SFBT on

Marriage
and Family
Counseling
- A presentation for MGC 208
By RYANN B. LABAD, MAGC-2
Michele Weiner-Davis
This presentation is about
Michele Weiner-Davis, one of
the pioneers and a
practitioner of Solution-
Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
and her contributions to
marriage and family
counseling.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
(SFBT)
● also “Solution-Oriented Brief Therapy” or
“Solution-Focused Therapy” or “Brief
Therapy”
● originally developed by Steve de Shazer
● a short-term, goal-focused, evidence-based
therapeutic approach which incorporates
positive psychology principles and practices,
which helps clients change by constructing
solutions rather than focusing on problems

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Michele Weiner-Davis
- LCSW (licensed clinical social worker)
- Marriage and Family Therapist
- Author
- Active Member of the American Association
for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT)

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Awards/Recognition
● received an award for Outstanding
Contribution to Marriage and Family
Therapy in 2001 from The American
Association for Marriage and Family
Therapy (AAMFT)
● received an Impact Award during the
7th Annual Smart Marriages
Conference (The Coalition for
Marriage, Family, and Couples
Education) in 2003
● received The Washington Times
Inaugural Founding Spirit Award in
2007
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
Books
Divorce Busting: A Step-By-Step Approach
to Making Your Marriage Loving Again
● The book challenged mainstream
psychotherapeutic techniques and gave her
national recognition as a notable therapist in
family therapy.

● Weiner-Davis believed that far from the

traditional fairy-tale notion of "happily ever
after," successful marriages involve working
through and surviving problems, setbacks, and
conflicts to become stronger.

● The book’s core principle is that even if only one

spouse desired to save the relationship or make
a change, a marriage could be saved.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Books
Change Your Life and Everyone In It: How
to (originally Fire Your Shrink!)
● It was written in order to expand upon the other
more personal issues outside of relationships
that she believed an effective SFBT approach
might be able to solve or help with.

● The book used real life case examples of past

experiences she had seen during therapy over
the years in helping others to deal with personal
problems caused by stress, depression and
anxiety.

● She outlines techniques which break with

traditional psychotherapy and focuses on finding
solutions rather than root causes of problems.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Books
Getting Through to the Man You Love:
The No-Nonsense, No-Nagging Guide for
Women
● This book was written for women in an attempt
to help women get through to their spouse more
effectively.

● The book was based on both personal

experiences during therapy with women and the
trend in divorce rates that show women file for
divorce two-thirds of the time.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Books
The Divorce Remedy: The Proven 7-Step
Program for Saving Your Marriage
● After hearing from thousands of readers over the
years who asked particular questions about their
own marital circumstances, Weiner-Davis
extracted the ideas from her experience and past
books and then broke down the ideas into seven
specific steps a person could follow.

1. Start with a Beginner's Mind

2. Know What You Want
3. Ask for What You Want
4. Stop Going Down Cheeseless Tunnels
5. Experiment and Monitor Results
6. Taking Stock
7. Keeping The Positive Changes Going

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Books
The Sex-Starved Marriage: A Couple's
Guide to Boosting Their Marriage Libido
● The book was written in order to take a more
proactive stance to help married couples achieve
better relationships before their love fades.

● She determined that a lack of physical intimacy

between couples had been leading couples
further apart.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Books
The Sex-Starved Wife: What to Do When
He's Lost Desire
● The book was undertaken after Weiner-Davis
was inundated with telephone calls and letters
from many women who said they were having
this issue within their marriage and were seeking
information to resolve the issue with their
husbands.

● This presented data that wives crave more sex

than husband do.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Books
Healing From Infidelity: The Divorce
Busting Guide to Rebuilding Your Marriage
After an Affair
● Due to the high percentage of couples in her
practice who face betrayal, she developed a step-
by-step program for rebuilding trust and
reinventing couples' marriages.

● The book, though intended for the general public is

considered a useful resource for the therapists
who treat them.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Books
Healing From Infidelity: The Divorce
Busting Guide to Rebuilding Your Marriage
After an Affair
● Step-by-step program to help couple recover from
betrayal and save their marriage:
1. Deal with traumatic feelings after the discovery
2. Respond to questions about the affair
3. Talk about intense emotions without arguing
4. End the affair
5. Offer apologies that are sincere and healing
6. Overcome flashbacks and painful memories
7. Rebuild trust and accountability
8. Make their marriage stronger than before the
affair
9. Find forgiveness
10. Reconnect sexually
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
Collaborations
● participated in the development of the
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
led by Steve de Shazer along with Insoo
Kim Berg and other researchers at the
Brief Family Therapy Center in the 1980s
● co-authored her first book, In Search of
Solutions: A New Direction in
Psychotherapy with Bill O'Hanlon in
1989
● talked (The Sex-Starved Marriage) in an
independently organized TED event at
the University of Colorado in 2014

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

The Sex-Starved Marriage
Michele Weiner-Davis | TEDxCU Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
divorcebusting.com
• Michele Weiner-Davis opened
her first Divorce Busting Center
in Woodstock, Illinois.
• After moving to Boulder,
Colorado, she opened her second
Divorce Busting Center where she
continues to see individuals and
couples as a marriage and family
therapist.
• She launched an online marital
support website,
divorcebusting.com in June 1998.
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
 Michele Weiner-Davis is a prominent
therapist who is known for her work in
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
particularly in the context of couples
therapy.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

 SFBT is a goal-oriented therapeutic
approach that focuses on solutions rather
than dwelling on problems.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

If it works, do more
of it; if it’s not
working, do
something different.
- Michele Weiner-Davis

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

 REFERENCES
De Shazer, S., Berg, I. K., Lipchik, E., Nunnaly, E., Molnar, A., Gingerich, W., & Weiner-Davis, M. (1986).
Brief Therapy: Focused Solution Development. Family Process, 25(2), 207–221.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1545-5300.1986.00207.x
Hunt, M. T. (2018). Weiner-Davis, Michele. Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy, 1-2.
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_1062-1
Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy. (n.d.). What is Solution-Focused Therapy?.
https://solutionfocused.net/what-is-solution-focused-therapy/
Michele Weiner-Davis. (2004, January 11). In Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Weiner-Davis
WebMD. (n.d.). Michele Weiner-Davis, MSW. https://www.webmd.com/bio/michele-weiner-davis
Weiner-Davis, M. (n.d.). The Divorce Remedy: The Proven Seven-Step Program for Saving Your Marriage.
Divorce Busting. https://www.divorcebusting.com/
TEDx Talks. (2014, Apr 30). The sex-starved marriage | Michele Weiner-Davis | TEDxCU [Video].
YouTube. https://youtu.be/Ep2MAx95m20?si=yX-Up6CAl-QFWvTW
LICENSE STATEMENT

Michele Weiner-Davis
© 2024 by Ryann LaBad is licensed under
CC BY-NC 4.0.
To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
THANKS!
Do you have any questions?
ryann.labad@sccpag.edu.ph
+63 908 992 2797
https://fb.me/XyberRai

Presented by RYANN B. LABAD, MAGC-2 for

MGC 208 – Marital and Family Counseling class
at Saint Columban College, Pagadian City.
Instructor: MARY JANE OMANDAM

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