Solution Focused Brief Therapy
SFBT focuses on 3 core principles that practitioners need to follow.
- Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken: The therapist focuses only on what’s important for the client. The conversation revolves around only what helps move the client towards his/her stated best hopes and desired outcome. The therapist doesn’t bring his/her perceptions or judgments into the conversation
- (After Discovering Solutions through SFBT techniques) If it’s working, keep doing it: The therapist focuses on what’s working for the client and encourages them to do more of it. The therapist too, focuses on what’s working for him/her and continues to repeat the working model.
- If it’s not working, stop and do something different: If a particular solution isn’t working for the client, the focus should be on what can be done instead. The therapist needs to check if a specific technique is working. If it’s not, then the approach needs to change to what works instead and encouraging the client to move towards other different solutions to try with.
Techniques
In SFBT, the therapist and the client pursue a solution-oriented language. The most important point of discussion is always about what the clients want and how they would like their life to be different. The emphasis is on the changes, however minimal and the continued movement towards the preferred future. The conversation also focuses on the exceptions and what is working well for the client and the resources they use to overcome challenges.
The counselor/therapist might have used any one or more of the following techniques in the session.
Brainstorming: Both client and counselor can come up with different creative solutions through brainstorming without any judgments in the form of writing. After making a list in writing, client would choose the first best. That best solution would be experimented by the client for a stipulated period of time. If that does not work, he would move to the second-best solution and start trying it.
Coping and Resource Talk: SFBT focuses on the strengths and resources the client possesses to overcome any challenge or problem they face. The premise always is that the client has had a successful
past. Questions like “How did you do that?” or “How did you manage?” or “What did you notice about yourself that said you were successful?” highlights the coping techniques clients have used in the past. The conversation helps clients notice what works for them and motivates them to do more of it. Listing their strengths will also come under Resource talk.
Exception: A ‘previous solution’ is something that people have tried that has worked, but that they later discontinued. An ‘exception’ is when a problem could occur, but does not occur actually. Something happens instead of the problem and this alternate happening is often spontaneous and without conscious intent. If the client can’t find a ‘previous solution’ for something, therapist can use ‘exception questions’ to help you identify an exception.
Preferred Future and its Description: Preferred future is the point in time when the best hopes or the stated desired outcome becomes a reality. Building a detailed description of the preferred future makes the client visualize and notice all the positive factors that would be present when the best hopes become a reality. The future question and description need to be realistic. Regardless of the variables or the contingencies, the clients should be able to envision and describe their preferred future and the difference it would make to them.
It is the presence of something and not the absence of something. It’s important to have as many specific and minute details as possible that will describe the clients’ preferred future.
Building a description of the preferred future also involves what others in the life of the client would notice. The clients describe what others like their spouse, parents, kids, friends, colleagues, pets and even nonliving things (car/bike, chair, etc.) would notice when they are in the reality of their best hopes.