Solution Focused Therapy 9

Solution Focused
Therapy
Introduction

Solution Focused Therapy (SFT) focuses on
solutions rather than the problems
themselves. As such it highlights peoples
strengths and competences instead of their
perceived deficits, weaknesses and
limitations. It falls under the umbrella of brief
therapy which includes choice therapy and
reality therapy.

Steven de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg were
the founders of solution focused therapy in
the 1980s both were based in USA.
The framework of Solution
Focus Therapy
There are several assumptions that provide the
framework of solution focused therapy;
All people have strengths and inner resources to solve
lifes challenges.
Change is one of lifes constants. Not only is change
possible it is always happening.
The counsellors role in the therapy session is to help
each client identify the change that is occurring and to
help them increase that level of change.
We do not need to know what caused a problem to be
able to solve it.
Change begins with small steps
The client is the expert in their life.
The person is not the problem, the problem is the
problem
If its not working, do something different
How does it work?

A solution focused therapist looks at working with possibility
and the clients future, without stressing on the events from
the past and the problems.

The future is very important in solution focused therapy and
the client is considered to the best person (expert) to deal
with their problems.
The role of the solution focused therapy specialist is to help

the individual discover the tools he already has that can be
used in solving problems.

Causes are not considered important, solutions are the main
focus. The therapist will try to find out the desires of the
individual and the means to make them reality. By breaking
down problems into elements, they will seem less
complicated and a solution will be seen as possible.
Exploring the past, talking about all sorts of feelings and

experiences requires a lot of time. This is exactly what
solution focused therapy does not do. This is the reason why
this type of therapy is considered to be short termed.

By being efficient, the solution focused therapy offers
people a real, palpable solution to their problems. Many
specialists say that they usually have six sessions with a
client and sometimes, slightly more.
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Focused-Therapy on 24 August 2010

A key task in SFT is to help clients identify and attend to
their skills, abilities, and external resources (e.g. social
networks). This process not only helps to construct a
narrative of the client as a competent individual, but also
aims to help the client identify new ways of bringing these
resources to bear upon the problem.
Resources can be identified by the client and the worker
will achieve this by empowering the client to identify their
own resources through use of scaling questions, problem-
free talk, or during exception-seeking.
Solution Focus Therapy
process?
As the practice of solution-focused brief therapy has developed,
the problem has come to play a lesser and lesser part in the
interviewing process (George et al, 1999), to the extent that it
might not even be known. Instead, all attention is given to
developing a picture of the solution and discovering the
resources to achieve it. A typical first session involves four areas
of exploration (Box 1 ).
Box 1 Four key tasks for a typical first session
Task of therapist Examples of opening questions
Find out what the person is hoping to What are your best hopes of our work
achieve from the meeting or the work together? How will you know if this is
together useful?
If tonight while you were asleep a miracle

Find out what the small, mundane and happened and it resolved all the problems
everyday details of the person's life would that bring you here what would you be
be like if these hopes were realised noticing different tomorrow?
Find out what the person is already doing or Tell me about the times the problem does
has done in the past that might contribute to not happen When are the times that bits of
these hopes being realised the miracle already occur?
Find out what might be different if the What would your partner/doctor/colleague
person made one very small step towards notice if you moved another 5% towards the
realising these hopes life you would like to be leading?
The earlier emphasis on exploring exceptions to the
problem has been replaced by an interest in what the
client is already doing that might help achieve the
solution. This has led to a new assumption that all clients
are motivated.

Initially, the issue of motivation was dealt with by a
classification system (customer, complainant and visitor)
similar to that used in motivational interviewing (Miller &
Rollnick, 1991), depending on the client's attitude to the
problem. The emphasis on the preferred future has made
the client's view of the problem redundant to the therapy.
All that clients need is to want something different even
if at the starting point they do not think that something
different is possible.
Scales
One of the most useful frameworks for a solution-focused
interview is the 0 to 10 scale, where 10 equals the achievement
of all goals and zero is the worst possible scenario. The client is
asked to identify his or her current position and the point of
sufficient satisfaction. Within this framework it is possible to
define ultimate objectives, what the client is already doing to
achieve them and what the next step might be (Fig. 1 ).
Fig. 1 The scale framework
Where several scales are used, areas of overlap soon become apparent,
which helps the client realise that movement in one area can lead to
improvements in others.
Coping and compliments

Looking for the client's strengths and resources and
commenting on them is an important part of a solution-
focused therapy session.
Sometimes clients lives are so difficult that they cannot
imagine things being different and cannot see anything of
value in their present circumstances.

