpinnings, and (2) showing how these differences combine to make a difference that works.

Once therapist and client are focused on investigating solutions rather than problems, therapy inevitably becomes brief sometimes only on session.

Engaging cases, often with surprising twists, illustrate this practice-based theory of brief therapy with a wide range of complaints. Some of these, such as drug addiction or severe marital record, previously have been thought to be too "difficult" for brief therapy. however, as de Shazer shoes time and again, once therapist and client together discover "what works," obstacles in the pathway to solutions disappear.

An innovation is de Shazer's computer analysis of therapy sessions, which provides a map for analyzing situations and finding solutions. Pieces of the computer program are highlighted with individual cases, enabling the reader to move easily from the map to the territory and back again.

Both theoretically stimulating and clinically sound, de Shazer's investigations turns up clues with the potential to revolutionize the way psychotherapy is thought about and practiced."

"Join de Shazer behind the on-way mirror for a fascinating journey into the land of brief therapy, where the emphasis is not on how problems arise, but on how to solve them. His case examples read like well-written detective novels, and his concept of 'skeleton key' interventions is both provocative and promising. This is a book that is firmly grounded in the tradition of Milton Erickson, but that extends Erickson's work into new areas. Highly recommended." Bill O'Hanlon, Editor, Milton H.Erickson Foundation Newsletter

"De Shazer's work is testimony to simplicity and parsimony in the therapeutic art of addressing the complex. The author's sense of delight, curiosity, and utter respect for the human condition and people's capacity for creative problem-solving resound in rich case examples, therapist repertoire, and team cooperation. This book presents a teachable model whose outer edges remain open, flexible, and inviting." Evan Imber Coppersmith, Ph.D., University of Calgary

"De Shazer offers, among other things, an expansion of our horizons by an emphasis on solutions as counterweight to previous emphasis on the origins or the nature of problems, an expansion of one's vision of 'cooperation' in therapy as contrasted to 'resistance, ' including ideas about how to work with those vague clients who are otherwise the bane of strategic therapists, and some seminal thoughts on 'formula' interventions. These last, together with the recent work of Mara Selvini Palazzoli, may well mark an important new step." John H. Weakland, Ch.E., Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto"