{"id":411,"date":"2020-07-05T12:31:15","date_gmt":"2020-07-05T12:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benfurman.com\/WP2\/?page_id=411"},"modified":"2024-03-21T17:56:42","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T15:56:42","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/benfurman.com\/WP2\/about-me\/","title":{"rendered":"About me"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Biography<\/p>\n

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I was born (1953) and raised in Helsinki Finland. My parents were born in Finland, but my grandparents were immigrants, on my father’s side from Poland <\/span>and on my mother’s side\u00a0<\/span>from Ukraine. I graduated from high-school (gymnasium) in 1972 and went on to study medicine at the Helsinki University medical school.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am grandfater with two daughters and two grand daughters. I live together with my current partner in Helsinki.<\/p>\n

Academic education<\/h2>\n

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I graduated from medical school in 1979. Thereafter I worked for two years as a general practitioner in Lapland, the northern part of Finland. I returned to Helsinki in 1982 to start my\u00a0 specialization in psychiatry. The specialization consited of working with psychiatric patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings as welll as in child psychiatry. I was accredited by the Finnish ministry of health as “specialist in psychiatry” in 1986.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I was specializing in psychiatry I also participated in a 3-year-long training program on family therapy and was certified by the Finnish Ministry of Health to be allowed to use the government-protected designation “psychotherapist” in 1995, and the designation “senior psychothrapist” (trainer) in 2007.<\/span><\/p>\n

International work<\/h2>\n

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My books have been translated to over 20 languages and over the years I have taught on\u00a0five continents and according to my calcculations, in\u00a0<\/span>some 40 countries around the world<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apps<\/h2>\n

One of my long-time hobbies or interests has been to design and develop solution-focused mental health apps. For example, I have created together with Lorenn Walker a website called\u00a0Apology and Forgiveness website<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>which offers free apps related to apology and forgiveness; I have designed what I call\u00a0the <\/a>Kids’Skills App<\/a>,<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0which is can be downloaded to mobile phones and serves as a solution-focused handbook for parents, teachers and other peple who work with children. I showcase\u00a0a collection of my multilingual\u00a0Self-Helper Apps<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>that you can find by clicking on the link.<\/p>\n

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Helsinki Brief Therapy Institute<\/span><\/h2>\n

I established together with Tapani Ahola the Helsinki Brief Therapy Institute<\/a><\/strong> in 1986. The institute is IASTI<\/a><\/strong> certified and provides training in solution-focused therapy and coaching. It also publishes books and other materials related to the solution-focused approach.<\/p>\n

Innovations<\/h2>\n

I have developed over the years together with Tapani Ahola several tools based on solution-focused psychology. These include the coaching method Reteaming<\/a><\/strong>, Kids\u2019 Skills<\/a><\/strong>, which is a solution-focused approach to helping children overcome problems, Cooperation<\/a><\/strong>, a training program for teaching solution-focused communication skills to teams in companies and organizations, and Steps of Responsibility<\/a><\/strong>, a step-by-step protocol for helping young people to apologize and to take responsibility for their wrongdoings.<\/p>\n

Work in media<\/h2>\n

During my medical studies in the 70s I wrote articles to the medical students’ journal %22Medisiinari%22 and was subsequently invited to act as the editor of the journal for two years.<\/p>\n

In 1984 I became the founding editor of the Finnish Journal of Family Therapy published by the Finnish Association of Mental Health and acted in this role for a number of years.<\/p>\n

In 1998 I started hosting a weekly psychological talk-show on Finnish national TV. The show aired for 8 years and covered all in all over 200 episodes. The video below is the original intro of the show.<\/p>\n