A Complete Guide To Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

A Quick Guide

Solution-focused brief therapy is one of the most widely used therapeutic approaches today. It is based on identifying your issues and finding solutions rather than taking time to look at the pathology or past life events. This approach puts emphasis on the fact that you know what you need to do to enhance your quality of life and you will be able to thrive with the appropriate guidance. In this article, we will discuss what solution-focused brief therapy is, along with how it works, and its pros and cons.

What is Solution-Focused Brief Therapy?

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy SFBT is a short-term goal-focused, evidence-based therapeutic approach that includes positive psychology methods and beliefs. Rather than concentrating on problems, this approach helps clients improve by creating solutions. In its most basic form, SFBT serves as a medium for creating, motivating, attaining, and maintaining targeted behavioral change in a way that fosters hope and pleasant emotions.

How does SFBT work?

Solution-focused practitioners start by creating a detailed explanation of how the client’s life will change if the problem is solved. Or if their position has been improved to a level that the client is satisfied with. After carefully examining the client’s past experiences and behavioral repertoire, the therapist and client work together to co-create a workable, long-term solution that the client can quickly adopt. This approach usually includes locating and considering prior “exceptions,”. These are instances in which the client successfully overcame or dealt with difficulties and challenges. Solution-focused practitioners and their clients continually work together to set goals that are representative of clients’ best hopes. They also generate satisfactory solutions through an interview method that is fundamentally polite and practical.

Since its beginning, SFBT has not only established itself as one of the top schools of brief therapy but has also had a significant impact on a wide range of industries including

• Business
• Social policy
• Education
• Criminal justice
• Child welfare

Its emphasis on precise, brief, and realistic goal agreements is one of the characteristics that distinguishes SFBT as a practical, goal-driven approach.

Background of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Insoo Kim Berg, Steve de Shazer, and other collaborators created SFBT in the late 1970s. Berg and de Shazer were dissatisfied with the outcomes of conventional psychoanalysis. So they set out to develop a new kind of therapy that focused less on the “why” of patients’ problems rather more on the “how” to treat them.

The SFBT approach’s applicability may in part be attributed to the fact that it was inductively created in an inner-city outpatient mental health treatment environment where clients were admitted without prior screening. Over the period of several years, the founders of SFBT spent numerous hours observing therapy sessions. They carefully documented any questions, statements, or actions on the part of the therapist that resulted in productive therapeutic outcomes. Following this, the SFBT strategy included questions, statements, and activities related to clients reporting progress.

The strategy is most in use in Asia. Berg conducted several workshops on the method in Hong Kong in the 1980s. The therapy attracted interest and was studied; shortly after, it made it to mainland China.

The model enables patients to keep familial ties and personal integrity while managing mental health difficulties. Researchers claim that the treatment’s effectiveness, practicability, and positive nature transfer well across cultural boundaries.

What is it used for?

Currently, solution-focused brief therapy can address the majority of emotional and psychological issues that other types of counseling can treat, including:

• Addiction to drugs or alcohol
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Relationship difficulties
• Self-esteem
• Stress at work and on an individual level

SFBT works best whenever a client is attempting to achieve a specific objective or solve a specific issue. Although it is not appropriate to use as a treatment for serious psychiatric diseases like psychosis or schizophrenia. A mental health professional may use it in close collaboration with a more appropriate psychiatric treatment or therapy to help reduce stress and raise awareness of the person’s strengths and resources.

Research has indicated that SFBT is beneficial in lowering adult cases of depression, anxiety, and mood disorders after a one-year follow-up. According to a study on substance abuse in adults, SFBT is equally as successful as other talking therapies at treating addiction and reducing its severity as well as the symptoms of trauma. A study of the literature revealed that early intervention before behavioral problems become very severe, is when SFBT is most beneficial in treating child behavioral difficulties.

Techniques in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

SFBT is a method that is included in the category of constructive therapies. According to constructivism, individuals create their own meaning and are ultimately responsible for shaping their own worlds. Change in life is something that the SFBT therapist sees as unavoidable. A person might as well improve since they are the ones who build their own reality. In SFBT, the therapist acts as a professional conversation facilitator. They do not show themselves as experts; rather, they speak from a position of “not knowing.”

The therapist makes use of a number of strategies and inquiries to help the client demonstrate their abilities, resources, and desires. More possibilities for solutions emerge when the therapist turns the emphasis to what is already functioning in a client’s life and how things might appear when they are better.

The Miracle Question

Here, the practitioner will instruct the patient to envision going to bed with their troubles solved, and waking up the next morning. Following this visualization, they will question the client about how they are certain that the problems or issues are no longer there and what specifically has changed.

