Solution Focused Therapy

1. Solution Focused Therapy Leslie Hollenbeck Meggen Sixbey Steve de Shazer Insoo Kim Berg

2. 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

3. Other Practitioners Like it Because… • It is easy to understand and to apply • The cost per client is comparatively lower, attracting HMO’s

4. History • SFBT grew out of the Mental Research Institute’s (MRI) model of Strategic Therapy • Steve de Shazer – main theory developer

5. Similarities with the Strategic Model • Emphasis on brevity • Clear behavioral goals • Extensive use of reframing

6. Differences Between SFBT and Strategic Theory • 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 Strategic • Client’s problems serve them a purpose • Client is “resistant” to change • Therapist is expert/manipulator • Strategic model is complex, intellectual, and intimidating

7. Responding to the Issues of…

8. 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

9. 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

10. The Question of Aesthetics • Emphasis on simplicity, obviousness and common sense • Searching for “underlying issues” is a no-no!

11. The Question of Relationship • Collaborative • Partnership • Horizontal, not hierarchical • Importance of Fit

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. The Question of Expressiveness • Others feel emotions deserve a more central role • Contend that using “language games: relegates the therapist to an expert/manipulator HOT TOPIC… • 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. References