Solution Focused Brief Therapy

Solution Focused Brief Therapy

 

Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a paradigm shift from the traditional psychotherapy focus on problem formation and problem resolution that underlies almost all psychotherapy approaches since Freud. Instead, SFBT draws upon your strengths and resiliencies by focusing on your previous or conceptualised solutions and exceptions to your problems, and then, through a series of interventions, encouraging you to do more of those behaviours. SFBT can be applied to a myriad of situations. While deceptively easy to learn, like all therapies, it requires great skill to reach a level of proficiency.

Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) is a future-focused, goal-directed approach to brief therapy developed initially by Insoo Kim Berg, Steve de Shazer, and their colleagues and clients at the Milwaukee Brief Family Therapy Centre in the early 1980s. Developed inductively rather than deductively, SFBT is a highly disciplined, pragmatic approach rather than a theoretical one. The developers observed hundreds of hours of therapy over the course of years, carefully noting the questions, behaviours, and emotions that led to clients conceptualising and achieving viable, real-world solutions. 

The questions that proved to be most consistently related to clients’ reports of progress and solutions were carefully noted and painstakingly incorporated into the solution-focused approach, while those that did not were deliberately eliminated. Since then, the SFBT approach has become one of the leading approaches to brief therapy throughout the world as well as a major influence in such divergent fields as business, social policy, and education.

The Major Tenets of SFBT

SFBT is not theory based, but was pragmatically developed. There are a number of tenets that serve as the guidelines for the practice of SFBT, that both inform and characterise this approach.

If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. This is the overarching tenet of SFBT. Theories, models, and philosophies of intervention are irrelevant if you have already resolved the issue. Nothing would seem more absurd than to intervene upon a situation that is already resolved. While this seems obvious, there are some schools of psychotherapy that would encourage therapy, despite improvement, for ‘growth’, to ‘solidify gains’, or to get to ‘deeper meanings and structures.’ SFBT is antithetical to these. If there are no issues, there should be no therapy.

If it works, do more of it. Similar to the first tenet, this continues the ‘hands-off’ approach. If you are in the process of solving a problem, the therapist’s primary should be to encourage you to do more of what is already working. I don’t judge the quality of your solutions, only whether a solution is effective. Following this, another related role for me, as the therapist, is helping you maintain your desired changes: hence the long-term view I take with all those I help. This is accomplished by learning how you behaved or responded differently during periods of improvement. As a result of identifying what worked, you will be able to repeat this success and these solutions will evolve further.

If it’s not working, do something different. To complete the obvious first three, this tenet suggests that no matter how good a solution might seem, if it does not work is not a solution. An odd reality of human nature is the tendency to continue to try solve problems by repeating the same things that have not worked in the past (sound familiar?) – the triune brain theory gives us some insight here. This is especially true for psychotherapy: where many theories suggest that if the client does not improve (i.e. solve their problem), the fault rests with the client rather than the therapy or the theory. In SFBT, however, if a client does not complete a homework suggestion or experiment, the task is dropped, and something better is progressed.

Small steps can lead to big changes. SFBT can be understood as a minimalist approach in which solution construction is typically accomplished in a series of small, manageable steps. It is assumed that once a small change has been made, it will lead to manageable steps. It is assumed that once a small change has been made, it will lead much larger systemic change without major disruption. Thus, small steps toward making things better help you move gradually and gracefully forward to accomplish desired changes in your daily life and, subsequently, be able to describe things as ‘better enough’ for therapy to end.

The solution is not necessarily directly related to the problem. Whereas almost all other approaches to change have problem-leading-to-solution sequences, SFBT develops solutions by first eliciting a description of what will be different when your issues are resolved. Then we work backward to accomplish this goal by searching through your real-life experiences to identify times when portions of the desired solution description already existed or could potentially exist in the future. This leads to a model of therapy that spends very little or even no time on the origins or nature of the problem – often these are triggering or counter-productive. While these factors may be theoretically interesting, and possibly could influence your behaviour, SFBT focuses almost exclusively on the present and future. Viewed in this way, SFBT involves a true paradigm shift from other models of psychotherapy.

The language for solution development is different from that needed to describe a problem. The language of problems tends to be very different from that of solutions: the world of the happy is quite another than that of the unhappy. Usually, problem talk is negative and past-history focused (to describe the origins of the problem), and often suggests the permanence of a problem. The language of solutions, however, is more positive, hopeful, and future-focused, and suggests the transience of problems. Consider the Broaden & Build theory and see if you can join these dots.

No problems happen all the time: there are always exceptions that can be utilised. This tenet, following the notion of problem transience, reflects the major intervention that is used continuously in SFBT, that is, that you have exceptions to your problems, even small ones, and these exceptions can be utilised to make small changes.

Your future is both created and negotiable. Your present was – once – your future. Now, read that first sentence again. This tenet offers a powerful basis for the practice of SFBT. You are not locked into a set of behaviours based on your history, social stratum, or any psychological diagnosis i.e. you have agency. The future is a hopeful place, where you are the architect of your destiny.

The Role of the Therapist

The role of the therapist in SFBT is different than in many other psychotherapeutic approaches. SFBT therapists accept that there is a hierarchy in the therapeutic arrangement, but this hierarchy tends to be more egalitarian and democratic than authoritarian. SFBT therapists almost never pass judgments about their clients, and avoid making any interpretations about the meanings behind their wants, needs, or behaviours. The therapist’s role is viewed as trying to expand rather than limit options – see Broaden & Build theory. SFBT therapists lead the session, but they do so in a gentle ‘leading from one step behind’ approach. Instead of interpreting, cajoling, admonishing, or pushing, the therapist ‘taps on the shoulder’ of the client, pointing out alternative directions to consider.

How I Can Help You

Hypnotherapy for Wellbeing

A customisable 10 session fixed fee program taking the best from Solution Focused Hypnotherapy and Positive Psychology to support your sustainable wellbeing. 

General Therapy

Classic Solution Focused Hypnotherapy with a positive Psychology influence: open ended sessions at your pace, your way.

Hypnotherapy for Personal Development

A customisable 6 session fixed fee program to launch your best life applying the best of Positive Psychology and Self-Hypnosis  

Hypnotherapy for Imposter Syndrome

A customisable 10 session fixed fee program taking the best from PERMA Hypnotherapy and evidence based approaches that show you really are worth it and you really do belong here.

Coming soon - Group Hypnotherapy and relaxation sessions

Open ended and highly cost effective introduction to Hypnotherapy for wellbeing and personal development.

Bespoke

I enjoy a fresh challenge. For those looking for something different contact me with your thoughts.

PERMA Hypnotherapy

 

Kevin@permahypnotherapy.co.uk

 

07538 885827

How PERMA Hypnotherapy Can Help You

Wellbeing

General Therapy

Imposter Syndrome

Personal Development

Coming Soon – Group Sessions

Bespoke