Solution-focused Therapy

Very often, folks come to therapy having ruminated endlessly- and unsuccessfully!- about the nature of their problem. Solution-focused Therapy (SFT) is practical and geared toward getting around the client’s obstacles- hence “solution-focused.” In general, this type of therapy reframes the story the client uses to understand their situation by exploring these themes.

SFT works with the following assumptions:

Problems and solutions are socially constructed; like worldviews, they are a product of culture and our experiences with others. They are fundamentally stories and not inherently “real” (but may include facts that are) because they can change with new information and experiences.
Fully understanding the problem is unnecessary to solve it. By making the right changes to one’s lifestyle or perspective, some problems solve themselves!
The client (not the counsellor) defines the problem and when it is solved. By analogy, it doesn’t matter if the mechanic wants to do more work on a customer’s car; if the customer is happy to drive away, that’s that!

In practice, SFT looks like the following techniques:

Exploration of exceptions to the client’s problem: in other words, when does it not occur? What is unique and notable about those instances?
“Change talk”: sometimes, I phrase the language used in therapy in terms of when rather than if a problem will improve, and encourage the client to describe problems in terms of concrete situations which the client can change.
Imaginative questions: I may invite a client to describe how their life would be different if their problem were gone; this can help define what concrete changes they need to make. Alternatively, I may ask what the next step is to reach their goal.
Compliments: In my view, compliments are more than just a nice gesture. They validate aspects of the client that are often unnoticed by significant others and sometimes by clients themselves. The more a story is spoken, such as belief in the client’s value, the more it becomes an embedded part of the client’s subjective experience. It becomes real.
Applying strengths and resources: essentially, what is already working well for the client in the domain of the problem or other areas of their life? How can these aspects be built upon?

Suffice it to say, SFT expands and lives for the mantra, “It’s not what you see, but how you see it.”