Solution-Focused Brief

Therapy

By: Brianna Barba & Ashley Ornelas

Agenda
➢ Icebreaker
➢ Description
➢ History and Background
➢ Basic Principles
➢ Techniques
➢ In Schools
➢ School Counselor Approach
➢ School Psychologist Approach
➢ Activity
Icebreaker
What is Solution-Focused Brief Therapy?
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
(SFBT) is a future-orientated, goal-
directed approach to solving human
problems of living.

The focus is on the client’s health

rather than the problem, on strengths
rather than weakness or deficits, and
on skills, resources and coping
abilities that would help in reaching
future goals.
Useful For Students Struggling With ...
● Anxiety
● Depression
● Communication issues
● Academic hindrances

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is useful

whenever a student feels stuck and the
fix is likely a behavioral change of some
kind
History and Background
● Developed in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s at the Brief Family Therapy
Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by two social workers and a team of
therapeutic collaborators from different disciplines
● Developed when a team discovered that change happens when they focus on
client strengths and future-oriented interventions that facilitate clients toward
solution-building instead of problem solving
● Influenced by the Mental Research Institute Brief Therapy Model and family
systems approaches of the day
● Became strongly associated with social construction models and social
constructivist views within family systems therapies
Basic Principles
● Focus on building solutions rather than
solving problems
● Small changes lead to big changes
● Solutions or potential solutions already
exist within individual
● Takes a distinctly postmodern approach,
whereby therapists dismissed the notion
that examining the past was necessary
and began to focus on the future.
● The postmodern view places the client as
the expert, not the therapist.
SBFT Techniques
● The Miracle Question
○ “Suppose tonight, while you slept a miracle occurred. When
you wake up, what would life look like for you?”
● Exception Questions
○ “When doesn’t the problem happen?”
● The Coping Question
○ “How do you keep going day after day when there seems to
be no hope?”
● Scaling Questions
○ “On a scale of 1 to 10, how are you feeling?”
● Time Out
○ Brief break during the second half of each therapy session
during which they reflect on what has occurred in the session.
● Accolades
○ Compliments to the client
● Task
○ Creating an “experiment” or “task” for the client
How it works in Schools
● Targets the desired outcome of therapy as a solution, instead of
focusing on the problems
● Gives attention to the present and future desires of the student,
instead of focusing on past experiences
● It empowers the student - gives the student ownership for his/her
improvement
● Small changes in one area can trickle over into other areas
● Forces the student to celebrate small accomplishments to
encourage improvement
How would a School Counselor use this therapy?

● Time-efficient and more realistic to use with students to address short-term

progress and strengths, rather than through multiple therapy sessions
● Hold the student accountable (to an extent) of their progress
○ If there is no progress happening, what could be changed?
● “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”
○ A counselor should use this as a way to generate solutions, not additional obstacles
● “Once you know more of what works, do more of it”
○ The counselor will gain valuable information by recognizing interventions that lead to the
student’s progress, in order to continue replicating them
● “If it doesn’t work, do something different”
○ A counselor may guide the student to using different strategies, to ultimately yield progress
How would a School Psychologist use this therapy?
● SFBT is an approach that School Psychologists would benefit from because
providing counseling in the school context can be challenging, especially
given time constraints and limited number of sessions.
● This would be very beneficial for all age groups that School Psychologist’s
may see which can lead to small changes becoming bigger changes.
● Every problem has exceptions that can be turned into solutions pretty quickly
which is beneficial for students looking for a quick solution.
● This is empowering for the students because it gives the student more
ownership and quits the blame game.
● By School Psychologists implementing this method, they are making the
whole school Solution Focused.
Class Activity

Draw a picture of a time when

you had a little piece of a
miracle. (incorporation of
solution focused + play therapy)
Questions?
Works Cited

Franklin, C., & Belciug, C. (2018, June 15). Solution-Focused Brief Therapy in Schools. Retrieved from
http://oxfordre.com/socialwork/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.001.0001/acrefore-
9780199975839-e-1040

Franklin, C., & Gerlach, B. (2007). Solution-Focused brief therapy in public school settings. In T. S. Nelson
& F. N. Thomas (Eds.), Handbook of Solution-Focused therapy: Clinical Applications (p. 169).
New
York: Haworth.

Perkins, R. (2006). The effectiveness of one session of therapy using a single-session therapy approach
for children and adolescents with mental health problems. The British Psychological Society,
79,
215-227.

Sklare, G. B. (2014). Brief counseling that works: A solution-focused approach for school counselors, and
administrators.