One way forward is to be curious about how they cope
how they manage to hang on despite adversity.
Subsequent sessions

On average, solution-focused brief therapy takes about
five sessions, each of which need be no more than 45
minutes long. It rarely extends beyond eight sessions
and often only one session is sufficient. If there is no
improvement at all after three sessions, it is unlikely to
work (although the three sessions are likely to provide
most of the information required for a more traditional
assessment).

If possible, the time between sessions is lengthened as
progress occurs, so a four-session therapy might extend
across several months.
As it is the therapist's task to help the patient achieve a
more satisfying life, follow-up sessions will usually begin
by asking, What is better?
If there have been improvements, even for only a
short time, they will be thoroughly explored:

what was different,
who noticed
how it happened,
what strengths and resources the patient drew
on in order to effect the change
what would be the next small sign of the change
continuing.
Scaling questions provide the simplest
framework for these explorations.
Summary

The difficult part of solution-focused brief therapy is
developing the same fluency in asking about hopes and
achievements as most of us have when asking about
problems and causes. But the guiding framework is
extremely simple, as Fig. 2 shows.

Most first sessions will start at the top left of this flowchart
and then move down through the right-hand column.
However the session goes, it will end with compliments.
Subsequent sessions are likely to concentrate on the
second and third boxes in each column: more to the left if
progress is slight and more to the right if things are
progressing well. In all sessions attention is paid to the
overall goal and each session ends with compliments
relevant to the achievement of that goal.
Figure 2 : The flow of a session
Solution-Focused Intervening leads
to Self-Determination
Conclusion:

The complementary nature of solution-focused brief
therapy is in part a product of its location outside
conventional scientific knowledge. In science,
words are used to describe and delineate reality and
for something to be regarded as real it must be
possible to replicate it.

The theoretical underpinnings of solution-focused
brief therapy are to be found more within the realms
of philosophy. It is based on an understanding of
language and dialogue as creative processes.
Because the central focus is on the future and
because there is no framework for understanding
problems, there is little for patient and therapist (or
therapist and therapist!) to disagree over.

References

Berg, I. K. (1991) Family Preservation: A Brief Therapy Workbook. London: BT
Press.
B.Cade and W.H. OHanlon: A Brief Guide to Brief Therapy. W.W. Norton & Co
1993.
D. Denborough; Family Therapy: Exploring the Field's Past, Present and
Possible Futures. Adelaide, South Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications,
2001.
de Shazer, S. (1985) Keys to Solution in Brief Therapy. New York: Norton.
George, E., Iveson, C. & Ratner, H. (1999) Problem to Solution: Brief Therapy
with Individuals and Families. London: BT Press.
Hawkes, D., Marsh, T. & Wilgosh, R. (1998) Solution-Focused Therapy: A
Handbook for Health Care Professionals. Oxford: ButterworthHeinemann.
Lethem, J. (1994) Moved to Tears, Moved to Action: Brief Therapy with
Women and Children. London: BT Press.
Lindforss, L. & Magnusson, D. (1997) Solution-focused therapy in prison.
Contemporary Family Therapy, 19, 89 104.
Miller, W. R. & Rollnick, S. (1991) Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People
to Change Addictive Behaviour. New York: Guilford Press.
O'Hanlon, W. H. & Wilk, J. (1986) Shifting Contexts: The Generation of
Effective Psychotherapy. New York: Guilford.
Selekman, M. (1993) Pathways to Change: Brief Therapy Solutions with
Difficult Adolescents. New York: Guilford Press.
(1997) Solution-Focused Therapy with Children. New York: Guilford Press.
Sharry, J. (2001) Solution Focused Groupwork. London: Sage.

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Solution Focused

The role of the solution focused therapy specialist is to help

Exploring the past, talking about all sorts of feelings and

Retrieved from http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Solution-

If tonight while you were asleep a miracle

Fig. 1 The scale framework

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