SOLUTION FOCUSED PSYCHOTHERAPY (SFT)

Solution-focused therapy (SFBT) is a therapeutic approach that focuses

on solutions rather than problems.
SFBT is goal-oriented and emphasizes solutions rather than delving into
underlying issues.
SFT was developed by Steve de Shazer (1940-2005), and Insoo Kim Berg
(1934-2007) in collaboration with their colleagues at the Milwaukee
Brief Family Therapy Center beginning in the late 1970s.
SFT is a competency based model, which minimises emphasis in past
failings and problems ,and instead of focuses on client’s strength and
previous successes.
The basic tenets that inform solution focused therapy are as follows
1. Solution Building Focus: Emphasizes creating solutions rather
than dwelling on problems.
2. Future Orientation: Centers on the client’s desired future instead
of past issues.
3. Promoting Useful Behaviors: Encourages clients to increase
positive behaviors.
4. Identifying Exceptions: Acknowledges that problems have
exceptions, which can be used to construct solutions.
5. Alternatives to Undesired Patterns: Therapists assist in finding
alternatives to negative behaviors, thoughts, and interactions.
6. Existing Solution Behaviors:Assumes clients already possess or
can co-construct solution behaviors.
7. Incremental Change:Believes small changes lead to significant
overall improvements.
8. Non-Direct Link to Problems: Client solutions may not directly
correspond to identified problems.
 9. Distinct Therapist Skills: Therapists use different skills for inviting
clients to build solutions compared to diagnosing and treating
problems.
INGREDIENTS OF SOLUTION FOCUSED THERAPY
1. General Ingredients:
- Conversations in Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT) focus on client
concerns, important relationships, preferred future vision, exceptions to
problems, strengths, resources, scaling motivational levels, and tracking
progress.
- Therapists co-construct new meanings by asking SF questions and
building on client expressions.
2. Specific Active Ingredients:
- Build a cooperative therapeutic alliance with the client.
- Emphasize a solution-oriented approach over problem-solving.
- Establish measurable and changeable goals.
- Use future-oriented questions and discussions.
- Scale progress by evaluating goal attainment.
- Focus on exceptions to the client’s problems, encouraging actions
that lead to positive outcomes.
THE PRACTICE OF SOLUTION FOCUSED THERAPY
Therapy focuses on the goals clients bring, as long as they are ethical
and legal.
Counselors assist clients in moving towards their chosen direction.
They do this by helping:
 - Help clients identify and maximize their strengths and competencies.
- Encourage clients to recognize and enhance times when they are
already reducing the impact of the problem.
- Aid clients in focusing clearly and specifically on what they see as
solutions to their problems.
- The Solution Focused Therapy counselor acknowledges and validates
client feelings, aiming for a cooperative relationship with warmth,
positivity, acceptance, understanding, and respect.
- In SFT, the counselor takes a humble “one-down position,” actively
learning from the client.
- Encourages the client to share their perspective, using language
matching, offering encouragement, and adapting their approach based
on client preferences.
- Recognizes clients as experts in their lives, while the counselor excels
in creating a therapeutic environment.
- SFT deviates from fixed session norms, preferring to consult with the
client at session ends.
- The decision to continue or schedule further sessions is influenced by
the client’s feelings and needs.
FOCAL ISSUE
 SFT highlights the need for a clear and defined focal issue in
counseling for efficiency.
 Therapists focus on the client’s presented problem, aligning with
their agenda to boost motivation for change.
  Clients may initially feel confused or uncertain about counseling;
the priority is finding a common language and exploring desired
changes.
 The counselor looks for a solvable problem that the client is
willing and able to address to create momentum for change.
 Clients with complex problems might need extended exploratory
work, but initial vagueness about the future doesn’t disqualify
them from brief solution-focused therapy; it just requires more
effort and time from the counselor.
TREATMENT PRINCIPLES
If it’s not broken, do not fix it
- Emphasizes not intervening if things are already functioning well.
- Focuses on identifying what is healthy and functional in clients’
lives.
Small Changes Lead to Bigger Changes:
- Acknowledges that small changes can result in significant overall
improvements.
- Change is constant and unavoidable, with positive repercussions
Encouraging Constructive Behavior
- Encourages clients to continue what is already working for them.
Stop Doing What’s Not Working
- Clients are urged to do something different to break a cycle of
failure.
Keep Counseling Simple
 - Advocates for simplicity in counseling to avoid complicating and
prolonging the therapeutic relationship.
INTERVENTIONS
Common Interventions in Solution-Focused Practice:
- Pre-session Change:
- Clients are asked to observe changes between appointment
scheduling and the first session.
- The counselor explores these changes early in the first session to
build upon what the client has initiated.
- Positive pre-session changes empower the client independently.
- Exception Seeking:
- Counselors work with clients to identify exceptions to the problem—
occasions when the issue is not present or is managed better.
- Search for transferable solutions from other areas of the client’s life
or past successful approaches in similar situations.
- Competence Seeking:
- The counselor recognizes and affirms client resources, strengths,
and qualities for solving the problem.
- Acknowledges and reinforces coping mechanisms previously used by
the client.
- Miracle Question:
- Used in the first session and possibly later sessions.
- Aims to identify existing solutions and resources, clarifying the
client’s goals realistically.
 - Clients imagine a miracle happening overnight, describing the first
signs upon waking.
- Encourages a positive, unique picture of the solution, helping
motivate or clarify desires.
- Scaling:
- Utilizes a scale of 0-10, with 10 representing the morning after a
miracle and 0 representing the worst the problem has been.
- Helps clients set small, identifiable goals, measure progress, and
establish priorities for action.
- Assess client motivation and confidence; a practical tool for clients
between sessions.
- Reframing:
- Involves helping the client view the problem differently.
- Seeks alternative perspectives that increase the likelihood of
overcoming the problem.
- Enhances the client’s chances of success by introducing valid
viewpoints.