For instance, Imagine that after you go to sleep, a miracle happens throughout the night, and when you wake up the next morning feeling rejuvenated, your issue is no longer a problem. 

• What has changed this morning? 
• What exactly in your life has simply disappeared or shifted? 

After considering what it would be like to wake up without the issue, this question might assist in identifying and gaining a better understanding of the issue, how it is impacting the person, and how to proceed and solve it.

Coping Questions

The practitioner will ask coping questions to better understand how the patient has dealt with their situation.

When someone has had depression or anxiety for a prolonged period of time, it frequently raises the question of how they have managed to carry on with their lives in spite of the potentially debilitating or exhausting impacts of such mental and emotional health issues. Some examples of coping questions are:

• After all that you have gone through, what has kept you coping and floating during all of this?
• I feel inclined to ask you, what specifically has aided you in getting through this so far?

These questions prompt the client to recognize the resources they do possess. They also recognize the inner power that has gotten them this far even though they were unaware of it before.

Exceptions to the problem

The theory behind solution-focused brief therapy is that there are instances or times in a person’s life when the issue or difficulty is not there, or when it is present but has no negative impact.

So, you explore the topic of what is different now. By asking the client to reflect on and recall times in their lives when the problem wasn’t an issue, the practitioner can look into the exceptions to the problem and find out what made these instances different from others.

This might provide hints that can help develop a solution to the issue. The client will benefit from knowing that there are periods when the issue does not bother them, which may assist to minimise the influence it has on their emotional and mental health. It might be empowering to recognize or recall instances when you weren’t as “clouded” or overwhelmed by your troubles as you frequently are now.

Compliments

This entails the practitioner attentively listening to the client to recognize and reflect back to them their accomplishments and qualities while also noting the challenges they have faced. In addition to encouraging the client, it also recognizes their strengths. In response to the things the client has stated, the practitioner would use direct compliments, such as “that’s terrific to hear!” and “wow, that’s great.”

By asking coping questions or focusing on the client’s positive attributes while delving deeper into a topic, indirect compliments can assist the client to recognize and congratulate themselves.

For instance, with a tone of awe and a smile on your face, you can say: “How did you manage that?”

Scaling Questions

On a scale of 1 to 10, the practitioner will request that the client rate how serious their issue or concern is. This makes it easier for the client and the practitioner to see where they stand with that problem or concern. The following are some examples of scaling questions: 

• On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you place your current capacity to meet this goal?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you right now?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you think that your level of alcohol intake is a major source of conflict in your marriage?

The therapist can use these scales to compare the client’s current situation to that of the first or second session, as well as to assess how far or close they are to achieving their ideal state of being or their objective. This can assist the practitioner and the client in identifying any remaining tasks necessary to achieve a 9 or 10, which can then serve as the basis for further exploration.

Scaling aids in bringing the client’s feelings into focus, as well as in giving sessions direction and highlighting whether or not something is inhibiting the client’s capacity to solve the problem.

What you should consider

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy might not be the right form of therapy for you if you’re hoping to analyze your upbringing or get a lot of understanding about the course of your life. However, SFBT can suit you if you want narrowly focused assistance to transition into a different part of your life without the details weighing you down.

How to Begin Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

You can begin by asking your doctor for advice if you have a problem that won’t go away and believe SFBT might help. They might also have recommendations if you’re visiting a mental health professional for some other reason. Once you have located a qualified specialist, schedule a consultation with them. Before your initial session, you will have to fill out the proper paperwork, which may include information about your symptoms, medical records, and insurance plan.

What to expect

The length of treatment in solution-focused brief therapy may vary depending on the patient, but it usually takes four to eight sessions. The core of solution-focused brief therapy is goal-setting. The “miracle question” is one of the first inquiries a therapist makes: “If a miracle happened whilst you were asleep tonight, what differences would you see in your life tomorrow?” This frees up your mind so you can plan how to accomplish your goal. 

You will start outlining tiny, realistic changes you can make in your life to accomplish your goals with the help of your therapist. One of the principles of SFBT is that the practitioner maintains a constructive, courteous, and cheerful approach. They continue to operate under the belief that individuals possess the power, insight, life experience, and resiliency to bring about change. 

What other models label “resistance” is seen in SFBT as a person’s innate defense mechanisms or a mistake made by a prior therapist that doesn’t apply to the client’s circumstances. Sessions are more likely to feel collaborative than authoritative as a result of these assumptions.

We hope you found this article helpful in learning more about solution-focused brief therapy.