Solution Focused Brief Therapy

25th November 2023

In researching and learning about therapy, you may have come across references to Solution Focused Brief Therapy (“SFBT”) and wondered what it is and how it differs from other kinds of therapy, coaching or counselling.

The originators of SFBT – like most modern hypnotherapists, and the originators of Neuro-Linguistic Programming – were strongly influenced by the work of the hypnotherapist Milton Erickson MD who worked on the basis that each person is uniquely resourceful and the task of a therapist, coach or counsellor is to enable him or her to use their own resources to solve their problems. 

SFBT therefore fits in very well with NLP and hypnotherapy.

The development of SFBT

SFBT in its original form was the result of the work of  Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg and their colleagues in the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee.

In 1978 De Shazer and Berg co-founded the Center, and set about developing and testing techniques of counselling and therapy to find out which were most efficient and effective with clients. The range of people they worked with included all kinds of clients – individuals struggling with a problem like drug addiction, couples working through marital difficulties, and families experiencing a problem like a child bedwetting, and some clients compelled to attend therapy by the court system.

The research

One of their methods of learning was to hold therapy sessions with clients while a team of fellow therapists watched and listened through a one way mirror.  After the session, and at follow up sessions with the clients, they would analyse with the observer team what the therapist did and said which seemed most helpful.

Problem free talk

What they found was that “problem free talk” was the best way to help their clients.  

Problem free talk means giving minimum attention to difficulties, and intstead focusing on:

• establishing what the client perceives as a desirable outcome and how to get there;
• establishing what, if any, positive changes the client has observed before the first session or between sessions;
• identifying any times when the difficulties do not or did not arise;
• identifying the client’s inner strengths and skills which will help improve the situation;
• identifying small changes which have occurred or which might occur which would indicate that things are moving in the right direction;
• complimenting the client on strengths and achievements.

In focusing pragmatically on helping clients achieve solutions as quickly as possible, this was in stark contrast to traditional methods of therapy which focused on problems and analysing their origins.

SFBT practice

Eventually, De Shazer and Berg were asked to teach their techniques and Solution Focused Brief Therapy was born.

I first came across SFBT in about March 1997 when I read “Clues: Investigating Solutions in Brief Therapy” by Steve de Shazer.  Over the next few years I attended various courses and workshops, including one with Insoo Kim Berg in 2005, and for a while I was in an SFBT practice group.

Solution focused questions

SFBT practice is based on a number of guiding principles.  Firstly, that clients have in their experience or imagination all the resources they need to find a solution to any difficulties they are experiencing; and that the aim of therapy is to help clients identify and amplify their strengths and past successes. Further, that change is inevitable: life circumstances change all the time, and any change, no matter how small or seemingly unimportant may make a difference such that a difficulty is resolved.

Here are some of the main questions which are explored in the SFBT approach.

Establishing the desired outcome: the miracle question

The most important thing in SFBT is to establish what the client wants to get through counselling or therapy sessions.

De Shazer and Berg and their colleagues found that the following questions are very helpful: 

Suppose that tonight, while you are asleep, a miracle happens and this situation is resolved to your entire satisfaction.  However, because you will be asleep, you are not aware that it is resolved:

What will be the first thing you would notice after you wake up that tells you that the situation has been resolved?  

What will you be doing that you haven’t been doing until now?

What will someone else who knows you well notice about you that will tell them that your situation has changed for the better?

Exceptions: times when the problem is not there

Whatever problem a client might have, there will be times when there are “exceptions” or times or situations where the problem does not occur: a time when someone is not taking drugs; a time when a couple get on; or a time when a child does not wet the bed.  It does not matter if the exception arises spontaneously or is the result of a deliberate action: an exception points the  way to a possible solution, leading to questions like the following:

Tell me about the times when it doesn’t happen and things go well. What is different about those times?

Are there signs, however small, that the miracle is already happening?

Measuring change

it is important to notice and celebrate positive changes which have already occurred, and to have a way to think about positive changes which might occur in the future. Using the scale of 1 to 10 is a very effective way to do this. For example:

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is the worst things have been, and 10 is how things will be when the miracle has occurred, where are you on that scale?

How did you manage to get to that number on the scale? What personal strengths enabled you to get to that number?

What small change will tell you that you have moved up another half a point on that scale?  What will you be doing differently?  What will other people notice about you that tells them that you have gone up half a point on the scale?

Identifying strengths and resources

Everyone has personal strengths, inner resources and achievements in their personal experiences, even if they may not be aware of them or may be reluctant to acknowledge them.  This leads to questions like:

What personal strengths do you have that have enabled you to get to [5 for example] out of 10?

If you have been through a similar situation in the past, how did you handle it? What helped?

What personal strengths did you have that enabled you to come through the previous situation?

Who among your family or friends knew you have those strengths?  Who among your family and friends did you learn or inherit them from?

Constructive feedback

We all need encouragement, and an important aspect of SFBT is to notice behaviours, actions, achievements and inner strengths which might help us to improve our situation.

So give yourself a pat on the back for reading through this blog post  Clearly you have an inquiring mind and are open to learning new things!

Now you have been through the solution focused questions:

• which ones seemed most helpful for you?
• are there any situations in your life when it would be useful to think about these questions?

I hope that you have found this interesting and helpful. If you have, why not sign up to my free Suggestions newsletter which gives more information and tips about personal development and therapy. It comes out about every three weeks or so. To sign up, just click on the link below. You just need to give your name and email address – and needless to say, I won’t share your details with anyone else.