Solution Focused TherapyLeslie Hollenbeck

Meggen Sixbey

Steve de Shazer Insoo Kim Berg

What is Solution Focused Therapy?

• A therapy that produces rapid change

• A therapy that is reported to have a higher degree of client satisfaction

• A therapy that is extremely effective in very little time

                                  

Other Practitioners Like it Because…

• It is easy to understand and to apply

• The cost per client is comparatively lower, attracting HMO’s

History

• SFBT grew out of the Mental Research Institute’s (MRI) model of Strategic Therapy

• Steve de Shazer – main theory developer

Similarities with the Strategic Model

• Emphasis on brevity

• Clear behavioral goals

• Extensive use of reframing

Differences Between SFBT and Strategic Theory

Strategic• Client’s problems serve

them a purpose• Client is “resistant” to

change• Therapist is

expert/manipulator• Strategic model is

complex, intellectual, and intimidating

SFBT

•Client truly wants to change

•Resistance is only a mis-match between the therapist’s suggestion and the client’s worldview

•Client is expert, therapist is a collaborative partner

•SFBT is straightforward and easy to understand

Responding to the Issues of…

Sociocultural, Demographic and Lifestyle Diversity Issues

• A true solution focused therapist would claim that SFBT is a completely unbiased model of therapy

• The client’s worldview is completely valid and meaningful

• Little to no focus on the past, history or context

The Question of Cosmology• Future-focused, not past• Offers little to the

discourse on a person’s context within a system of others

• “Languaging” is highly emphasized – people use language to create their own social contexts and realities

The Question of Aesthetics

• Emphasis on simplicity, obviousness and common sense

• Searching for “underlying issues” is a no-no!

The Question of Relationship

• Collaborative

• Partnership

• Horizontal, not hierarchical

• Importance of Fit

The Question of Ethics

• “Is there a choice to be made? Can we continue to diagnose if, or when, we know different and maybe faster and simpler ways to find out what can be helpful?” H. Korman

• The diagnosis trap

The Question of Cognition/Knowledge/Truth

•SFBT believes that individuals and their families have the knowledge to build their own solutions

•Cognitions vs. Emotions

•Mediated through language

The Question of Motive/Motivation

• Initial distress

• Client already has tools for success and has been successful and productive in the past

• Compliments as a therapeutic tool that help motivate people and build solutions

• Quick effectiveness

The Question of Expressiveness

•Traditionally emotions linked to cognitions/behavior

•Traditional emphasis on behavior when emotion is experienced

•Emotion is created through “language games.” Thus, emotion can be impacted by a change in language, and therefore a change of meaning

•Others feel emotions deserve a more central role

•Contend that using “language games: relegates the therapist to an expert/manipulator

HOT TOPIC…

The Question of change

• Clearly defined goals elicit the expectation for change

• Emphasis on reframing and creating new meanings

• Small changes naturally lead to larger change

The Question of Participation

• “A tap on the shoulder”• Collaborative Partnership

– co-constructing solutions for a preferred future

• Using language to focus attention to client’s strengths and past successes while incorporating the client’s own language and ideas

The Question of First Cause

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it

If it works do more of it

If it doesn’t work don’t do it again

References