Introducing Dr. Ben Furman

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 and on my mother’s side from Ukraine. I graduated from high-school (gymnasium) in 1972 and went on to study medicine at the Helsinki University medical school.

I am grandfater with two daughters and two grand-daughters. I live together with my current partner in Helsinki.

Academic education

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  specialization in psychiatry. The specialization consited of woring with psychiatric patrients 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.

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 label “psychotherapist” in 1995, and the protected label “senior psychothrapist” (trainer) in 2007.

Work and Innovations

I established together with Tapani Ahola the Helsinki Brief Therapy Institute in 1986. The institute is IASTI-certified and provides training in solution-focused therapy and coaching. It also publishes books and other materials related to the solution-focused approach. I still collaborate with the Institute but since 2022 I’m no longer a shareholder and have been operating through my own company which is called Furman Consulting.

I have developed over the years together with Tapani Ahola several applications of solution-focused therapy and coaching. These include the 12-step solution-focused coaching and team-building method reteaming, a solution-focused approach to helping children overcome challenges and difficulties called Kids'Skills and Cooperation, a training program for teaching solution-focused communication skills to managers, teams and staff of organizations.

Kids'Skills is a solution-focused educational method

Kids’Skills is a practical educational method to help children overcome behavioral and emotional difficulties. The tool consists of 15 steps and it is founded on the principles of solution-focused psychology.

The method was developed by Dr Ben Furman in Finland in collaboration with two special education teachers.

Today Kids'Skills is widely in use in Finland and in numerous countries around the world.