Insoo Kim Berg

This is a Korean name; the family name is Kim.

Insoo Kim Berg (25 July 1934 – 10 January 2007) was a Korean-born American psychotherapist who was a pioneer of solution focused brief therapy. She influenced the fields of psychotherapy, consulting, supervision and coaching with concepts such as resource-orientation and brief therapy. In 1978, with her husband Steve de Shazer, she co-founded the Brief Family Therapy Center (BFTC) in Milwaukee. She published ten highly acclaimed books. Insoo Kim Berg died 16 months after de Shazer in September 2005. The BFTC was closed in 2007 and the rights to BFTC’s training materials were transferred to the Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association.

Biography

Born in 1934, Berg was raised in Korea, Empire of Japan and became a pharmacy major at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul. The choice to study pharmacy was influenced by her family, who was in the pharmaceutical manufacturing business. In 1957, she came to the United States to continue her pharmacy studies at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where she graduated with a B.Sc., a Master of Science (M.Sc.), and a social work (MSSW) degree. With her background in pharmacy and chemistry, she worked at the medical school and published on stomach cancer research.

After changing her interest to social work, she developed an interest in psychotherapy. She completed her post-graduate studies at the Family Institute of Chicago, the Menninger Foundation, and the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto, California, where John Weakland was her mentor. At the MRI she also met her future husband, Steve de Shazer.

At Milwaukee Family Services she started her second career. "Berg consulted to a widely diverse range of institutions and programs including, among others, human service agencies, social service and mental health centers, drug and alcohol abuse treatment facilities, foster homes, homeless shelters, battered women's shelters, correction departments, home based family services programs, primary and secondary schools, various universities, the State of Michigan, and professional business coaching organizations".

She was an "extremely hard working person, and took obvious pleasure in her work and rarely took a day off. In her personal life, she enjoyed a wide range of physical activities including daily walks, stretching exercises, and gardening. As an advanced yoga practitioner, her flexibility and balance surpassed fellow classmates half her age. She liked to read well-written novels and enjoyed classical music but also appreciated the beauty of silence and the tranquility of nature, and knew how to savor the every day magic of satisfying conversation, healthful well-prepared food, and the welcome respite of a good night's sleep after a long journey or a day of hard work" .

Her husband, Steve de Shazer, died in September 2005 in Vienna, Austria, and Insoo Kim Berg 16 Months later in Milwaukee. Insoo had a daughter, Sarah K. Berg, from her first marriage to Charles H. Berg.

The Brief Family Therapy Center (BFTC)

In 1978, Berg co-founded the BFTC with her husband Steve de Shazer.

"Berg was widely recognized as a profoundly gifted clinician. Her impressive intellect was balanced by an abiding compassion for others and a modest, informal demeanor. Her deeply caring attitude was punctuated by a lively sense of humor, a warm, ready smile, infectious optimism, and enthusiasm. She radiated undeniable respect and absolute confidence in the self-expertise of each individual person. She affected everyone she came into contact with in profound ways both personally and professionally" .

She was a clinical member and approved supervisor for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), and an active member in the Wisconsin Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the National Association of Social Workers, and the European Brief Therapy Association.

The BFTC closed its doors in December 2007 and the rights to BFTC’s training materials were given by Berg's sister, C. J. Kim, and her daughter, Sarah Berg, to the Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association, a group that de Shazer and Berg helped found in 2002.

Brief therapy

The conceptual work at the Mental Research Institute built the foundation for brief therapy and brief family therapy "initiating the systematic view, i.e., demonstrating that that a family or any interactional situation can be seen as if it were a system and thus it can be mapped following the 'laws' of general system theory" (De Shazer and Kim Berg, 1995: pg. 249).

"Instead of problem solving, we focus on solution-building. Which sounds like a play on words, but it's a profoundly different paradigm" .

Literature

• Berg, I. Kim, "More than Miracles: The State of the Art of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy." 2007.
• Berg, I. Kim, "Tales of Solutions." 2001, W W Norton page
• Berg, I. Kim, "Building Solutions in Child Protective Services." 2000, W W Norton page
• Berg, I. Kim, "Interviewing for Solutions." (2nd ed). 1997 and 2001.
• De Shazer, Steve and Insoo Kim Berg, "The Brief Therapy Tradition." In: Weakland, John H. and Wendel A. Ray (eds) "Propagations. Thirty Years of Influence From the Mental Research Institute." Binghamton, NY, The Haworth Press, Inc., Chap. 20, pp. 249-252. 1995.
• Berg, I. Kim, "Family based services: A solution-focused approach." New York:Norton. 1994.
• Berg, I. Kim; "Solution-Focused Therapy: An Interview with Insoo Kim Berg." Psychotherapy.net, 2003.

See also

• Solution focused brief therapy

External links

• Ewha Woman's University, Seoul/Korea
• Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Association (SFBTA)
• The Mental Research Institute (MRI)de: Insoo Kim Berg

Tribute to Insoo Kim Berg Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association

Victor Yalom,Interview with Insoo Kim Berg Psychotherapy.net October 2003